Myler on Mosley: ‘I make no apologies for publishing that story as editor’

Colin Myler, News of the World, was up in front of a House of Commons select committee today, as part of an inquiry into press standards, privacy and libel.

Unsurprisingly Myler and News Group Newspapers’ lawyer Tom Crone were questioned about the Max Mosley case – though, as a new writ has been issued against the paper by Mosley, some responses had to be curtailed.

Nevertheless, some good nuggets from Myler and Crone on the consequences of publishing the story and why the NOTW broke it:

• The costs of the Mosley trial came to around £900,000 with £100,000 damages, according to Crone.

• Myler:

“Mr Mosley made quite a case that he’d never sought publicity, that he was a private person. I disagree with that fundamentally.

“For a man in his position (…) who so wrecklessly put himself in the hands of five prostitutes (…) you have to say you played some part in your own downfall.”

• Myler: “Rarely in these situations are there any commercial benefits despite what people might think.”

• A family newspaper: “I don’t agree that it was an unsuitable story for a family newspaper. Some people might sneer and say that we are scurrilous and scaberous but we are who we are. I make no apologies for publishing that story as editor.

• Chilling effect of Mosley case? “I don’t think it’s had a chilling effect. It’s had a very practical effect on me as an editor and how you conduct yourself (…) I spend as much time talking to lawyers as I do journalists.

  “It doesn’t mean to say that you shy away, it means that you have to be equally diligent, efficient and careful and get very good legal advice.”

Myler also went on to discuss the issue of ‘celebrity stings’ by the NOTW, saying that while journalist Mazher Mahmood was widely known as the ‘fake sheikh’, he is also ‘one of the most professional newspaper journalists in the world’.

“He has been responsible for convicting and jailing 232 criminals. This is a man that puts himself in great danger and does so with such a professional aplomb that any media organisation would be proud to be associated with it,” he said.

Mahmood’s talents, said Myler, as increasingly being used for stories on immigration and religious radicalism: “There is some serious journalism within the News of the World.”

Tags: Colin Myler, House of Commons, libel, Max Mosley, Mazher Mahmood, News Group Newspapers lawyer, News of the World, privacy, Tom Crone

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More from Dacre: The Daily Mail editor on Max Mosley and ‘Flat Earth News’

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has made his thoughts about Justice Eady, the Human Rights Act and the Max Mosley privacy case against the News of the World pretty clear since giving his Society of Editors speech last year, but today he was given the chance to follow up on Mosley’s own comments to the commons select committee on press standards, privacy and freedom.

(And have his say he was most definitely going to – reminding the committee several times of the length of time they’d given Mosley to speak, until one member asked whether he felt he was being treated differently?)

“Mr Mosley, when he gave evidence to this committee, I was very surprised at the soft time you gave him,” said Dacre.

“For Max Mosley to present himself as a knight in shining armour, proclaiming (…) sanctimonious, self-righteousness is almost a surreal inversion of the normal values of civilised society.”

It’s ‘a bit like the Yorkshire ripper campaigning against men who batter women’, he added.

The ruling against the News of the World and in favour of Mosley made the government’s stance on brothels and prostitution problematic, he said.

While brothels are seen by the government as ‘unacceptable and totally wrong’ and requiring a law to prosecute the people that run them, ‘Justice Eady has said Mosley’s behaviour is merely unconventional not illegal’, said Dacre.

“One legitimises the other,” he said.

The Daily Mail would not have broken the Mosley story, because it is a family paper, he said, even if it had ‘fallen into the paper’s lap’ as one committee member suggested. However, Dacre said he would defend the NOTW’s right to publish it.

Nick Davies

Today’s hearing was also a chance for Dacre to respond to claims made by journalist and ‘Flat Earth News’ author Nick Davies at a committee session on Tuesday.

Summised by the committee chair, Davies said the Daily Mail was characterised by a level of ruthless aggression and spite far greater than any other newspaper in Fleet Street.

“Davies is one of those people who sees conspiracy in everything. Like many people who write for the Guardian he believes he is the only one who can claim the moral high ground,” said Dacre.

“The book doesn’t do himself or our industry any justice.”

The book, he added, had been written ‘without the basic journalistic courtesy of checking the allegations concerned’.

Dacre accepted that there is some ‘churnalism’ of press releases at a provincial and national level – driven largely by poor finances and lack of resources, but said he refutes the charge of the Daily Mail.

“I’d suggest the Daily Mail is both famous and infamous for taking Whitehall and government press releases and going behind them. Certainly our reporters when they get freelance copy make their own inquiries and take them further,” he said.

“Our spending on journalism today is as great as ever, despite the recession. Mr Davies makes a valid point about some areas of the media. I think strong areas of the media, including some of our competitors, are not guilty of this charge.”

Tags: Daily Mail, justice eady, Max Mosley, News of the World, Nick Davies, Paul Dacre, privacy, the News of the World

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Comment Is Free: Meyer wrong to ‘pour scorn’ on Mosley, says lawyer

Dominic Crossley, whose firm represented Max Mosley in his case against News of the World, has responded to comments made by Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), to a select committee for culture, media and sport last week.

Meyer chose to ‘pour scorn’ on Mosley and not the News of the World, despite the fact that Mosley won his case and a breach of privacy was found in his favour, writes Crossley.

“[I]nstead of criticising the News of the World or even warning those involved as to their future conduct (both the editor and journalist concerned remain in their roles), the chairman of the PCC reserves his scorn for Mosley. Meyer’s approach does nothing to relieve the perception that anyone seeking redress from a national newspaper is wasting his or her time by going to the PCC,” he says.

Full story at this link…

Tags: Christopher Meyer, dominic crossley, Max Mosley, News of the World, PCC, press standards, privacy, regulation

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MediaGuardian: Commons committee hears from Mosley and McCann

“Formula one boss Max Mosley today attacked the Press Complaints Commission and the newspaper industry’s system of self-regulation while criticising the Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre, chairman of the PCC editors’ code committee,” reports MediaGuardian here.

During the same hearing of the culture, media and sport committee currently looking into UK press regulation and media law, Gerry McCann “called for more stringent regulation of the press and slammed coverage surrounding the disappearance of his daughter in Portugal in 2007, calling it some of the most ‘irresponsible and damaging’ in press history,” MediaGuardian also reports here.

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NOTW’s reporting on Max Mosley was out of context and unethical, says undercover reporter

Undercover journalism has no role in reporting on meetings – in private or public places – between people in power and celebrities or individuals known to have vast wealth or power, investigative journalist Tessa Mayes told journalism students at Coventry University at last week.

Probably best known for ‘Sleepers: undercover in the sex trade‘ broadcast on Channel 4 in 2001 (when she worked as a receptionist to investigate the conditions endured by many illegal sex workers in the UK), Mayes told students at the ‘Coventry Conversations’ session that ‘investigative journalism has in recent times been branded “dead” by many in the world’s media, but that was far from the truth’.

The News of the World’s Nazi sex expose of FIA president, Max Mosley, was unethical and in bad taste, Mayes said. That type of exposure was ‘just the beginning of the investigative process’, she said.

“These are people caught up in a private moment, caught during free speech. You have to approach investigative journalism in context because it is an intrusive form of gathering information.

“I think you have to look long and hard if you want to do this at the way we present the evidence. We have to get answers for the right reasons, even though objectivity has been heavily criticised in recent years,” she added.

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Independent: Max Mosley wants to banish kiss and tells through new privacy law

After winning damages in his case against News of the World this summer, Max Mosley is taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today, to ask for a change in law, which would require editors to contact the subjects of revelations about private life before publishing. Full story...

Tags: European Court of Human Rights, Max Mosley

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The Register: Mosley judge dismisses forum libel complaints

Justice Eady, the judge who awarded Max Mosley damages in his privacy case against the News of the World, has blocked a contributor from suing an online forum. The decision, which places a civil restraint order on Nigel Smith, ends 37 sets of libel proceedings launched by Smith against other forum users and the ADVFN forum itself. Full story...

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Press Gazette: Mosley sues NoW in French courts over Nazi orgy story

Motorsport boss Max Mosley has launched a libel claim in the French courts against the News of the World over allegations he engaged in a Nazi-themed orgy.

The UK Sunday newspaper alleged that Mosley had been involved in a London orgy with five prostitutes and posted video of the affair on its website.

Moseley failed with a legal attempt in the English courts to get the video taken down and has now decided to pursue the matter in the French courts.

The action has been made possible because the print edition of News of the World is available in France and the online version was also accessible.

Moseley is also about to embark on a separate breach of privacy case in the UK. This issue has been scheduled for court in July.

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NOTW website wins right to show Mosley ‘Nazi-orgy’ video

The News of the World has been granted permission to republish a video on its website of Max Mosley, despite attempts by the formula one boss to have the footage removed.

Mosley, who is alleged to have participated in a Nazi-style orgy, had sought a High Court injunction banning the newspaper from showing the video or using images of the incident in the paper.

His application was refused today prompting a fighting statement from the paper’s legal manager Tom Crone, which said Mosley’s attempts to ’suppress’ the video had ‘failed’.

Read more on the story at Journalism.co.uk.

Tags: High Court, Journalism.co.uk, Max Mosley, National newspapers, Tom Crone, Video

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