8 December 2011

Leveson Inquiry: Hearings - Day 13

LEVESON INQUIRY:CULTURE, PRACTICE AND ETHICS OF THE PRESS

"I want this inquiry to mean something", not end up as "footnote in some professor of journalism's analysis of 21 century history." LJ Leveson in reply to A Rusbridger's submission to Inquiry.

Lord Justice Leveson
The Panel : top row (left to right)
  • Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty
  • George Jones, former Daily Telegraph political editor
  • Sir David Bell, former chairman of the Financial Times
Bottom row (Left to right)
  • Elinor Goodman, former Channel 4 political editor
  • Lord David Currie, former chairman of Ofcom
  • Sir Paul Scott-Lee, former West Midlands chief constable
 The proceedings are shown here live on the Leveson Inquiry website. 

BBC Democracy Live Leveson Inquiry live-feed here.

Full list of Core Participants to be found here. (Guardian Website)

Relevant links from mainstream media, blogs and social media:



(Twitter feed for Leveson Inquiry on right of Home page of this (#pressreform) blog.) 

Leveson Inquiry Witness List - Week beginning 5.12.11 


Leveson Inquiry Witness Statements  


Videos of Each Hearing on Official Leveson Inquiry Website



Follow Leveson Inquiry on Twitter - #leveson #Leveson 

Guardian Live Blog

Guardian Leveson Inquiry Round-up Page 

Telegraph Live Blog

Leveson Inquiry - Evidence, Weeks 1 and 2 - a Crash Course on the Ways of the Tabloids - Inforrm's Blog 

Video : BBC - BBC News Programmes - BBC News Special: the Phone-hacking Inquiry 

BBC News - Phone-hacking Scandal: Who's Linked to Who? (excellent interactive graphics)

Application to Leveson Inquiry by Full Fact For Amendment of Restriction Order 

What do You Do When an Entire System Fails? - David Allen Green for New Statesman 


The Bureau, Bell Pottinger, Babies and Bathwater - The Free Speech Blog

I've Seen the Future and It's Crap, Michael Williams - BJR 


Latest News: (many more links under Phone-hacking, Press and PCC tabs at head of this blog)

Glenn Mulcaire Arrested in Phone-hacking Investigation - Telegraph

Mark Lewis Files Formal Complaint About Crone at Bar Council - Independent 

Rebekah Brooks? 'We Helped Choose Her Police Station' Says Bell Pottinger - Independent


PCC Proposes Wide-ranging Shake-up of Press Self-regulation - Guardian

Neville Thurlbeck's Letter to MPs - Full Text - Guardian
 (Follows this recent article) :-
Neville Turlbeck tells the Inside Story of Hacking Scandal: 'I am Either a Fool or an Innocent Man...You Decide' - Press Gazette


James Murdoch's Lawyers Confirm Tom Watson Was Put Under Surveillance - Guardian 

Brooks: Leveson testimony Will Prejudice Police Inquiry - Press Gazette

Wikipedia Founder Attacks Bell Pottinger For 'Ethical Blindness' - Independent

Wikipedia Suspends Accounts Over Bell Pottinger Claims - Telegraph 

Bell Pottinger Group - Affected Articles - Wikipedia 


All of TBIJ Srories in One Place - Lobbying's Hidden Influence - TBIJ

Thomson: We Dealt Honourably in Coverage of Hacking and 'Rough Trade' Tabloids - Wall Street Journal

A Tragic Case of Media and Medical Misconduct - One For Leveson? - Ben Goldacre


BBC College of Journalism - Reynolds Defence Revised

Video: Kelvin MacKenzie: If I could revisit Hillsborough I Would Do It Differently - the Wire - Press Gazette 


David Conn
Dreadful Kelvin McKenzie on BBC, justifying his Hillsborough "The Truth" 22 years on: "It came from a Liverpool news agency and journalists"


BBC News - Video - Kelvin MacKenzie on Hillsborough Coverage

Ethics Training is Not the Issue, Academics Tell Leveson - Journalism.co.uk



Thursday 8th December 2011 - ( Blog for Day 12 to be found here )


Today's Witnesses: Academics:- Professor Steven Barnett (University of Westminster), Professor George Brock (City University), Professor Brian Cathcart (Kingston University), Professor Ian Hargreaves (Cardiff University), Professor Julian Petley (Brunel University), Angela Phillips (Goldsmiths, University of London), Dr. Daithi Mac Sithigh (East Anglia University)

Professor Barnett, Professor Brock , Professor Cathcart and Angela Phillips introduced to Inquiry. 
Follow Telegraph Live Blog for details of evidence. 

From Telegraph Live Blog:
"Leveson gives this quite telling monologue:
Quote We want to celebrate all that is good about every aspect about the print media. It's been commented I've only focussed on all the criticism, but that is to fail to understand the nature of the process. All the titles will have their chance to put their perspective forward. I'm not seeking in any sense to beat down the mass market or tabloid press. They do an enormously valuable job. The problem is going to be to try and find a line and an approach so we can remove what some people consider to be a problem in our output."
Leveson: I Don't Want to Beat Down Tabloids - Telegraph




Professor Steven Barnett












Full Witness Statement

Professor Barnett's Talk at Leveson Inquiry Seminar (via Hacked Off)

From Telegraph Live Blog:
"Barnett says the NCTJ - the industry standard training course - is regarded as "inflexible" and "narrow"."

IndexLeveson
Barnett: ethical problems on national tabloids aren't something you can teach someone 2 deal with. Down to individual moral courage

Susan Grossman
PCC was set up as regulator ProfStevenBarnett not just as a complaints review system

IndexLeveson
Barnett: no facility for representation to be made on behalf of groups people to point out distortions/inaccuracies about them

Example From Full Fact showing The Way PCC Fails Goups making a Complaint



Professor George Brock

Professor George Brock Profile













Full Witness Statement


From Telegraph Live Blog:
"Brock says he now teaches a course in "entrepreneurial journalism" - how to operate an internet start-up. These are unregulated, but the industry is changing rapidly."

Natalie Peck
Brock: PCC guilty of trying to pretend it's a regulator when actually it's a complaints mediation service.



Professor Brian Cathcart

Brofessor Brian Cathcart Profile













Full Witness Statement

Professor Brian Cathcart's Talk at Leveson Inquiry Seminar -  (via Hacked Off)

From Telegraph Live Blog:
"Cathcart says the NCTJ course does not have the stress on media ethics that he would like to see. "It is a reflection of the NCTJ being a servant of the industry.. they have not passed down from on high high standards of ethics." 

Natalie Peck
Cathcart: Lots of journalists are not just making a moral choice but financial choice. Freelance/casual reporters are vulnerable.

William Chambers
New journalists need financial as well as moral courage to stand up for their ethics says too true!

IndexLeveson
Cathcart: public trust in journalism has been damaged. Remedy must be seen to be radical.

Hacked off
Cathcart: a new step has to be taken and something has to be done to show that we take this seriously


Hacked off
Cathcart: Ofcom say the cost of what they deliver in terms of journalism not much higher than cost of the PCC


Angela Phillips

 Angela Phillips Profile













 Submission By Goldsmiths, University of London

From Telegraph Live Blog: 
"Philips say the course (NCTJ) is simply an "imprint" of industry standards and says it is not taught at Goldsmiths University because they want their students to think critically about how journalism should change."

T Portilho-Shrimpton
Philips: only two students from my course have gone to work on one of the red tops

IndexLeveson
Phillips: many young people want to work for more ethical papers but get trapped because redtops pay more.

Natalie Peck
Phillips: PCC brought in effective code on harassment, has worked for private people not celebrities.




Professor Julian Petley














Hacked off
Petley: great stress on teachingof ethics. We don't have modules labelled ethics, but a concern with it involves everything we do

IndexLeveson
Petley: we have an excellent, if shrinking, local and regional press. Lots of other journalism besides national press  

Matthew Holehouse
Prof Petley, of Brunel University, says he advises his students not to work on tabs. remarkable from a journalism tutor?
Matthew Holehouse
Prof Petley, of Brunel University, says he advises his students not to work on tabs. remarkable from a journalism tutor?

Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
Julian Petley: Ethically minded papers should stop making common cause with the papers that have brought this inquiry into being .

lisa o'carroll
Petley" It is possible to regulate the internet, whether it's desirable is another questions


Professor Ian Hargreaves













Witness Statement in Full

From Telegraph Live Blog:
Hargreaves trots out three industry quotations, which, he says, show unlike the United States the British press has a historic aversion to the notion of journalism 'academics'. (One can tell he teaches a journalism course.)
Quote The only qualities essential for real success in journalism are rat-like cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability. (Nicholas Tomalin, Sunday Times)
Quote Ethics is a place to the east of London where the men wear white socks
(Kelvin Mackenzie, the Sun)
Quote A craft to be mastered in four days, and abandoned at the first sign of a better job.
(HL Mencken, American essayist)


Natalie Peck
Hargreaves: The journalistic culture has a long and deep history of thinking what people like us do isn't very important.

Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
Ian Hargreaves cites Mencken: Journalism as a job to be mastered in four days and abandoned at the first sign of a better job

Ben Fenton
Prof Ian Hargreaves tells journalism has a long history of thinking its work isn't very important. [I agree, in case anyone cares!]

Natalie Peck
Hargreaves: Inquiry is being seen in tabloid press as elitist and irrelevant to their concerns.

Dr Daithi Mac Sithigh

Dr  Daithi Mac Sithigh Profile












Witness Statement in Full



Natalie Peck
Mac Sithigh: Many people I know are now teaching the Leveson Inquiry ( finds this rather disturbing).

IndexLeveson
Mac Sithigh: now more than ever there is a need to explain the power of the media.

IndexLeveson
Mac Sithigh: not the case that no-one has ever leaked docs before, but methods of sharing content etc now v different