14th Journalism Leaders Forum

Yesterday I attended the 14th Journalism Leaders Forum which was held at UCLan. The forum was held in order to discuss the recent scandals within the press.

The panel was made up of Bob Satchwell, the executive director of the Society of Editors, Bettina Peters, director of the Global Forum for Media Development, Professor Chris Frost author of Journalism Ethics and Regulation, Martin Moore director of the Media Standards Trust and a founder of HackedOff, Martain Wainwright, northern editor of The Guardian and Professor Peter Cole former head of journalism at both UCLAN and Sheffield universities and co-author of Newspaper Journalism.

The evening, which was conducted in the style of BBC's Question Time, was chaired by Michael Williams.

The main question of the night was, in light of recent issues with phone hacking, should the press be free or do we need some kind of statutory control to regain public trust and prevent anything like this from happening again.

Photograph by Emerson Utracik

Chris Frost said that the main point of 'hackgate' was not what was exposed but the way newspapers are conducting themselves. He did however highlight the fact that as it was the Guardian that broke the 'hackgate' story the press are still doing their job.

Martain Wainwright said that we don't want to lose the fun side of journalism saying that it is a "ethically hazardous but very enjoyable" industry.

Bettina Peters, who was talking at the conference via video call from Columbia, said that Britain needs to look at the press regulation of other countries such as Sweden and Denmark where law establishes the rules but the press is regulated through the journalists, publishers, editors and judges.

No one can deny the need for an improvement of press regulation in Britain, the public are loosing confidence in the press the question is how we go about this.


To draw the forum to a close Michael Williams asked the panel how we could regulate the press, Peter Cole said that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) should be given investigative powers, Bob Satchwell said that we need to strengthen the press and media as a whole and remind people that the press play a big role in the democracy of Britain.

Chris Frost said that for as long as people can opt out of the PCC problems like these could still happen, Martain Moore said that there needs to be statutory recognition within the press regulation while Martain Wainwright said that the punishments used need to frighten people.

Bettina Peters said that it is important that Britain's press strengthens public interest and admit that the press need to change.

Photograph by piper caldwell

I feel that Britain's press freedom is essential to the running of our country. One of the major roles of the British Press is to hold the government to account. If we have statutory regulation the press may no longer be able to fulfil this purpose.

Overall it was a very insightful night which I enjoyed taking part in.