Category Archives: Press freedom and ethics

MediaGuardian: PCC to regulate press Twitter feeds

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Guardian media and technology editor Dan Sabbagh reports this afternoon that reporters’ and newspapers’ Twitter feeds are expected to brought under the regulation of the Press Complaints Commission later this year.

According to Sabbagh’s report, Twitter accounts that include the names of publications and are clearly “official” – he cites @telegraphnews and @thesun_bizarre as examples – are likely to come under regulation, but reporters’ individual work accounts could also be brought under the commissions’ ambit.

The PCC believes that some postings on Twitter are, in effect part of a “newspaper’s editorial product”, writings that its code of practice would otherwise cover if the same text appeared in print or on a newspaper website.

A change in the code would circumvent a loophole that – in theory – means that there is no form of redress via the PCC if somebody wanted to complain about an alleged inaccuracy in a statement that was tweeted. Last year the PCC found it was unable to rule in a complaint made against tweets published by the Brighton Argus.

Full post on MediaGuardian at this link.

Reporters Without Borders: Journalist killed in Brazil on World Press Freedom day

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Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports that a journalist, Valério Nascimento, was shot and killed in Brazil on Tuesday. The day of the shooting was also the day the world shone a light on the dangers and issues facing journalists across the world, for World Press Freedom day.

“Nascimento’s murder, which took place on World Press Freedom Day, is a reminder that Brazil is still a dangerous country for journalists despite recent legislative progress and efforts to combat impunity,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He is the second journalist to have been gunned down this year while a third journalist, a blogger, only just survived a murder attempt.”

A motive of the shooting is not yet known, RSF added, urging investigators of the case to “carefully examine the possibility that he was killed in connection with his work as a journalist”.

See the full report here…

BBC calls on journalists to mark World Press Freedom Day

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Today is World Press Freedom Day. It comes at a time when news organisations and freelance journalists working to report on uprisings in the Arab world have battled, and are still battling, restrictions on their ability to do their job.

In Egypt we heard of news bureaux being shut down during the protests in the country, in Libya foreign journalists told of ‘days of brutality’ in detention while two Western journalists were killed while trying to cover the conflict. And beyond the uprisings, across the world, there are daily reports of journalists, both local and foreign, being prevented from carrying out their work to report on the events around them, through legal action, technological blackouts or violence and intimidation.

Journalists killed in 2010

Journalists killed around the world in 2010. Infographic supplied by World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

So today has been marked as a day to show support for the journalists fighting for a free press and to remember those who died doing so. The BBC reports that “hundreds, if not thousands” of events are being held across the world today. For its part director of BBC Global News Peter Horrocks has called for a minute’s silence at 11am “to mark the sacrifices made by journalists in the name of press freedom, and to honour those who have been killed”.

Some might see this as just a gesture, which will surely not be observed by all. But the turmoil, anguish and the death toll from the Arab Spring revolts and revolutions have brought home as rarely before how critical the role of journalists is, in not just doing a job, but reporting on events which decide the fate of nations.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is providing a range of material including interviews, infographics and cartoons, for news outlets to use to highlight the meaning of the day.

Lord Lester ‘not enthusiastic’ about privacy laws

Lord Lester today urged the newly-formed joint committee on the draft defamation bill not to try to tackle a privacy law within the legislation.

Giving oral evidence before the committee, where he praised the government’s draft bill, he said he was “not enthusiastic” about privacy law.

The one thing I would say to this committee is that if you want to kill defamation law reform you will start by going into privacy and saying that needs to be tackled in the same bill. Because I promise you the plan to have an actual bill come out next May and be enacted next year will not happen if you get involved in the thickets of privacy at the same time.

In a following discussion on the power to make decisions on a day-to-day basis on what becomes public knowledge, he added that he “strongly believed” in self-regulation.

That is why I continue notwithstanding in the Ministry of Justice’s draft that having regard to adherence to professional codes needs to be written into the responsible journalism defence to emphasise that the judgements are for the editor or reporter, not for the court … Judges are not editors, reporters and are not competent to act in place of editors and reporters.

The law therefore needs to encourage self regulation. The Press Complaints Commission needs to be able to give effective remedies to keep the courts away.

Ultimately I think that a free press is obviously essential to democracy and the judgements have to be made by the profession … you will notice that in all the fuss about injunctions, super injunctions and privacy, that is a fuss which is made very often by newspapers that earn a living by trading in publishing private information to the public and good luck to them, but if you take a newspaper which does serious investigative reporting … if you are a responsible profession and you then take advantage for example of my Reynolds defence you’ll be able to tackle that.

BBC: David Cameron’s concern about injunctions creating privacy law

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The BBC has reported that the prime minister, David Cameron has expressed his unease at judges using human rights legislation “to deliver a sort of privacy law”.

Mr Cameron made the comments about injunctions during a question-and-answer session at a General Motors factory in Luton.

What ought to happen in a parliamentary democracy, is Parliament, which you elect and put there, should decide how much protection we want for individuals and [on] freedom of the press and the rest of it.

The full article can be read here.

Reuters: Journalists in more than 500 attacks during uprisings, claims CPJ

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The Committee to Protect Journalists claims reporters have been suppressed in uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in more than 500 attacks, some of them deadly, Reuters reports.

Mohamed Abdel Dayem, program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists in the Middle East and North Africa, said the number of attacks on the media in the region since the start of the year was “unprecedented”.

Dayem adds that 14 journalists are known to have been killed worldwide this year so far and 10 of these deaths were in the Middle East and North Africa.

Yesterday it emerged that two Western photojournalists had been killed while reporting on the conflict in Libya, British-born journalist Tim Hetherington and Getty Images staff photographer Chris Hondros.

NUJ: Police reassure union ‘no more local press passes’

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The assistant chief constable for the Lancashire police has assured the National Union of Journalists the force will not repeat the giving out of its own press passes in the way it did earlier this month, following a complaint from the union.

According to the NUJ the police force issued the local press passes for a demonstration by the English Defence League in Bradford.

Following the decision NUJ freelance organiser John Toner wrote in complaint to the force, and has now received a response from assistant chief constable Andy Cooke to say he “would like to reassure you, and your members, that we will not be issuing a press pass again for this sort of event”.

But he added the force will be asking for recognised accreditation into controlled zones or areas. John Toner responds to the news below:

This is a welcome response, and I have replied with copies of our leaflets explaining the merits of the UK Press Card.

I have also asked the UK Press Card Authority to seek a meeting with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) who officially recognise the Press Card.

We need to ensure that all police forces recognise the Press Card and provide access to bearers of the cards.

Media release: PCC appoints three new public members

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The Press Complaints Commission has appointed Lord Grade of Yarmouth, His Honour Judge Jeremy Roberts QC and Michael Smyth CBE as public members of the organisation.

In an announcement today the PCC said it received almost 3,000 applications for the positions following its advertising campaign. The appointments were approved by the commission last week.

The new members, which includes a former executive chairman of ITV and BBC chairman in the form of Lord Grade, will each serve for a three year period.

Commenting on their appointments Baroness Buscombe, chairman of the PCC, said, “The commission has been very pleased at the level of interest shown in its role and its work and the very high quality of the applications received.

“These are important and significant appointments for the PCC. We are delighted to be able to appoint these three substantial figures from such a strong field and I am confident that all three will do much to contribute to the work of the PCC and will help ensure that the reputation and credibility of the PCC remains strong.”

‘Questions need answers’ from NotW, says PCC chair

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The chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, Baroness Peta Buscombe, has said there are “serious questions which need answers” by News International after “their own internal inquiries were not robust”.

In a letter to a lawyer who successfully sued her for libel in relation to the phone-hacking investigation, the chairman condemns all those at the News of the World who have been involved in hacking.

The chairman yesterday wrote to Mark Lewis, a lawyer for some of the celebrities and public figures who believe they are victims of hacking, stating that the committee set up by the PCC to review phone hacking is robust.

Giving evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport committee last year, Lewis said he was told by DS Mark Maberly, a Metropolitan police officer, that 6,000 people may have had their phones hacked by the News of the World.

Buscombe later said in a speech at the Society of Editors conference that Lewis had misquoted Maberly, prompting the libel claim which saw the chairman publicly apologise in the High Court and pay damages to Lewis.

Lewis, of  Taylor Hampton Solicitors, wrote to Baroness Buscombe earlier this week and she has now responded.

“Let me be clear about my position on phone hacking, which has been consistent throughout.

“It is a deplorable practice, and an unjustifiable intrusion into an individual’s privacy,” she said in the letter.

“The commission has always said that it is a breach of the Editors’ Code.

“As I said to the Independent in February this year, it brings shame upon the whole journalistic profession. I condemn all those at the News of the World who have been involved in it.”

BBC CoJo: When a super injunction is not a super injunction

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Writing on the BBC College of Journalism blog, Judith Townend says sometimes journalists cry ‘super injunction’ when they mean privacy injunction.

A super injunction is one whose very existence cannot be reported – as in the cases involving Trafigura (2009) and Terry (2010).

As media lawyer Mark Thompson explained in a footnote on the Inforrm media law blog last year: “The ‘super injunction’ part of the order is the restraint on publication of the existence of the proceeding.”

Townend also explains the recent case of ZAM v CFW, despite media reports to the contrary, did not involve a super injunction.

Contrary to what you might expect, it appears that there are very few privacy injunctions against the media directly.

The public judgments suggest that the injunctions are often against blackmailers, and it is rarely contended that there is a public interest in the publication of the information.

Townend also has a compiled a list of the number of privacy injunctions here on the Inforrm’s Blog.

There appear to have been 11 privacy injunction hearings in the first three months of 2011, seven of which resulted in ‘public’ – although not always ‘published’ – judgments and two in which judgment is awaited.

She goes on to say there is a need for more information.

So where does all that leave us? While journalists should continue to raise questions about ‘super injunctions’ and the use of anonymous injunctions restricting the media’s ability to report court proceedings, there is a more pressing need for raw information direct from the courts.

The full BBC CoJo post is at this link.