I see that a lot of press people are
unhappy with the regulation proposals following on from the Leveson
Enquiry so let me throw in my tuppence worth.
We all support a free press, but the
fact of the matter is that the United Kingdom hasn't had a free press
for many years. It has always been totally under the control of a few
powerful families who exercise that control in a completely
scurrilous way. They have absolutely no problem in publishing half
truths and complete falsehoods to the ruination of peoples' lives and
for the sake of, and in the name of, something that will be wrapping
a fish supper tomorrow. Provided always that it makes them money.
They are completely undemocratic,
setting the agenda that their masters want and even claiming to
decide who governs the country, if we are to believe the 'Sun wot won
it' headlines. And who wouldn't believe the Sun.
All that is asked of them is that they
stay within the law and tell the truth. Is that so very difficult for
them. Those are the same rules that the rest of a free society seems
to have few problems with. But they want to be completely outwith the
law, they want to ride roughshod over everyone else's rights not to
be defamed because they know that few if any ordinary people can
afford to go to law against them.
So however distasteful, it has become
necessary to rein their excesses, and it is only their excesses that
are being restricted, because if we don't exercise some sort of
democratic control over law-breakers and corrupters in the press and everywhere else then we risk
losing democracy itself. But perhaps that is the ultimate objective
of the press barons. They want to exercise that ultimate power that
ordinary people having a right to vote denies them.
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