Fielden Cover_Layout 1 20/10/2011 17:09 Page 1 Regulating for Trust in Journalism Trust for Regulating Regulating for Trust in Journalism. REUTERS Standards regulation in the age of blended media INSTITUTE for the 2011 has been awash with investigations, consultations, scandals, and inquiries STUDY of into issues of journalistic standards and wider media regulation in the UK. is JOURNALISM book argues that underlying them is a deepening conflict between converging media content on the one hand, and static standards regulation on the other. Broadcast, newspaper, video on demand and other online content are increasingly indistinguishable. Yet their regulation is disconnected, at times contradictory, and increasingly lacks the coherence and consistency on which public trust depends. Accessed via a PC, smart phone or tablet device, and with the advent of internet-connected televisions, regulated and unregulated Regulating for Trust in Journalism journalism, licensed and unlicensed services, are becoming impossible to differentiate. Yet some content is subject to comprehensive, statutory regulation, some to voluntary self-regulated rules, some to no regulatory authority at all. Standards regulation in the age of In this book Lara Fielden reviews standards regulation across media platforms. She illustrates regulatory inconsistencies through a range of case blended media studies, finds evidence of consumer confusion and provides examples of international responses to the challenge of convergence. She argues that incoherence in journalistic standards risks undermining public trust across media platforms, and damaging public confidence in sources of information and analysis on which citizens depend in order to make informed, democratic choices. She draws on her experience in both journalism and regulation to argue for a new Lara Fielden regulatory settlement across the media. e settlement she proposes incentivises transparently signalled standards as a selling point for both existing and emerging media providers, and places informed, enabled citizens at its heart. “Lara Fielden’s impressive sweep of UK media regulation makes the case for an entirely new system better suited to the digital age. Read her book both to understand the true complexity of our existing regulatory system and to see her smart model for reform.” Martin Moore Director, Media Standards Trust “is is a remarkably comprehensive and wide ranging work and could not be more timely. I would genuinely recommend that anyone engaged with the very serious debate on press and media regulation gives it a good look.” Steve Hewlett Presenter of e Media Show, BBC Radio 4, Guardian columnist and media analyst Lara Fielden was a graduate trainee at London Weekend Television and spent the next ten years with BBC News and Current Affairs. She produced and directed a range of current affairs investigations and documentaries, including Panorama and Newsnight, filming around the globe in countries as diverse as Bosnia, Brazil, Korea, Romania and Zimbabwe as well as across the UK. Between 2005 and 2010 she was with Ofcom where she managed fairness and privacy adjudications and reviews of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. Lara Fielden Lara Fielden Cover_Layout 1 20/10/2011 17:09 Page 2 SELECTED RISJ PUBLICATIONS David A. L. Levy and Robert G. Picard (eds) Published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Is there a better structure for News Providers? e potential in charitable and trust ownership Department of Politics and International Relations, David A. L. Levy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds) University of Oxford, 13 Norham Gardens, Oxford, OX2 6PS e Changing Business of Journalism and its implication for Democracy Tel: 01865 611090 Fax: 01865 611094 Tim Gardam and David A. L. Levy (eds) http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk e Price of Plurality: choice, diversity and broadcasting institutions in the digital age published in association with Ofcom Typeset and printed by the Medical Informatics Unit, NDCLS, University of Oxford John Lloyd and Julia Hobsbawm e Power of the Commentariat is paper represents the views of the author rather than a statement of a collective published in association with Editorial Intelligence Ltd view of either the Reuters Institute or City University. CHALLENGES Text © Lara Fielden 2011 John Lloyd All additional material © Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism Scandal! News International and the rights of journalism e moral rights of the author have been asserted. Stephen Coleman (ed) Leaders in the Living Room. e Prime Ministerial debates of 2010: evidence, All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or disseminated or evaluation and some recommendations transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, Richard Sambrook recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, or otherwise used in any Are Foreign Correspondents Redundant? e changing face of international news manner whatsoever without prior written permission, except for permitted fair James Painter dealing under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Summoned by Science: reporting climate change at Copenhagen and beyond © RISJ November 2011 -- ISBN 978-1-907384-06-6 John Kelly Red Kayaks and Hidden Gold: the rise, challenges and value of citizen journalism e Reuters Institute has produced this book in association with City University, Stephen Whittle and Glenda Cooper Department of Journalism. Privacy, Probity and Public Interest Stephen Coleman, Scott Anthony, David E Morrison Public Trust in the News: a constructivist study of the social life of the news Nik Gowing ‘Skyful of Lies’ and Black Swans: the new tyranny of shiing information power in crises Andrew Currah What’s Happening to Our News: an investigation into the likely impact of the digital revolution on the economics of news publishing in the UK James Painter Counter-Hegemonic News: a case study of Al-Jazeera English and Telesur Floriana Fossato and John Lloyd with Alexander Verkhovsky e Web that Failed: how opposition politics and independent initiatives are failing on the internet in Russia Forthcoming PUBLICATIONS Paolo Mancini on Between Commodification and Lifestyle Politics. Is Silvio Berlusconi a new model of politics for the 21st Century? James Painter on Poles Apart: the international reporting of climate scepticism Anton Harber on e Challenge of Media Freedom in the African Post-Colony Fielden_Layout 1 20/10/2011 17:06 Page i Regulating for Trust in Journalism Standards regulation in the age of blended media Lara Fielden Fielden_Layout 1 20/10/2011 17:06 Page ii Fielden_Layout 1 20/10/2011 17:06 Page iii Contents Summary of Text v List of Figures and Boxes ix 1. Introduction 1 2. Background to the Regulation of Journalism in the UK 11 3. Television and Radio Regulation 19 4. Newspaper Regulation 43 5. Video on Demand Regulation 59 6. Regulation of Wider Online Content 77 7. The Consumer Perspective 91 8. Conclusions on Regulatory Challenges 99 9. A Decade of Debate and Observations for the Next Decade 103 10. Recommendations 117 Annex 1 Interviewees, May 2011 129 Annex 2 Making Complaints about BBC and 130 Other Media Services Select Bibliography 132 Acknowledgements 133 iii Fielden_Layout 1 20/10/2011 17:06 Page iv Fielden_Layout 1 20/10/2011 17:06 Page v Summary of Text 1. Introduction 1.1 2011 has been awash with investigations, consultations, scandals, and inquiries as Parliament, regulators, the courts and others respond to issues of journalistic standards 1.2 Piecemeal responses fail to recognise and address the underlying conflict between converging media content and static standards regulation – broadcast, newspaper and video on demand content are increasingly indistinguishable, yet their regulation is disconnected and increasingly lacks the coherence and consistency on which public trust depends 1.3 A new regulatory settlement is required: identifying the value and significance of media standards and enabling active participation by citizens in the public space across media platforms 1.4 Chapter summary 2. Background to the Regulation of Journalism in the UK 2.1 Statutory, licensed broadcasting regulation has developed in response to spectrum and information scarcity; self-regulation of the press has been accepted in the absence of regulatory leverage; video on demand services are ‘co-regulated’; and other online content is largely unregulated 2.2 The 2003 Communications Act established Ofcom as a ‘converged’ regulator for television, radio and telecoms but with no ambitions to regulate newspapers or the wider internet 2.3 Debate over the next Communications Act has been initiated as an agenda for economic growth; this paper recommends an alternative democratic agenda that responds to convergence across the broadcast, newspaper, video on demand and wider online media platforms 3. Television and Radio Regulation 3.1 A statutory regulator and code of comprehensive rules govern UK television and radio broadcast services, and assume that ‘protection’ of the public is both achievable and desirable 3.2 Rules on due impartiality apply to broadcast services in relation to news and matters of public debate (case study: The Great Global Warming Swindle) 3.3 A pragmatic approach is adopted towards international news services and impartiality rules may not be required (United States: the fairness doctrine) v Fielden_Layout 1 20/10/2011 17:06 Page vi Regulating for Trust in Journalism 3.4 The demands for impartiality originally linked to public