Future of Investigative Journalism: Communications Committee Report

Lord Smith of Finsbury Excerpts

Wednesday 25th July 2012 Grand Committee

[Lord Smith of Finsbury]

My Lords, I join all other noble Lords in this Grand Committee in giving a very warm welcome to this extremely valuable report from the Select Committee. I commend the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, and his colleagues on a perceptive analysis of the issues and a range of rather interesting proposals, which could offer some beginnings of solutions.

The committee and today’s discussion began from first principles: that in our society, statutory control of the press is potentially seriously detrimental to democracy; that there is great public benefit from the free exercise of intelligent investigatory journalism; that investigative journalism can hold government, politics, business or journalism itself to account; that the widest range of robust opinion should be available to the public; but that there have been occasions, especially in the recent past, when the press, through sloppiness, intrusiveness, deliberate misrepresentation or illegal activity, falls far short of the standards to which it ought to aspire.

I add that this is not a regulatory issue. Some tabloid journalism in particular, although by no means all, has assisted a cheapening of public discourse and cultural awareness over many years. The balance between the importance of free expression and the unacceptable lengths to which the press sometimes goes is, and I suspect always will be, a central dilemma in policy-making in this area. However, in recent years, that balance between freedom and personal privacy has clearly not been right in some newspapers. Therefore, I have two proposals in light of the discussions that the committee has brought forward in this report.

The first is in relation to the public interest test on mergers, cross-media ownership and a glomeration of media power. At the local level, reflecting some of the points already made in the debate, I suggest that there is substantial scope for the further relaxation of controls. Local newspapers and radio are struggling for their very survival at the moment. Freeing up the ability to come together seems to be something that is much to be desired.

However, at the national level, I suggest that there could be automatic thresholds for referral to the Competition Commission or its successor. Whether 25%, as considered in the committee’s report, is the right threshold probably needs further discussion. However, referral should not in such circumstances rest in the discretion, however quasi judicial, of a Secretary of State. The committee’s proposal to give Ofcom a right to refer of its own initiative seems to be a rather good one as well.

The second area to consider is what kind of regulation for the day to day press stories and activities there should be. I believe fundamentally in the importance of self-regulation where policing is done by a non-statutory process, but it must be robustly conducted. In recent years, it has probably not been as robustly conducted as it should have been. I declare an interest as chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA is a very good example of self-regulation that works—effectively, robustly and independently. It can also be more fleet of foot than a statutory process would be in responding to changes in the media advertising landscape. The recent extension of our powers in the digital arena is an obvious case in point.

One other important point to make, however, is that the ASA works because there is buy-in to its system and its activities from the entire advertising industry. The importance of getting buy-in from the entire newspaper industry to any self-regulatory process cannot be overestimated.

I therefore suggest four possible changes to the PCC and the way in which the self-regulatory process operates. The first is a clearer degree of independence for the PCC council. Having a number of serving editors sitting on the council is not perhaps the ideal way to enhance public confidence in the system. Secondly, there must be stronger sanctions. At the very least, there should be equal prominence for corrections to the original story and a system of fines.

Thirdly, there should be the regular and widespread reporting of the adjudications of the council, so that the public know a lot more about what it is doing. Fourthly—this is the difficult bit—I think there is scope for having a statutory backstop for the decisions that the PCC makes. This is not, I emphasise strongly, the Government making the decisions or adjudicating, or any government body or government-appointed body making the decisions and doing the adjudicating but giving the PCC a statutory authority to enable its self-regulatory decisions to be enforced. At the moment, the ASA is able to refer non-broadcast advertising transgressors in extremis to the Office of Fair Trading or, potentially, its successor. In the broadcast field, we can refer a broadcaster to Ofcom for consideration of its licence and franchise. Giving that ultimate power of statutory backstop would enhance the power of the PCC, or whatever body emerges from the current discussions.

I suspect that we will never achieve a perfect world in this field. The difficult balance between freedom and privacy will never be reconciled completely. However, measures can be taken that would make that balance better, and I hope that out of this debate, this excellent report and the current public discussions that are under way, such proposals may emerge.