For those of you who don't know what the Leveson inquiry is it is a investigation set up by David Cameron which looks into the way journalists get their information. The reason the inquiry was set up was because as you probably know The News Of The World were caught hacking a young girl 'Millie Dowler's' phone after she had been abducted and killed. The chairman of the investigation is Lord Justice Leveson, thats what gave the inquiry the name 'Leveson'. The inquiry has effected a number of people including The Dowlers, Charlotte Church, The Mcanns, Heather Mills, Hugh Grant and many more.
2. Privacy Law Situation.
There has never been a right to privacy in the UK, but there are laws that protect our privacy. In 1998 the Human Rights Act was introduced. The act says 'Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, home and his correspondence'. But how far is too far? Max Mosley governing body for formula one and other motor sports sued the British press for invasion of his privacy. Max was pictured in a brothel. The news of the world explained his acts as 'Sick Nazi Orgy With 5 Hookers' Though he was doing nothing illegal his story still made it to front page news. Max said 'There needs to be privacy protection, if it effects my work then it's ok to be in the public eye'. The PCC are the Press Complaints Commission, they lay down the code of practice and enforce it. They deal with all of the complaints against the content of magazines, news papers etc. They say 'Everybody is entitled to a private life and this should be respected in family, home, health, digital communications and so on'. You are allowed to invade somebody's private life, as long as you can justify why!. For example: If a journalist was rummaging through David Cameron's rubbish, and he made a complaint. As long as the journalist can justify that they were looking for evidence that is in the public interest, then it is ok. But if a journalist was rummaging through Katie Price's rubbish in order to find evidence that she was having an affair this is merely interesting to the public. That makes it wrong.
3. Freedom Of The Press.
Freedom of the press allows journalists to uncover the truth about people. Without freedom of the press the public may be trusting people who, quite frankly aren't so trustworthy. Paul McMullen said "If there was a privacy law preventing freedom of the press we wouldn't catch politicians cheating and lying. This information is in the public interest".
It is the freedom of communication and expression. Freedom of the press suggests that we should be allowed to say what we want, when we want and so should the press. This has been an ongoing argument between journalists and people who have been effected by freedom of the press.
4. Quote from Leveson 'I believe the report must speak for itself'.
5. Another case of people effected is the McCanns. The parents of missing girl Madeleine told the enquiry that many of the stories were untruthful, sinister and even made up. Kate McCann's diary was published in The News Of The World. The diary was said to be given to the paper by a Portuguese reporter. It then became apparent that the diary was not in fact given permission by Kate for relese and the paper gave an apology and gave a undisclosed payment to Madeleine's fund. Kate said the act made her feel 'totally violated'. But there was more to the story, the british paper The Daily Star headlined 'Maddy sold by hard-up McCanns, which Mr McCann said was 'nothing short of disgusting'.
The Leveson report was published 16 months after the inquiry along with a 48 page executive summary. The report shows that the existing Press Complaints Commission is not sufficient. A new independent body is recommended which would have a range of sanctions available to it. This includes fines and direction of the prominence of apologies and corrections. This means that journalists will need to be extra careful about how they get their information and what they publish as there could be severe consequences. The public may not be able to find out all of the information that they should/ need to know because of the Leveson report. There are some good turnouts due to the report. People in the public eye will now have more privacy.
How Did The Government Respond?
David Cameron surprised everybody with his reaction to the Leveson report. David rejected Leveson's proposals for new legislation. He said it would "Cross the Rubicon" and end centuries of press freedom.
David Cameron's decision not to support statutory unpinning set him in a 'collision course' with Labour and Lib Dem's, who support a Leveson law.
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