Future of Investigative Journalism: Communications Committee Report

Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts

Wednesday 25th July 2012 Grand Committee

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, I add my thanks to my noble friend Lord Inglewood and his committee for producing an insightful and topical report. I join the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, in welcoming the contributions made to the debate today by several members of the committee. Although the report was printed in February, its findings are no less relevant today. However, I will relay to the business managers the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, over the delay in holding the debate. Even so, these topics are still very much front page news at the moment. The phone hacking scandal has meant that some parts of the press are under greater scrutiny than ever—scrutiny that is both entirely right and necessary. In that connection, Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry continues, and in due course it will make recommendations on a regulatory framework that should restore confidence.

The free press in this country has a long and proud history. It underpins our democracy and as the fourth estate it plays a fundamental role in holding the powerful to account. It brings vital matters of public interest to the fore, it informs citizens and enables them to exercise their democratic rights. This excellent report highlights the good work of newspapers and the important role that investigative journalism plays. Quality investigative journalism is not restricted to the press. Other media such as television, radio and increasingly the internet, which has come up in our debate, are all valued contributors, but the report considers the positive aspects of the media with a timely reminder of why it must continue to flourish. As my noble friend Lord Inglewood has highlighted, and indeed as the Guardian is not backward in pointing out today, there would have been no Leveson without the scrutiny of a newspaper that asked the questions that others would not ask. I also listened with interest to the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill. She stressed that investigative journalism should be a luxury brand aimed at fact and at speaking truth to power.

The report warns that rapid economic, technological and behavioural change is creating profound economic, regulatory and legal challenges for investigative journalism. Newspapers continue to face the twin challenges of cyclical and structural change. Their very survival is dependent on advertising revenues as well as retrieving cover price charges. We heard from my noble friend Lord Stoneham about some of the implications of that. Circulations have been falling, particularly for local newspapers, and online newspapers often find it difficult to adapt. However, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich was right to remind us that the Eastern Daily Press is thriving as a local newspaper. Indeed, the Government are taking forward new provisions to try to curb local authority news sheets, thus leaving the local press to provide, rightfully, an independent source of local news and politics, as well as addressing what my noble friend Lord Black referred to as the “bonfire of red tape”. The noble Lord, Lord Smith, also raised that as an issue.

On the question of government assistance by way of additional tax breaks or other financial incentives, noble Lords will know that the Government already provide zero-rated VAT for newspapers, which is a decent tax break for the industry, and there are certainly no plans to change that. The report suggests that the continuation of zero-rated VAT could be limited to those who are members of the press regulator. Lord Justice Leveson may comment on this, but I note that the proposal might breach the VAT principle of fiscal neutrality. The noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, expressed disquiet over public reaction to further public funding for newspapers.

The committee addresses the internet as a potentially disruptive force for newspapers, which need to find new and different business models in order to monetise their products online, and invites Lord Justice Leveson’s views on bringing certain online content into the remit of the regulatory body. This came up numerous times in oral evidence and is a critical area of consideration, which noble Lords have raised again today. The noble Baroness, Lady Deech, made some strong points about that. The noble Lord, Lord Macdonald, raised the benefits and opportunities of new technologies, which enable citizen journalists to join the debate. We must not forget that these things come with benefits as well as disadvantages.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport has emphasised in his evidence to Leveson that any change to the regulatory structure should stand the test of time and avoid the risk of obsolescence. I also pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, for his work in this regard. My noble friend Lord Stoneham also raised concerns about the regulatory side, as did a number of other noble Lords. In response, perhaps particularly to the question raised by the noble Lord, Lord Smith, we should note that there is a spectrum of options for future press regulation from voluntary to statutory options. It is not a black and white binary choice between self-regulation at one end and state control at the other. There are a number of different models that might be used on this.

On defining the public interest, the committee recommends that the criminal law should not be redrafted in order to create a formal, statutory defence relating to the public interest. We note that Lord Justice Leveson is taking into account potential unintended consequences that could come about if a statutory approach was taken. Relevant codes of practice may provide a potential alternative to legal reform.

As my noble friend Lord Inglewood set out, we agree that a clear definition backed by a body of case law such as that set out in the Editors’ Handbook is invaluable to editors who have to make day to day decisions against a backdrop of fast-changing events and tight deadlines. We also note a further clarification in this area might come from the prosecuting authorities. In his witness statement of 7 February to the Leveson inquiry, the Director of Public Prosecutions said that he had decided to draft an interim policy setting out the approach that the Crown Prosecution Service takes and to publish it for public consultation. This will include its approach to the prosecution of journalists, who, in the course of their work as journalists, breach the criminal law. This guidance is in draft and the CPS is considering responses. The consultation closed on 10 July, and we await the findings from that.

The noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, and my noble friend Lord Black, were among those who raised concerns about the Data Protection Act. Of course, the Leveson inquiry is looking at data protection in the context of media regulation before deciding whether to introduce custodial sentences under Section 55, which means that the introduction of the enhanced public interest defence is under review too. However, I would point out that prosecutions of journalists under Section 55 are incredibly rare. In any event, the Government are not aware of any having taken place in recent years.

On civil law, the Government’s Defamation Bill will be relevant to the changes that the committee recommends, particularly in respect of libel laws. The Government recognise the need to protect responsible investigative journalism on matters of public interest. The Defamation Bill, which I am glad to hear was welcomed by a number of noble Lords, including my noble friend Lord Black, will introduce for the first time a statutory defence of responsible publication in the public interest but expressed in clear and flexible terms. It provides a defence where the defendant can show that the allegedly defamatory statement is or forms part of a statement on the matter of public interest and that he or she acted responsibly in publishing it.

The noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, the noble Lord, Lord Macdonald, and others made salient points about sources. Journalists must be able to offer adequate protection to their sources. The Government recognise the importance of protecting whistleblowers, as set out in the Public Interest Disclosure Act, which is designed to protect most workers from being unfairly dismissed by their employer or suffering other detriment whenever they have reported their concerns to the employer or the regulatory authorities.

On media ownership, the committee made some considered suggestions both for Leveson and for Ofcom. The noble Lord, Lord Smith, raised the matter of thresholds for invoking the public-interest test. As the Committee will know, the Government recently received a report from Ofcom on media plurality and are awaiting the response to some further questions. The response is expected in September, and a seminar on media plurality is planned for October. I was pleased to see the committee’s welcome for the Government’s action last year to relax rules relating to local cross-media ownership, a measure that offers local media organisations the opportunity to develop a sustainable business model. The noble Baroness, Lady Deech, had some valuable words to say on that subject.

The issue of funding was raised in many speeches. The report makes a number of recommendations in respect of additional potential funding sources for investigative journalism. Interesting initiatives in this area are beginning to emerge, such as the introduction to the UK of a more American approach to independently funded investigative journalism. We note in particular the work of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has successfully worked in partnership with a number of notable news outlets in the UK, including the BBC’s “File On Four”, “Panorama”, Channel 4’s “Dispatches”, the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times, all of which have good records in investigative journalism.

The committee makes an imaginative proposal for a new investigative journalism fund, which could be funded through fines levied on press organisations found to have broken the editors’ code. Once again—and I am sorry if this is repetitive—the Government will be waiting with interest to see what Lord Justice Leveson says in this area, but I note that the noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso, was among those who expressed concerns about this particular recommendation.

As for the BBC, we note concerns about cutbacks made in the BBC “Panorama” programme, also mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso. This programme has an acknowledged commitment to investigative journalism. The licence-fee settlement is fair to the BBC and a very good deal for licence-fee payers. We shall have to await further consideration from the BBC Trust’s strategy review, and find what comes out of that.

The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, and others raised interesting points about charity law and the benefit that could be gleaned if the law could be amended to include investigative journalism as a charitable benefit. The existing list of charitable purposes has, as has been mentioned, recently been reviewed by my noble friend Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts. The Government are now considering his recommendation that no change should be made to the current list. Some aspects of charity law may make it unsuitable for many aspects of investigative journalism, for reasons including that any new organisation seeking charitable status would need to demonstrate public benefit, which is distinct from the concept of public interest, and that the constraints of charity law would also include a requirement for political impartiality. That might also be something to be further addressed.

A number of noble Lords raised the issue of skills and training required for investigative journalists. The noble Lords, Lord Inglewood and Lord Macdonald, said that young people were still keen on journalism, despite the bad press it has had, but then young people are still quite interested in becoming Members of Parliament, despite the bad press we as politicians have had from time to time. Some of the evidence in the report mentioned that investigative journalists were a “strange breed” who were “bloody determined” and whose “brains are wired differently”. We need people like that, but probably not too many of them, to move this forward. We support the opportunities within the media industry of internships, even apprenticeships, as well as the university programmes in investigative journalism that were highlighted in the report.

I shall pick up some other disparate points made in the debate. The noble Lord, Lord Macdonald, mentioned the wonderful case of Private Eye, which is thriving 50 years on, and I know that my latest copy thudded through the door as I was leaving this morning. That publication has pushed the bounds of investigative journalism to new levels, and the fact that it continues to thrive is probably a mark of a healthy democracy.

My noble friend Lord Stoneham mentioned family-dominated businesses in the media. Quite rightly, the family-dominated media business that we know more about at the moment is the Murdochs, which is not an undiluted good news story, but of course he is quite right that there have been some philanthropic media families in the past who have made great contributions to the nation. He also gave us some fascinating insights into the dynamics and economics of the newspapers, and the fact that the iPad may itself be a major further challenge to the printed news.

The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Norwich again commented, to which I have already referred, on politicians having falling even below journalists. Let us hope that at the end of the Leveson inquiry when all this has been weighed and recommendations have been made, that, as the right reverend Prelate says, hope will outweigh anxiety. The noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso, also talked of rays of hope. This report sets out both the importance of investigative journalism and the fact that there is undoubtedly a future for it.

The noble Baroness, Lady Deech, raised the conundrum that has always puzzled me. When we read the newspapers about a story we do not know, we believe it. Yet we are all absolutely outraged at inaccuracies when we know something of the background information. This strange mismatch of disbelief about the media might fade into the background as newspapers become more accurate.

My noble friend Lord Black raised a number of concerns. I note his concern about the copyright in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. I assure him at this stage that the Government have no intention of playing fast and loose with copyright law. Of course, there will be a great deal of further debate when the Bill reaches the House.

On the Competition Commission, the noble Lord will be aware that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills undertook a wide-ranging consultation of competition regime between March and June of this year in order to invite views on options to reform the regime, recognising that there is scope for improvement. The Government have announced that we will be bringing the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading together into a single body to streamline the process for business. We hope that that will indeed be one of the improvements. There were other matters in his speech too, but I think I have covered the main points there.

On the point made by the noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso, on the freedom of the press, I again emphasise that the Government have absolutely no intention or wish to impose on the freedom of the press, which has been raised throughout this debate. It is something that we value and treasure. We certainly would not wish to see it suffer in the cause of some of the incidents that have infringed that freedom in recent years.

I am conscious that there has been a wealth of expertise and thought in today’s debate, and that I might not have answered all the questions that have been raised. If there are questions specifically for the Government, I shall try to come back to noble Lords in writing. I am also aware that a great many of the issues raised in this report are dependent on the findings of Lord Justice Leveson. I assure noble Lords that the Government will be making a full and formal response to this Communications Committee report once it has received the report of Lord Justice Leveson and we are able to put all the evidence together in our response.

Meanwhile, we very much recommend this report with its wide-ranging recommendations. I note that, while two members of the committee have suggested that this is such a good report, there are so many matters still outstanding that we might perhaps await Inglewood mark 2. There will certainly be material from this debate and into the future, which would benefit from some further investigation from your Lordships’ committee.

Once again, I thank my noble friend Lord Inglewood for introducing this debate and all noble Lords who have contributed and brought such an immense range and depth of experience on these matters.