A Free Press is Vital, Just Put It on a Leash

As the Leveson enquiry approaches the finish line, I feel somewhat obligated to underline the importance of the free press to Britain and throughout the world. The free press, when acting out the role is it designed to do, holds government accountable for their actions, keeps MPs on their toes and forces companies into more ethical procedures all round. The enquiry was commissioned to seek out whether the press should be regulated or censored in the future, to avoid further incidents such as the phone hacking scandal that has engulfed the entire news media in 2011 and still today.

The current body in charge of regulating the British press is known as the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which of course contains several editors of national newspapers. Therefore, it is essentially a system of self regulation in which a few of the ‘old boys’ get together over some extortionately-priced whisky to discuss what celebrity is going to get their mobile phone hacked next.   

This is not good enough for the British general public. It is unacceptable and it needs to change. What I propose, and it seems many are in agreement with this view, is a total disbanding and abolishment of the PCC and to replace it with a government funded (but independent of the government) Ofcom-type institution. This institution would investigate complaints from the public but it would also watch over the press to make sure that its ‘house is in order’ and to maintain the type of standards that brought it to the forefront of journalism in the first place.

It is not to say that recently the press have not produced some magnificent pieces of journalism. In 2009, The Telegraph exposed the MPs expenses scandal that led to politicians such as the Conservative Peter Viggers being sacked for claiming a £30,000 duck island in his garden with taxpayers’ money. Furthermore, the News of the World unravelled the corruption that was occurring within the Pakistan cricket team in a test series against England in the summer of 2010, culminating in four players receiving prison sentences.

So, if we were able to combine the type of excellent journalism that I have spoken about above, and then with proper regulation, constrict the type of illegal methods used to gain information, there is the potential for our press to reach the heights that made it so prestigious in the beginning. But we must resist calls for government regulation or any type of censorship. A free press is vital for the future democracy of Britain. It cannot be influenced by marketing and advertisers and it must not be influenced by the government. We live in a country whereby government propaganda is not entirely pertinent, and it must continue to stay that way. Or we as citizens will inadvertently lose the very rights we pride ourselves in having.