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Home , David Dinsmore, Kelvin MacKenzie, Tony Gallagher (editor)

Centre pageMURDOCH pull-outSTOP BUYING SKY

FREENo 210 Spring 2017£1 Journal Press of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom SKY TAKEOVER: 300,000 SIGNERS SAY … DAVID SHANKBONE/WIKIMEDIA DONALD2 TRUMP AND ALT-REALITY Can the mainstream media stand up We’ll to him? stop him

NO 4ADS, NO CLICKBAIT, JUST JOURNALISM County gets real local again! news online ’S 21st Century Fox is making a They had no idea how many and how deeply people second bid to takeover Sky TV, and once again a popular resented the abuse of power by the Murdoch media, movement is bidding to stop him. and now there’s a much wider range of people for Six years ago Murdoch’s attempt to buy up the whom the prospect of their power extending even 61 per cent of Sky he doesn’t already own crashed in further is intolerable. flames as the phone-hacking scandal exploded around They contend that Murdoch, with his record of his London newspapers. bullying, influence-peddling and corruption, is not a But it was already facing mounting opposition, “fit and proper person” to have complete control of the particularly from a new style of popular campaigning, network. The regulator Ofcom has a power to conduct the online activism of Avaaz and 38 Degrees, which the “fit and proper” test to media firms, but it is not a circulated a petition that reached 150,000 signatures. required part of the takeover procedure. 9 In 2017 both Former chairman DISTORTIONS are working with a TOUCH AND GO FOR SKY BID of the BBC Sir Michael coalition of media Lyons challenged her AND LIES … reformers, which Turn to to “do anything in her Rail workers brave include the CPBF. This WHAT TAKEOVER WOULD DO power to resist the media as well time 38 Degrees has further growth in the already handed in a ,, How they pressure government Murdochs’ grip on news as bosses petition to culture ,, How you can join the campaign and media”. secretary Karen Bradley Shadow culture with more than Special 4-page pullout secretary Tom Watson, 300,000 names. who played a key role “Giving even more control over our media to one in exposing criminality within Murdoch newspapers, man is a serious threat to our democracy,” said Maggie said the prime minister needed to come clean on Chao, campaigner at 38 Degrees. “Rupert Murdoch is not what she discussed with Murdoch when they met fit and proper to take even more control over the news last September. we read and watch.” The former Labour leader Ed Miliband asked: “Do we Industry experts have been persuaded by Murdoch’s want Rupert Murdoch controlling even more of media For all campaign news and managers that the takeover will pass comfortably landscape? No.” And to Theresa May: “You said you info go to cpbf.org.uk through the regulatory process … but so they were would stand up to the powerful. No better test than Email: in 2010-11. Murdoch bid for Sky. Over to you.” [email protected] USA The alt-reality of the alt-right GRANVILLE WILLIAMS Commission (FCC), which regulates the media reports on the problems industry. Already the FCC has started its assault on CAN THEY of the US media that regulations that maintain media fairness and inde- they helped to create by pendence. Its new chair is Ajit Pai, a Republican HACK IT? lawyer who worked for the broadband internet TRUMP’S SELF-PROCLAIMED “running hyping Donald Trump provider Verizon (formerly part of Bell and before that AT&T). Ajit Pai strongly opposed the 2015 war with the media” and journalists net neutrality rules that reclassified broadband (“among the most dishonest human THE NOTION that the US “liberal mainstream providers and treated them like a public utility. In beings on earth”) encourages suspicion media” are crooked and deceitful goes back December he vowed to take a “weedwhacker” to and confusion. The test will be how to the late 1940s and 1950s. But President what he considers unnecessary regulations and robust the media which are not Donald Trump, the Fox News-Breitbart axis and said that net neutrality’s “days are numbered”. compliant with Trump can be – not so a conservative ecosystem that includes blogs, The Republicans have a new majority at the much in responding to his diversionary Facebook pages, and conspiracy sites have taken FCC. Ajit Pai has long maintained that under tweets and off-the-cuff comments, but it to a whole new level. former Chairman Thomas Wheeler it over- in reporting and documenting the reality There is now a gaping divide as two parallel stepped its bounds, suggesting that he would media systems, mainstream and right-wing, steer the agency in a direction more favourable of his regime. promote facts and alternative facts and describe to big phone and cable companies. Pai opposes They will have to jettison notions of reality and alternative reality. online privacy regulations that force broadband “fair and balanced” when the President Trump creates his own reality, which providers to ask consumers for permission before and his staff reject objective truths and is why his attack on media that challenge using their data. embrace conspiracy theories. Will they him is so vehement. His idea of the media The FCC is likely to allow more huge mergers; be up to the task? as the “opposition party” is also unreal. The Pai voted to approve AT&T’s 2015 acquisition of The coalition of extreme right-wing “mainstream”, or corporate media are highly DirecTV and has said he would do the same for websites like Infowars, Drudge Report, concentrated – 90 percent of them owned and Comcast’s effort to acquire Time Warner Cable. controlled by six multinational corporations – and The cable industry’s trade group, the NCTA, The Gateway Pundit, LifeZette, and hardly left-wing or liberal. has supported him, saying he has a “common- Breitbart serve as bridges between The six corporations function, like all big sense philosophy that consumers are best the alt-right fringes of the internet and corporations, to make big profits. This rationale served by a robust marketplace that encourages the conservative mainstream media. that led them to cover Trump excessively during investment, innovation and competition.” They have a sophisticated level of the primaries. As Les Moonves, chief executive Another Trump target will be the Corporation coordination which facilitates the spread of CBS, remarked: Trump’s campaign “may not for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This provides funds of fake news into the mainstream media. be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” for National Public Radio (NPR) and television The right-wing media infrastructure Some opposition! (PBS). The CPB budget to support these services is well established, in the mainstream Trump’s media assault is selective, focusing was $445m in 2015. Donald Trump intends to particularly on CNN and the New York Times but follow a list of budget cuts, suggested by the as well as the fringe. Fox News began exempting Murdoch’s media empire. Murdoch conservative Heritage Foundation, one of which in 1996. Mainstream conservative news has been running Fox News in person since the is that the CPB should be privatised. outlets, spanning talk radio and Fox departure of Roger Ailes. The key three prime hours Such an action will not cut much off the News, have fomented a toxic alternative on Fox News are now presented daily by Trump Federal budget but it will undermine one vital reality within which a constellation supporters and the White House has easy access. source of independent reporting and current of fake news-purveying websites Trump asked Rupert Murdoch to put forward affairs programmes which many Americans has thrived. candidates to run the Federal Communications rely on. I THINK IT’S PROBABLY BETTER FOR ME NOT TO GO INTO HOW THE INTERVIEW AROSE … RUPERT MURDOCH was years. Numerous photos were an interview to confirm that we had the – what’s the word present during Michael Gove’s taken of the encounter in Murdoch was there, he gave a ... I think it’s probably better grovelling interview with Trump Tower, some showing strange reply. for me not to go into how the Trump, published in Gove giving an excited “The best thing to say I interview arose or how it came on January 16, according to thumbs-up signal. think, in fairness is, um, in about but I think it’s entirely the Financial Times. But Murdoch appeared in securing the interview, I think fair for people to make a set The Murdoch and Trump none of them. the fact that it was the Times of conclusions or assumptions families have been close for When Gove was asked in newspaper and the fact that about that,” he said.

2 Free Press Spring 2017 GUY SMALLMAN

Demonstration against the takeover of Sky by the Murdochs in 2011; the same is happening again

LAWS AND ORDERS Touch and go timing

The big questions in media politics that up to 20 million emails were deleted in government will oppose but may get through; – Murdoch and Sky, phone- 2010 and 2011, to destroy evidence of the pair’s there is a lot of opposition to Murdoch media hacking, Leveson and media complicity in the phone-hacking operation, in both houses of Parliament. Contentious regulation – are entwined in a after police launched their criminal investiga- amendments often go through the Lords at the tion. News International (now called News UK) last minute in the rush to get legislation through chaotic timetable that could affect contends that any deletion of emails was part of in time, and the DE Bill has a very tight deadline. the outcomes of them all normal housekeeping. It has to be enacted in law by MARCH ≥±, If the order is granted the revelations could because one of its provisions is the transfer WILL THE GOVERNMENT activate be highly embarrassing to the two bosses, but of the regulation of the BBC from the current Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act? especially James Murdoch who is boss of both BBC Trust to Ofcom; the Trust will be wound up This is the law, passed by Parliament in sides – chairman of Sky and chief executive that day and Ofcom take the reins on APRIL ±. 2013, that would mean publishers having of Fox – in the Sky takeover. The judge was Puttnam’s little grenade could just slip under the 1to pay both sides’ costs in a case expected to grant the order on MARCH ±∞, door in time for Ofcom to apply it. even if they won. This would happen if they had but legal delays are now likely to put back the Ofcom should be starting its scrutiny of failed to agree to arbitration of the case with a decision until May. the takeover on MARCH ≤∞, with 40 days to recognised press regulator, as proposed by the His particular worry is that it could lead to a complete it, that is by MAY ±. Its conclusion report. The major newspaper finding that Fox is not a “fit and proper” company could well not be the end of the story. Last time companies are dead against this because their to have complete control of Sky. The change of round, in 2011, the result of Ofcom’s deliberations tame regulator IPSO is not formally recognised, date could be crucial, since the Murdochs’ hope in March led to an intense period of negotia- partly due to its refusal to set up a fair, accessible is that the deal will be done and dusted by then. tions that were still going in July when the Milly and cheap arbitration service. For there’s another deadline that will intervene. Dowler bombshell blew up. At present the much-vaunted “fit and proper” The argument was about the conditions WILL THE GOVERNMENT allow the test by which media regulator Ofcom assesses Ofcom put on the takeover, which, subject second stage of the inquiry to take broadcasters operating under its licences is not to conditions, it actually agreed. Most of the place? This was intended to cover law- actually a legal requirement concerns expressed had breaking and improper conduct within for takeover approval. It would Murdoch has been about the future of Sky 2media organisations – mainly phone-hacking – require culture secretary Karen News, and Ofcom proposed had little trouble and whether police were complicit with them. It Bradley to make an order, and hiving it off to a separate was postponed because of the court cases over she is under pressure from breaching conditions company for ten years, with phone-hacking and bribery of officials that have campaigners to do so. on other takeovers Murdoch giving undertakings now finished. The publishers are dead against She said she was “minded” in lieu (UILs) on its future. this for obvious reasons. to forward the takeover to in the past There was much Ofcom on two other statutory scepticism about the value WILL THE GOVERNMENT approve grounds and was expected to do on MARCH ±π, of Rupert Murdoch’s UILs, since he has over the the buy-up of Sky TV by Murdoch’s after Free Press goes to press. years had little trouble breaching legally binding 21st Century Fox company? There is a To end this uncertainty the Labour peer conditions on other takeovers. Often these major case running in the High Court Lord (David) Puttnam, who has been a great involve boards of independent directors to be 3in which a number of phone-hacking victims are advocate for media democracy and accountability consulted on major decisions such as a change of suing News International, and their lawyers have over the years, tabled in the House of Lords an editor, which he has simply ignored. asked for access to email accounts used by James amendment to make the test a requirement for And it is perfectly feasible that some Murdoch and , both then top all takeovers and mergers. similar compromise will be the outcome of the executives, as they are again now. He tabled the amendment to the Digital regulatory process now. So there is everything for The victims claim the accounts will show Economy (DE) Bill now in Parliament, which the campaigners to play for. Spring 2017 Free Press 3 NEW MEDIA ‘No ads, no clickbait, RENEWAL just real journalism’ AS A CO-OP A PIONEERING local journalist sacked from a paper in ­NEW INTERNATIONALIST, the Cornwall by the Trinity Mirror chain has set up what world development magazine, he claims to be the firstsubscription-funded ­ local is restructuring itself into a news website. worldwide community-owned Graham Smith was a reporter for the Cornish cooperative. Guardian, published by the Local World group, publication has launched a which was bought up by Trinity Mirror (TM) in £500,000 share offer – claimed November 2015. to be the largest of its kind by a Now he’s the owner, manager and editor of Cornwall Reports, which is going strong behind a media organisation globally. paywall – such is the demand for news that the Having pioneered a more corporate media are dismally failing to supply. ethical reporting for more TM, obsessed with cost-cutting, straight away than four decades, NI has now made 12 staff redundant – but not Graham Smith, created a new way to finance who as a former TV reporter and experienced­ operator and run not-for-profit media. in the area for 37 years – he is 62 – was worth keeping The minimum investment is on. Instead they increased the area he had to cover to set at only £50. Shares cannot more than half of Cornwall. be transferred or sold on. But they didn’t seem interested in his news skills Investors have one vote, no or contacts at all. What they wanted was clickbait. On on target. “No adverts” is his crucial concept; “just matter how much they invest his first day on TM’s website Cornwall Live, he said: “I journalism”. The “cover price” of Cornwall Reports is and, as co-owners, become was asked to write a listicle on ten illnesses that can £30 per year, or £1 a week. stewards of NI’s mission into kill your pet. “It’s a business model which should be of interest “Today the top story on Cornwall Live is the 50 to every journalist,” he says. “It puts journalists in the future. sexiest people in Cornwall. Most are actors that have charge, free from the tyranny of having to feed The campaign runs on appeared on Poldark but are not from Cornwall at all.” massive audiences a never-ending diet of trivia Crowdfunder.co.uk. The He told TM he was going to launch a site of his and click-bait, and it has the potential to breathe organisers hope the share own in competition to this kind of rubbish, one with new life into local news as a pillar of a free press offer will create a secure real local news on it. They sacked him for “failing to and democracy.” and democratic structure, share the aims and values” of the company. Smith Smith uses social media, and has a 4,000-strong bucking the trend of media sat down with Wordpress and had Cornwall Reports email list, accumulated over his years as a journalist in ownership concentration. onscreen two days later. Cornwall – 25 of those years on television, becoming New Internationalist co-editor A crowdfunding appeal brought him over £3,000 to current affairs editor of Westcountry TV. He says Hazel Healy said: “We have get started, but for the long term he decided to go for he is “probably better known than some other always written about other subscriptions and put the news behind a paywall, in local journalists”. people coming together to what he claims to be “Britain’s first local news website Every morning he posts a video on Facebook, change things, now it’s our to rely entirely on its readers”. The website is updated promoting Cornwall Reports. Those videos are turn. It felt like we needed to throughout the day. watched by nearly 4,000 people every day. A He set his sights on recruiting 1,000 readers A cornwallreports.co.uk do something big. Fear, and within a year. In early March he had 259 so was still mistrust are rising all over the world, and misinformation along with them. “Meanwhile, the media’s broken business model is making it harder than ever for independents like us to survive. “Our slogan #FactsAndHeart says it all. This is journalism that has the power to bring people together.” Graeme Roy, community shares officer at Crowdfunder said: “Community shares are a great way for the public to own and run the businesses that are important to them. I am sure the crowd will support GRAHAM SMITH: New Internationalist and taking on the the independent media they too-big media stand for.”

4 Free Press Spring 2017 MURDOCH BIDS AGAIN TO TAKE OVER SKY TV THE ANSWER IS STILL ‘NO’ BIG MEDIA mogul Rupert Murdoch is bidding to buy up Sky ■■ SKY TV is a big company with UK revenues last year of TV. It’s the second time in six years he has tried this. £8.3 billion – well over twice the BBC’s £3.7 billion – and The first time he had the support of the new Tory-led total profits of £1.5 billion. coalition government and expected it to be nodded through. It is a joint venture resulting from the government-spon- They had no idea how many and how deeply people sored merger of two rival satellite TV companies in 1990. resented the abuse of power by the Murdoch media. There Rupert Murdoch’s was restricted to was a long and fierce political battle as a growing opposition holding 39 per cent. Murdoch has always wanted the whole campaign held up the process for more than a caboodle and is bidding for it again. year, until the bombshell revelation that The case against him is even stronger than the Murdoch press had hacked the phone it was six years ago. In formal terms, there of a murdered teenage girl brought are three main issues: the bid crashing down in a wave of ● public revulsion. ● the “plurality” of media ownership; There was a profound inquisition into the ●● the degree of commitment to the unethical practices of the press and the corruption standards of public service broadcasting; surrounding them. Yet, despite all that came out at the Leveson ●● whether the Murdochs are “fit and proper” to have Inquiry, when a stronger Tory government was elected last total control over such a powerful combination of media. year the Murdochs blithely banged in another bid. Once again they believe they’re home and dry, and once again a popular campaign is out to stop them. WHY? † JANINA STRUK/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK WE DID IT LAST TIME THE CAMPAIGN that stopped the Murdochs in 2011 was a rapidly assembled coalition of Labour politicians, media unions, campaigning groups like the CPBF and the new internet “clicktivist” groups Avaaz and 38 degrees. A 38 Degrees online petition against the first attempt at merger got more than 100,000 signatures. Avaaz organised a series of demonstrations at Murdoch-related events, including this one with a giant Rupert Murdoch puppet pulling the strings of Prime Minister David Cameron and culture secretary Jeremy Hunt outside his department’s office. Labour MPs Chris Bryant and Tom Watson fearlessly defied the timid consensus in Parliament to attack the Murdoch press with gusto. THE BIG REASONS WHY

MEDIA PLURALITY THE MARKET SHARE of Murdoch-owned newspa- pers and TV in the UK is around the same. But there has been a big increase in the Murdochs’ position in commercial1 radio. Last year News UK bought the – owner of the national Virgin Radio, TalkRadio and services – and itself now provides national news bulle- the BBC” – which he seems to regard as left-wing propaganda. He tins to the whole independent radio network; some 270 stations. complained to the peers that changes had not been made because In effect there would be only two universal nationwide TV and “nobody at Sky listens to me”. The truth is rather that no-one wants it! radio news providers: the BBC and Murdoch; but the BBC has no newspapers, while Murdoch has more than anyone. FIT AND PROPER MANAGERS Despite this, the Murdochs are pushing the point that consump- THE CONCENTRATION of ownership in the tion of media has changed dramatically in the last six years, with more hands of the Murdoch clan is the big issue. These and news received online via social media. While this is true, the origin people’s record of corporate governance is appalling. of most of this news is still traditional “legacy” media. After3 the hacking scandal at their London papers, News So the big shift to news consumption via Facebook, Google and Corporation was investigated by police agencies in both the does not reduce the importance of news production; in fact UK and USA and came close to being prosecuted, according to it increases it. Social media distribute news, they do not produce it. It numerous reports. is not news consumption that matters, but its production. In their desperate attempts to stave off a corporate prosecution and save their own skins News International managers committed the BROADCASTING STANDARDS cardinal journalistic sin of betraying confidential sources, supplying the THE CLUE to the question on broadcast standards is Metropolitan Police with all the incriminating evidence they could in the name of the bidder: Fox. lay their hands on against their own journalists and their sources – The spectre of a “Fox News UK” is looming over the evidence that led to dozens of prosecutions. 2Atlantic. Fox News in the USA is a byword in blatant political bias and But this is not a matter that can be consigned to the past. The failure to separate reporting from comment. Fox has been the dominant removal of the check provided by the UK-based shareholders will make media voice behind the whole populist right-wing revival in the USA Sky a wholly pliant outlet for the Murdochs’ management as much as over the last ten years, from the Tea Party to the so-called “alt-right”, their journalistic style. wrecking Obama’s presidency and propelling Donald Trump to the They corrupt democratic politics, using their media power to White House in highly dubious circumstances. dominate governments. Murdoch had four of the last five Prime Naturally this kind of output is alien to the UK broadcasting Ministers in his pocket – the one who resisted, , was ecology, based on principles of balance and impartiality supposedly hounded from office with a brutal press campaign as Tony Blair sold embedded in the public service broadcasting (PSB) regime. Sky News Murdoch his soul – plus the very minister, Jeremy Hunt, who was is as close to these principles as any of the others, and its journalists supposedly responsible for ruling on its first bid to buy up Sky. insist they will always abide by them. They corrupt the police, offering them favourable reporting and But no-one can be certain that this state of affairs would persist easy prosecutions, such as the unfortunate individuals set up by Mazher if Murdoch was given free rein and the UK-based shareholders were Mahmood, the ’s supposed “fake sheikh”. In return removed from the board and management. Rupert Murdoch himself they got protection from investigations themselves: the Met police in admitted to a House of Lords committee in 2007 that he wanted Sky London took part in the cover-up and stonewalled demands to probe News to be more like Fox News to make it “a proper alternative to into criminality at News International for three years. JOIN THE CAMPAIGN The CPBF is part of the Media Reform Coalition, which is co-ordinating the campaign against the Sky takeover. Go to www.c pbf.org.uk or contact us at [email protected] for information on the latest actions and information. Phone 07729 146 846. SKY NEWS

The Sky TV newsroom: Murdoch would call all the shots if allowed to buy up the network Welcome to Downing Street! It’s easy access for Murdochs MURDOCH’S managers have put more effort into ensuring that the check on lobbyists in general, and a voluntary register has been set takeover will ease through the regulatory process this time with an up, but no political initiative or regulations to stop politicians falling intensive lobbying effort. Unsurprisingly, they have found open doors captive to powerful media interests. across the Tory government. Rupert Murdoch himself said in evidence to Leveson: “I have Between April 2015 and September 2016, senior News Corp made it a principle all my life never to ask for anything from any prime executives met with government ministers or their special advisers on minister”. Most likely, he never had to ask; Thatcher, Blair, Brown 22 separate occasions. According to research by the Media Reform and Cameron gave what he wanted so willingly. These words were Coalition, 17 meetings involved the Prime Minister, the Chancellor or all worthless. As for Theresa May, on the day she took power she said Culture Secretary; and Rupert Murdoch was himself present on at least in Downing Street: “The government I lead will be driven not by the eight occasions. In the year before that, NewsCorp bosses met with interests of the privileged few but by yours [the people]. When we government ministers, officials and advisers ten take the big calls we’ll think not of the powerful times – more than with any other single company. Theresa May and but you. When we pass new laws we’ll listen not This ready intimacy between Murdoch and Karen Bradley have to the mighty but to you.” ministers contradicts statements made by both sides Murdoch journalists In September on a 36-hour visit to New York, in the wake of the hacking scandal. In 2011 Prime she found time for a private meeting with Rupert Minister David Cameron said: “The challenge is as advisors Murdoch. She already appointed Sky News deputy how we address the vexed issue of media power. We need competition political editor Joey Jones as an adviser. policy to be properly enforced. We need a sensible look at the relevance And as for Culture Secretary Karen Bradley, last August she of plurality and cross-media ownership … never again should we let a appointed a special adviser on media: Craig Woodhouse, chief political media group get too powerful.” correspondent of . In 2012 he said at Prime Minister’s Questions: “I think on all sides Those meetings that Murdoch and his men had with Theresa May of the House there’s a bit of a need for a hand on heart. We all did or Philip Hammond in 2015-16 were more than with any other organi- too much cosying up to Rupert Murdoch … The problem of closeness sation, according to government statistics. between politicians and media proprietors had been going on for years While there were ten meetings involving Rupert Murdoch or and it’s this government that’s going to sort it out.” Nothing has been done. There has been more talk of putting a ††continued over page ††from previous page MEETINGS BETWEEN NEWSCORP/FOX AND UK senior executives of News Corp and the PM or Chancellor, there were MINISTERS, APRIL 2015 – SEPTEMBER 2016 just six with BBC senior management and only three each with the MAY 2015: DECEMBER 2015: David and Robert Thomson, News Cameron and Rupert Murdoch Confederation of Business Industry (CBI) and major companies such Corp chief executive JANUARY 2016: John as JP Morgan, Siemens, BlackRock and HSBC. JUNE 2015: George Osborne Whittingdale and 21st Century The lists do not include and Rupert Murdoch Fox JULY 2015: David Cameron many meetings between and Robert Thomson JANUARY 2016: George Osborne and Robert Thomson ministers or officials and SEPTEMBER 2015: George staff working for Murdoch Osborne and Rupert Murdoch MAY 2016: George Osborne SEPTEMBER 2015: George and Rupert Murdoch papers. A government spokesperson said: “Ministers meet with a range Osborne, Rupert Murdoch and Theresa May (home Robert Thomson – dinner MAY 2016: of stakeholders. We publish the details of these meetings in our trans- secretary) and NewsCorp parency returns.” SEPTEMBER 2015: John Whittingdale (culture SEPTEMBER 2016: Philip There were no meetings between senior ministers and media reform secretary) and David Hammond and Robert campaigners or groups opposed to the expansion of Big Media power. Dinsmore (News UK chief Thomson operating officer) – breakfast Justin Schlosberg, chair of the Media Reform Coalition said: “Decades SEPTEMBER 2016: Theresa OCTOBER 2015: George May (prime minister) and of rampant criminality Osborne and Robert Thomson and corruption within OCTOBER 2015: David Cameron, David Dinsmore, Sun SEPTEMBER 2016: Karen the Murdoch newsrooms editor Bradley (culture secretary) and Robert Thomson does not appear to be of concern to the present government, as senior DECEMBER 2015: George ministers continue to sit down with News Corp bosses at a rate that Osborne and Robert Thomson SEPTEMBER 2016: Theresa DECEMBER 2015: George May, Robert Thomson, Rupert dwarfs other companies and organisations. It’s as if it’s part of their Osborne and Rupert Murdoch Murdoch and the Wall Street job description.” – Christmas drinks Journal editorial board.

THE UNDEAD ‘Hi Karen’ … ‘Hi Ben’ AMONG THE more revolting from Fred Michel that read: RISE AGAIN revelations at the Leveson Thanks for the call with James LIKE GHOULS in a Hammer horror film, the discredited Inquiry was the exchange of , greatly appreciated. Jeremy heads of the Murdochs’ UK operations have risen from the messages between the minister Hunt replied: Pleasure. phone-hacking grave. responsible for checking After Jeremy Hunt took over In 2011 the chief executive of the Murdoch’s UK newspaper company the buyout of Sky in 2011, the brief in December 2010, News International was Rebekah culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, Fred Michel texted him to say: Brooks (right). and News Corporation’s Hi, James has asked me to be the After the hacking scandal broke European head of public affairs she resigned and in 2014 was tried point of contact with you … Speak at the Old Bailey for conspiracy to Frederic Michel. soon, Fred. intercept voicemails and pervert In the year after the Sky Jeremy Hunt replied: Thanks the course of justice but was buyout was announced, Fred Fred. All contact with me now sensationally acquitted while her close colleague and fellow former Michel had 191 telephone needs to be through official editor went to jail. calls and 158 emails with Mr channels until decision made. The chairman of News Hunt’s office. He later texted International was James Murdoch After one Commons apologetically: Hope you (left), younger son of Rupert. The chairman of BSkyB, as Sky was then performance by the Jeremy understand why we have to have known, was also James Murdoch. Hunt, Michel texted him: You the long process. Let’s meet. After the hacking scandal broke were very impressive yesterday, Fred Michel communicated he resigned and was flown back to even more frequently with New York while all those around and yes, let’s meet up when it’s all him were arrested, amid fears of done. Warmest regards, Fred. Jeremy Hunt’s special advisor imminent corruption charges against Another time he messaged: Adam Smith, who had to the company. You were great at the Commons resign when the messages were In its report on the attempted buyout of Sky the regulator Ofcom said he “repeatedly fell today. Hope all well, warm published. Jeremy Hunt was short of the conduct to be expected of as a chief executive regards, Fred. Jeremy Hunt promoted. and chairman” and that his lack of action on phone hacking responded: Merci. Large Fred Michel went off to was “difficult to comprehend and ill-judged”. drink tonight. form his own lobbying firm. His News International has been rebranded News UK, in a bid to shake off the hacking shame. In 2017 its chief executive is Fred Michel tried to fix a successor, now entitled Director, Rebekah Brooks. meeting between the minister Government Relations, Europe, As a subsidiary of News Corporation it has no chairman, and James Murdoch, then Middle East and Africa, at 21st but that of News Corp is Rupert Murdoch. chairman of News International, Century Fox, is Benjamin King. The chairman of Sky is James Murdoch. He also happens to be chief executive of 21st Century Fox, the likewise but Jeremy Hunt was given legal Karen Bradley is bracing rebranded film and TV arm of News Corp that is bidding advice counselling against it. herself for a stream of smarmy to buy up Sky. The chairman of Fox is Rupert Murdoch, by Instead, they spoke by messages from him; but how will the way. mobile phone, prompting a text she respond? INDUSTRY Lies on the line Strikes over company plans to get rid of onboard conductors have been taking place for months on Southern Railways in south-east England. Reporting of the dispute has become increasingly hostile. KEITH RICHMOND of the drivers’ union ASLEF surveys the coverage

THE STRIKE and overtime ban by ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, on Southern Railways in December and January was an industrial, not a political, dispute – whatever it suited Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and a clutch of under- briefed backbench Conservative MPs to claim. briefing by the Department for organiser on Southern, for a piece It was unusual because it was Transport, went big on “Union which appeared in the Morning not a battle for more pay or fewer leader warns of 10 years of unrest” Star under the headline We are hours, but a row about passenger in (13 December) determined to win – passenger safety and the introduction and the next day offered “This is safety too important to risk, and – without negotiation – of driver- war with Tories, unions declare” The News Line, the paper of the only operation. without a single piece of evidence Workers’ Revolutionary Party, Not that you would know this to justify it. splashed on Southern are bullies! from some of the lazy, dishonest – Anyone with any knowledge of (both on 11 January) after talking and at times downright malicious the way what they used to call Fleet to Graham on a picket line at – coverage that the drivers have Street works will know that the London Bridge. had. The Sun, and Daily pressure to provide a story to back Mick Whelan was interviewed by Telegraph were, predictably, the up a headline dreamed up in the Simon Hattenstone for a flattering worst offenders. editor’s office, by the backbench, or flagship profile in (14 Mario Ledwith in the Mail turned the news desk can be immense. January); Tosh McDonald talked to an industrial dispute into an attack The Sun (22 December) tried Danny Scott for a fascinating Life on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and to make something of nothing in the Day feature in the Sunday ASLEF president Tosh McDonald with “Unionists’ 2 days off rails” Times Magazine (15 January); and under the headline “Corbyn (which was really “People have Gwyn Topham wrote a typically Led Standing Ovation For Strike a drink at Christmas!”) while the thoughtful and well-informed, Comrade” (January 2). splashed with analysis of the problems in the rail Lucy Osborne – who cheerfully “Rail strike boss off to work by car” industry – “Is Britain’s train system told me “the editor doesn’t like (6 January) – a risible story which getting worse?” – in The Guardian strikes, strikers or trade unions” not need to rely on our members prompted Mark Ellis of the Daily (7 January). – wrote:“ASLEF has banned its working overtime. Mirror to laugh: “Man has lift with We live in a free society, with a members from doing overtime” She also deliberately got wife shock!”. free press, which has had, for 350 (January 5) even though I had general secretary Mick Whelan’s The cartoonists had a field years, the right to be partial and the patiently explained to her that our salary wrong (7 January) by day, too, with Mac in the Mail right to be wrong. And journalism, members had voted overwhelm- including employer pension and (15 December) and Adams in the of course, like politics, is a rough ingly to ban it themselves. national insurance contributions, Telegraph (19 December) happily old trade. Nor did she include the fact despite being provided with the imagining Jeremy, Tosh and Santa So I won’t be disingenuous and that if the company employed the correct figure. at Christmas. say I was surprised at some of the number of drivers it had promised Patrick Foster, cheerfully It wasn’t all bad. Conrad Landin coverage. Just disappointed at the in its franchise application, it would swallowing a wildly inaccurate interviewed Graham Morris, ASLEF’s distortions and lies. Spring 2017 Free Press 5 NEWS BBC’s public funds boost private profit NUJ THE BBC has agreed to spend £8 million a year of its hard-pressed licence fee income on employing 150 local reporters around the country. They will supply copy not just to the BBC but to local commercial media, helping to plug the “democratic deficit” in local journalism. One effect of the plan agreed with the big commercial newspaper chains is to subsidise their editorial forces and permit yet further cuts in staff. According to most estimates – nobody has counted them – well over half of the 12,000- plus journalists on local papers prior to 2008 have lost their jobs. Savage cuts have to save their papers. A 11 weekly titles. Last year The local press is 80 per cent owned by led journalists at the newsroom that had 38 the US-owned Newsquest three companies: Trinity Mirror, Newsquest and Newsquest group’s south journalists a year ago made profits of £70million Johnstone Press. For 20 years they have been London base to strike now has 18 – to produce – 25 per cent of turnover. hacking away at their costs as they lose adver- tising and sales to maintain what are still high levels of profit. UK, with for instance three in , material sent in by the public. Numbers of reporters have fallen so far that 11 in the West Country and 12 in London and the It has taken months for the BBC to negotiate the vital institutions of civic life – notably local South East. this deal with the Association, the courts and council meetings that take a lot of Their stories will be available for use by the UK press’s trade association. reporting time – are simply no longer being news organisations and the BBC, and through They said in a statement: “Following months covered. This “democratic deficit” has long been a “news bank” to outside media organisations of detailed work and consultation with the a worry, and the BBC has responded to appeals shortly after transmission. providers of local journalism right across the UK, for help. They will concentrate on top-tier local including the hyperlocal and local TV sector, the It will fund the salaries of 150 “local authority areas – more than 350 authorities BBC and the NMA will now take forward agreed democracy reporters”, funded by the BBC, but at country and district level. Effectively they proposals which aim to invest in the local news they will be employed by existing media, or will have to focus on the big stories, leaving media, increase coverage of public services and “qualifying news organisations”. an unfilled gap for covering covered parish or institutions and use the expertise of both the These must be existing news publishers local events. BBC and the local news sector for the benefit of “within or close to the relevant authority area” There is no way that 150 reporters are going all audiences.” who provide content in multimedia formats to replace the 7,000 thrown out of work, but They might have added: “They will also and already employ journalists trained to they might improve the papers a little, since give local newspapers the cover to sack more recognised standards. existing reporters are highly office-bound, staff and improve their profits as well as their The reporters will be distributed around the churning out pages from press releases and coverage of local affairs.”

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6 Free Press Spring 2017 More rush Beancounter who to probe ‘fake now leads the Beeb news’ THE NEW Chairman of the BBC, Prudential and Virgin Money. Sir David Clementi, invented his At least he wasn’t a right-wing TWO HIGH-LEVEL investigations own job when he was asked by media boss. According to reports, have been set up to analyse the government to recommend a new rivals for the post included John phenomenon called “fake news”, structure for the corporation. Makinson, former chairman of in the wake of the moral panic He proposed replacing the Penguin Random House, Roger that followed the triumph of BBC Trust with a straightforward Parry, former chairman of Johnston Donald Trump in the US presiden- management board and subjecting Press and now of pollsters YouGov, tial election. this public service to the regulation and Sir David Arculus, the former Fake news is the production of of Ofcom, whose remit until now boss of publisher Emap and now untrue reporting by people other was competitive commercial media. of lobby group Energy UK. There than commercial media, who And so it came to pass. Clementi was also the friendly Murdoch after decades of experience do it takes charge on April 1. He is a biographer William Shawcross, and more professionally. It invariably former deputy governor of the Dame Deirdre Hutton, the chair of appears on the internet, which Bank of England and chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority. being open to everybody is self- evidently suspect. IPSO’s Teflon Trevor The UK Parliament’s Culture, COST OF Media and Sport Committee TREVOR KAVANAGH, over the same column. It has launched a probe into the the Sun’s columnist and released a statement saying “widespread dissemination, through A TWEET former political editor is Kavanagh had apologised for social media and the internet, and FOOD BLOGGER Jack Monroe’s triumph still a member of the board his comments on Channel 4 acceptance as fact of stories of in her libel action against vile right-wing of tame press regulator News presenter . uncertain provenance or accuracy”. rent-a-gob Katie Hopkins in March was not IPSO, despite having two He wrote that Manji Explaining the reason for the just clearly the right thing to happen, but a complaints upheld against should not have complained inquiry, the committee noted significant move in media law. him over the same article. to IPSO over another Sun concerns over people being fed Hopkins had tweeted a snide and crude IPSO ruled in February column by former editor propaganda and untruths from non- message about Monroe, accusing her that he had been wrong Kelvin MacKenzie that had traditional news sources. Damian entirely falsely of condoning the spraying to claim in a column last attacked her for wearing a Collins, chairman of the committee, of offensive graffiti on a war memorial. October that “two out of hijab on air. said the trend was “a threat When challenged she refused to apologise three asylum seekers lied IPSO said it was to democracy and undermines but instead insulted Monroe further, calling about their age”. “committed to ensuring confidence in the media in general”. her “social anthrax”. The Sun published a that individuals who The Labour Party is conducting correction in print but not believe that they have been Monroe was awarded £24,000 in a similar inquiry conducted by online. When this was wronged by the press are damages but legal costs will set Hopkins Michael Dugher who was briefly pointed out it appended an able to seek proper redress shadow culture secretary last back a six-figure sum. inadequate footnote that without fear of retribution year. The probe will look into the The judge found that the tweets failed to correct the statistics; or victimisation. changing ways in which news is had caused “serious harm”. It could the Sun argued that it would “In this instance, public consumed and shared online, and be a precedent that has an effect on be “inappropriate” to amend comments by an IPSO what social media could do to tackle people who use Twitter to pile abuse the words of a columnist board member brought the fabricated news being shared. on others, if the courts continue to find – even those ruled to strength of this commitment Deputy leader Tom Watson, that serious harm has been done to a be wrong. into question. who took over the culture brief, person’s reputation. IPSO said: “Given that “This should not have said the increase in fake news Hopkins had contended that on Twitter the inaccuracy clearly related happened. The board has undermined politics. He said: “Fake vulgar and crude statements are par for to an assertion of fact, the received an apology from news challenges our democracy the course, but this argument was roundly committee rejected the the board member and an by undermining the very basis on rejected by the court. newspaper’s reasoning for assurance that it will not which we make decisions about the delay, and considered happen again.” According to lawyers, it may now be who to trust and who to vote for. I that the newspaper had If two reprimands by a want this inquiry to make concrete more difficult to argue that attention- failed to correct a significant regulator against one of its proposals to protect the integrity of grabbing provocative tweets are just inaccuracy promptly.” own members aren’t enough our news media.” “mere abuse”, “banter” or statements that This was the second time to make him resign, how He said fake news was accessed aren’t taken seriously. Tweets can be held IPSO had found him at fault many would be? with more frequently than real to the same standard as a “reputable” or news in the run up to the recent US “serious” publication and controversy- CPBF AGM 2017 presidential elections. “That cannot baiting Twitter celebrities may need THE CPBF will be holding its 2017 annual meeting on [be] healthy for democracies, which to be more cautious in the wake of Saturday July 1, at the HQ of Unite the Union in London. operate on the assumption that this judgement. Further details will be announced – all members and voters make choices based on facts To refrain from behaving like Katie supporters welcome. Unite the Union, 128 Theobalds and information that are for the Hopkins is generally sound advice. Road, London WC1X 8TN; nearest station Holborn. most part accurate and truthful.” Spring 2017 Free Press 7 Not just the papers; Tories take the BBC

THE PUBLIC spectacle of George Osborne’s Gazette: “He has lost the dressing room. He venality and greed was gripping enough, but doesn’t have team news on his side.” James there were even worse things about his taking Harding’s imports include two senior colleagues the editor’s chair at the Evening Standard. from The Times and business correspondents AWKWARD The Standard already had a nasty right-wing from the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph. evening newspaper monopoly in London – a And then there is the media editor, Amol SQUAD Labour-voting city – and George Osborne is Rajan. He’s a former editor of the Independent, likely if anything to make it more opposi- the one who drove the paper into closure tional to the Tory government if he uses it to (though it still totters along online) in March pursue his lavishly anticipated vendetta against last year, 10 months after it defied its 30-year Theresa May. tradition of non-partisanship to call for the So it’s not the Tories tightening their grip on re-election of the Tory/Lib-Dem coalition in the TIM the press that’s new, but that it’s on the BBC as 2015 poll. well. The “populist” right-wing slant of BBC news This was an idiotic call anyway, since the GOPSILL is a growing pain, which an influx of Fleet Street coalition wasn’t standing in the election. No establishment figures goes some way to explain. HM TREASURY The editor that George Osborne succeeds, to be photographed hobnobbing with west Sarah Sands, is moving to edit the BBC Radio 4 London society. He writes plodding first-person Today programme. Her Evening Standard was articles about his exhilarating social life and his a mouthpiece for Boris Johnson as Mayor of exciting adventures. London, and in the election to succeed him the Glossy magazines are full of fulsome profiles paper front-paged all the crude and stupid Tory of this wretched man, as if he was a genius accusations of jihadi connections against the rather than a narcissist who happens to own inoffensive Labour contender Sadiq Khan. newspapers. The journalists flatter him too. “It Just because he’s a Muslim, that’s all; so now has been an absolute pleasure to work for him,” we have Donald Trump politics directing the Lebedev: Social life Osborne: Vendetta said Sarah Sands. Today programme. Now she’s been airlifted into a role at the Sarah Sands had never worked in broad- doubt it was the brilliant idea of the proprietor, BBC it does make you wonder: if she can’t resist casting – just as Osborne has never worked in Yevgeny Lebedev, who also happens to own the adolescent whims of a preening creep like newspapers – but was eased into the job by the Evening Standard and has just hired Yevgeny Lebedev, how is she going to stand up head of news James Harding, the Tory press’s George Osborne. to the more substantial figures who make rather “enemy within” at the BBC. He was a newspaper Yevgeny worked his way up as the son greater demands of the BBC? editor, at Murdoch’s Times, and has brought a of Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, who Of course politicians are unscrupulous and succession of prominent figures from national bought the papers and gave them to his spoilt proprietors are vain, but the worry is the journal- papers into key editorial positions at the BBC. brat as a present. Yevgeny likes nothing better ists. Why should they have to kowtow to these BBC journalists are not happy about this. than seeing his face, and name, in print. He people? It’s like an Evelyn Waugh novel 100 Amid reports of rumbling mutiny one told Press gets the paper to set up glitzy events for him years on. Inside knowledge can be so valuable THERE ARE certainly worries about brief interview with Max Mosely, who have been denied such redress was about to pronounce on the Amol Rajan’s media reporting, the motor racing tycoon who over the years, nor from victims or enactment of Section 40! though it may not be surprising is funding the only recognised other critics of the press’s intrusive The Indy was on the verge of that his reports tend to represent regulator, IMPRESS, through a and irresponsible­ behaviour. Nor was publishing – the story being not the national paper editor’s point ­labyrinthine structure that protects there any declaration that media so much Whittingdale’s sex life as of view. its independence. editor Rajan had been involved in on the suppression of what would In January he covered the Mosley made his point that, at this story himself, which he had. seem to be very a tasty tabloid tale. BBC controversy around Section 40 of present, gaining As editor of In October 2015 Rajan attended Amol Rajan: the Crime and Courts Bill – the law, redress from media reporting the Indy he has a Society of Editors meeting with not yet activated, that could in rare the national from the been accused Whittingdale and other editors. On circumstances lead to publications press is only editor’s point of suppressing his return to the office he had the being made to pay both sides’ costs possible for the of view a story on story pulled, “on editorial grounds”, in a libel case if they had failed to rich; a laudable the private he explained. Shortly afterwards, sign up with an officially-recognised contention, though it was life of then Culture Secretary John Whittingdale announced he was press regulator. emphasised that Mosley is Whittingdale, who allegedly had an “not persuaded” to enact Section All the corporate press are dead immensely rich himself, which affair with a sex worker. The story 40. He may, though, have been against this law, naturally, which rather made him seem a hypocrite. was well known in media circles but persuaded not to, but that’s an Rajan reported at some length. He But there was not a word from or none of the red-top papers wanted angle that media editor Rajan allowed one dissenting voice: a about the countless poorer people to embarrass Whittingdale, who didn’t cover.

This issue went to press on March 19 and was edited by Tim Gopsill, 07769 928 795, [email protected] Design: editionpublishing.net • Printed by Swallowmax Ltd, 43 Aden Road, Enfield EN3 7SY