Newspapers: Regulation

 

Newspapers: Regulation

The debate regarding the regulation of the newspaper industry has been one of the most controversial and important media issues of the last 10 years.

You need to understand how the newspaper industry is regulated, how some people think it should be regulated and what might happen in the future. Most importantly, you need to form your own opinion on newspaper regulation and how the industry should operate following the 2012 Leveson Inquiry.

Newspaper regulation: notes

A brief history of newspaper regulation
The newspaper industry was regulated by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) between 1990 and 2014. It was a voluntary regulator with no legal powers and was heavily criticised for saying it found no evidence of phone hacking at the News of the World in 2007.

The PCC had a code of practice that provided guidelines for newspapers in how to report inaccuracies, crime, news stories involving children and more. However, the PCC was effectively run by the newspaper editors themselves and papers merely had to print a small apology when the regulator ruled against them.

The Leveson Inquiry 2011-12
The Leveson Inquiry in 2011-12 was a judicial public enquiry ordered by the government into the culture and ethics of the British press. This followed the revelations of the phone hacking scandal and the closure of the News of the World.

Post-Leveson: IPSO and IMPRESS
Following the Leveson report, a new press regulator was introduced: the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). IPSO is more powerful than the PCC and can order newspapers to print apologies or corrections on the front page or fine papers. However, it crucially doesn’t act on Leveson’s key recommendation that the regulator is backed by government legislation.

Alongside IPSO, IMPRESS was also set up as an alternative regulator. This was fully compliant with Leveson – but no major newspapers have signed up with IMPRESS.

Watch the following videos on Leveson and the press regulation debate:

BBC News overview:

Newsnight debate:

Channel 4 News debate:



Read the following articles and features on the press regulation debate:

Viewpoints – Should the press be regulated? BBC website
THEOS think tank website – press regulation debate 
Guardian letters – How should the press be regulated?

Newspaper regulation: blog tasks

Task One: Media Magazine article and questions

Read the Media Magazine article: From Local Press to National Regulator in MM56 (p55). You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive here. Once you've read the article, answer the following questions:

1) Keith Perch used to edit the Leicester Mercury. How many staff did it have at its peak and where does Perch see the paper in 10 years' time?

130 staff - he thinks that it'll be extremely hard to run print weekly because of the increasing costs, online allows for a much more cost effective method

2) How does Perch view the phone hacking scandal?

"The biggest single issue is that something
illegal was going on which obviously
should not have been, and which
wasn’t dealt with by the police, and
unfortunately the resulting actions
have been disproportionate"


He thinks we need something harsher and more impactful than regulation

3) What does IPSO stand for and how does it work?

Independant Press Standards Organisation

A newspaper has 28 days to deal with a complaint which after that point ISPO will intervene and assess if the editors code of conduct has been broken

4) What is Perch's view of newspaper ownership?

He believes there should be a wider spread of newspaper ownership so that one person's ideologies don't get spread to a majority of the country's papers

5) Do you agree with his view that broadcast news should have less regulation so that TV channels can support particular political parties or people?

TV remains the biggest source for people in the UK to get their news, even in the massive increase social media has had. Channels like the BBC are marketed to be impartial and educative - a claim that cannot be substantiated if they were to back any particular parties. Due to it's wide reach, and evidence to suggest media does influence audiences' political views, I think TV channels should remain unbiased in order to keep the ideal of democracy in tact.

Task Two: Newspaper regulation essay

Write an essay on your blog answering the following question:

What are the arguments for and against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry? 

Your answer should be at least 500 words and feature a minimum of four paragraphs. Make sure you cover both sides of the debate.

PLAN: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/20466955

"

The government and various lobby groups have seen the Leveson Inquiry as an opportunity to maybe get hold of the media and shape it, so it suits them.

That would be a dreadful outcome - that would be like going back to Stalinism, and China and North Korea.

The great strength of this country is that we do have a free press, and we have enough laws already to deal with the illegal activities the inquiry investigated.

So we don't need any more legislation and Parliament must not be allowed - in any way - to take control of the media.

However, we do need a genuinely independent regulator, able to control newspapers when they cross the line and stray into that grey area of smear and innuendo.

The regulator should be genuinely independent of the government and the media, and have the power to both hear complaints from ordinary members of the public and act on those complaints effectively by disciplining newspapers if they transgress.

A good model for the regulator might be the Independent Police Complaints Commission which works very well."