The National Union of Journalists believes the Leveson inquiry into media behaviour offers the opportunity to create a serious regulatory body across the media which would really work to uphold ethical standards and guarantee protection for journalists determined to abide by the NUJ code of conduct.
The self-regulatory body should provide for serious penalties for media organisations which broke the code, said NUJ General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet, as well as offering a reliable mechanism to deal with complaints from the public. <br><br>โCentral to the development of an ethical environment for modern journalism must be a guarantee that journalists who uphold professional standards will be protected against management pressure to chase circulation by behaving unethically,โ she said. โNo journalist should be threatened with the sack for standing up for quality journalism. <br><br>โThe Murdoch scandal has created circumstances in which the media, journalists, and society as a whole can now move forward and design a new model of self-regulation which serves the interests of the public and the media industry in an honourable way. <br><br>โThe Leveson inquiry must also address the issue of media ownership across the entire newspaper, broadcasting and new media industry. The NUJ has drawn attention to the harm being done by media giants who have swallowed up and asset-stripped so many of our local and regional newspapers. The damage done to the quality of local journalism, as jobs are axed and content compromised, is a threat to democracy as well as a disservice to loyal local readers.โ <br><br>The Leveson inquiry has also been welcomed by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, which says the inquiry must consider โthe extent to which the current policy and regulatory framework has failedโ and โhow media policy, regulations and cross-media ownership should be dealt withโ.<br><br>Meanwhile Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband has listed on the Labour party website his September 2010 to July 2011 meetings with proprietors, editors and senior media executives -<br><br>http://www.labour.org.uk/meeting-with-proprietors-editors-and-senior-media-executives,2011-07-20<br><br>And in a July 20 statement in the House of Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron said the affair had "shaken people’s trust in the media and the legality of what they do, in the police and their ability to investigate media malpractice, and, yes, in politics and in politicians’ ability to get to grips with these issues.<br><br>"People desperately want us to put a stop to the illegal practices, to ensure the independence and effectiveness of the police and to establish a more healthy relationship between politicians and media owners."<br><br>You can read that speech in full on the Conservative Party website – <br><br>http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2011/07/David_Cameron_Statement_on_phone_hacking.aspx<br><br>The Conservatives pointed to Downing Street’s publication of a list of the Prime Minister’s meetings with senior media figures. Conservative Party chairman Sayeeda Warsi criticised the Labour party for delaying publication and for withholding information concerning meetings Mr Miliband had before September 2010.<br><br>Baroness Warsi said: "This list is late and incomplete. Ed Miliband has failed the transparency test by trying to hide meetings held when he was campaigning to be Labour leader. His courting of News International executives in recent weeks makes a mockery of Labour’s current political vendetta against the Murdoch press."
A panel that will work with the Levenson judicial inquiry is –
* The civil liberties campaigner and Director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti;
* The former Chief Constable of the West Midlands, Sir Paul Scott-Lee;
* The former Chairman of OfCOM, Lord David Currie
* The former political editor of Channel 4 news, Elinor Goodman;
* The former political editor of the Daily Telegraph, and fomer special correspondent of the press association, George Jones
* And the former Chairman of the Financial Times, Sir David Bell.
