Addressing the imbalance of fairness
FAIRNESS. A simple word, but basic to everything I believe. When it comes to the Data Protection Bill it is central to the amendments I will be proposing, and supporting.
Ironically it was a belief which originally attracted me to a career in journalism, and now sees me pitted against, mainly Conservative MPS, who assert, I believe wrongly, that two of the original principles aims of the bill are potentially damaging to the newspaper industry. A Leveson 2 inquiry into newspaper behaviour and section 40, which guarantees the public the right to challenge what is printed about them, are the focus of the argument.
I believe good, ethical journalism has nothing to fear from either. A few months ago the Data Protection Bill seemed destined to enter the statute books almost without disturbing public interest.
Then the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport threw a massive boulder into a otherwise calm pond.
Matt Hancock MP announced there would be no Leveson 2 Inquiry as previously promised by the coalition and still supported by the Liberal Democrats, and no section 40. The “culture” and behaviour in the industry had, he assured us, changed and there was now no need. Moreover article 40 could threaten local newspapers by leaving them to pay costs even when legal action against them failed.
Within days that assertion seemed, at best, unfortunate, perhaps misjudged but undoubtedly out of touch. First there was a BBC report carrying claims of illegal behaviour in pursuit of stories about celebrities over a sustained period. Then even more disturbingly the report into the Manchester Arena bombing which included tales of exactly the sort of unethical, underhand and unacceptable behaviour the Secretary of State had assured us was no more.
There is now widespread coverage of two crossparty amendments which I shall be supporting. They do not aim to leave small independent newspapers vulnerable, despite what opponents of the changes might claim.
No they aim to address the imbalance of fairness in this country between major newspaper groups and the public.
And they aim to ensure that all journalists and newspaper editors follow the standards of ethics and fairness which good journalists have always set, but have regularly been flouted by a minority. It’s all about that word. Fairness.