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Jump to navigationJump to searchThere Is No Such Thing As A Free Press by Mick Hume (view source)
Revision as of 14:09, 23 March 2013
, 14:09, 23 March 2013no edit summary
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|name= Mick Hume
|verb= said, ahad of The Political Studies Associatio Session on ''Leveson and the Futur of Political Journalism''
|comment= Hacked Off (the pro-regulation lobby group fronted by Hugh Grant) admit in their book ''Everybody’s Hacked Off'' that the lobby group:
(1) instigated the demand for the Leveson Inquiry
(2) set the terms for it to probe not just phone-hacking but the entire ‘culture and ethics’ of the press
(3) set the tone for the public circus through its celebrity witnesses
(4) penned most of Lord Justice Leveson’s final proposals.
Hacked Off also drew up the compromise on statutory underpinning that was accepted this week – and was even present throughout the late-night talks to seal the deal, unlike any representative of the people or the press!
Hacked Off high-level access is the consequence of their pushing at the open door of a political class that has abandoned any belief in freedom of expression. Cameron, Clegg & Miliband would rather put their faith in sanctimonious lawyers and celebrities than trust either the public or the press. It has not been a hijacking but a meeting of narrow minds.
A Royal Charter will further extend state intervention in the affairs of the press, and cast an even longer official shadow over freedom of expression
A Royal Charter is potentially even worse news for freedom than statute since there is nothing to stop any future government altering or expanding this statutory interference in the press with a simple parliamentary majority.
Cameron and Miliband are deeply involved in a culture war between the political class and the press. The political class unites in backroom closed door meetings to sacrifice press freedom in the name of the people (whom they don’t consult)
Hatred of the ‘popular’ press and the ‘mass’ media (or its owners) by the political class has is a thinly veiled code for expressing an elitist fear and loathing of the populace/masses who consume them.
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