Life after LevesonGeorge Brock

Professor and Head of JournalismCity University London

The Hidden Cost of Free CommentWorld Editors Forum, Bangkok, June 2013

Who’d be a judge judging journalism?

Lord Justice Leveson Ray Finkelstein QC

Phone-hacking in the UK…but inquiries held across the English-speaking world

• South Africa: worries about the new press law (also Ghana NMC)

• New Zealand: worries about new media and law

• Australia: press regulation and concentration/plurality (+ separate convergence inquiry)

• Britain: 2-part (?) Leveson Inquiry triggered by phone-hacking

Why was all this happening? (1)

• Law-breaking • Privacy concerns• Self-regulation failing• Ownership concentration• New legal dilemmas driven by

new technology

Why was all this happening? (2)• Some newspapers driven by economic

desperation (NB decline is a long trend)• Law enforcement failed• Increases in the velocity and volume of

information• Is the definition of (a) privacy and (b) journalism

changed by technology?• Is there any longer “the press”?• Revisiting “freedom of the press”.

Is this an attack on press freedom?

• Sometimes, but not necessarily so• There is no such thing as absolute press

freedom• All societies balance freedom and restraint• Asking if the balance is right or needs re-

tuning is a legitimate social and political question

• Journalists shouldn’t run away from it

This man has attacked press freedom(and intends to continue)

This is not quite the same thing

2000 pages, 50+ recommendations

A messy parliamentary deal which may not stick

Leveson in 30 seconds• Operation Motorman• Scandal revealed by journalists• Phone-hacking: 5,000+ names found• 3 Scotland Yard inquiries• Almost 60 people charged with crime (mostly

journalists)…300m emails searched.• Celebrities feature little in the report• Trials begin September…Leveson part 2?

What Leveson actually said• Who guards the guards?• Dilemma: self-regulation but uninfluenced by bosses• Preoccupied with lobbying power of popular paper

companies• Arbitration, not courts• Regulation must have quality control = “recognition

body”• Last resort: could be Ofcom• Not “state regulation” but not freedom either

The post-Leveson deal• 2 rival Royal Charters• Vengeful lords• Court cases to come• Exemplary damages

Find your way through this…

The Leveson effect• Popular papers are now (a bit) more careful

More Leveson effects• A very full record…catharsis

• Phone-hacking+Leveson+trials = a public humiliation for News Corp

What Leveson didn’t do(and what he might have done better)

• Look at the disruption of mainstream media and what it means for law and regulation• Look at technology and privacy and

law• Look at law and regulation combined

The issues will come up again, elsewhere. So read on…

• Out of Print published in September •www.georgebrock.net•@georgeprof• Slideshare: georgeprof