Leveson Inquiry

Michael Meacher Excerpts

Monday 3rd December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Michael Meacher (Oldham West and Royton) (Lab)]

This has been broadly a good debate. It has been reasonable and thoughtful, and is perhaps even beginning to eke out something of a consensus. Unlike the hon. Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg), I think that owes a great deal to the patently balanced, thorough, well documented, comprehensive and eminently sensible report produced by Lord Justice Leveson.

There are four basic responses to the report. Two can be dismissed out of hand. One is that we keep the status quo. Nobody—of course I exclude the hon. Member for North East Somerset and the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr Lilley)—who supports that view will be taken seriously because, after the experience of the past several years, it is an indefensible position. The other is that we should introduce statutory regulation of the press, which no one who is taken seriously is advocating, and certainly not Leveson, even though what we have at the moment can scarcely be defended on grounds of freedom of the press. We know that it has involved untrammelled license to victimise the vulnerable and powerless, the phone hacking of 900 people identified by the police so far, corruption and bribery of public officials, wholly unjustified lampooning of the fans at Hillsborough, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice at News International and wrongful character assassination of an arrested person in a murder inquiry—and those are just a few examples.

That leaves two other responses, which I think are the real issue and have formed the centrepiece of this debate. One is self-regulation via a beefed-up version of the Hunt-Black proposals, which is Leveson-compliant but without any statutory underpinning. The other is a Leveson-type framework that includes statutory underpinning. I think—there seems to be fairly widespread agreement on this—that there need to be arguments about the identity of the fall-back regulator and, in particular, the need to protect fully investigative journalism in the public interest.

There are clearly several problems with the former option, put forward by Lords Hunt and Black. First, are editors really as united and committed to reform as their public statements suggest and, therefore, would the proposed framework be stable and durable? Secondly, there is Leveson’s own objection that this option does not pass the independence test. The governance of the press should certainly be free of machinations by the state. We all agree absolutely on that, but the press should equally be free of machinations by self-interested and over-mighty press barons. In that context, I think that there must be doubt about whether an industry funding body that funds the whole scheme, is responsible for regulations and sanctions and appoints editors and five publisher members to the complaints arm can remotely be considered independent. I think that it is highly significant that Lords Hunt and Black, when taking views from the national and regional press, made no effort to find the views of pressure groups or victims. I think that they need to be reminded that this is not about finding a new level of equilibrium within the power structure of the press industry. Rather, it is about establishing a change in the balance of power and rights between the press and their victims.

Thirdly, there are real doubts about the practicality of the Hunt-Black proposals. What happens if an editor or proprietor refuses to join up? What happens if at some future point they decide to walk away, as Richard Desmond did from the PCC? What happens if they strongly dispute a judgment of the self-regulatory body? Do we really believe that the latter would pursue them through the courts with the necessary toughness and perseverance? Do we really believe that a self-regulatory body overseen by industry funding would be as proactive in pursuing abuses, upholding standards and imposing sanctions as the public now demand?

Fourthly, the real argument against the Hunt-Black proposals is that there is surely now overwhelming and unimpeachable evidence that self-regulation of the press does not work. It has been said repeatedly today that over the past 70 years there have been seven inquiries, including three royal commissions, into the feral behaviour of the press, and every time we have been told that lessons have been learned, tighter self-regulation will ensue and abuses will be stopped, yet nothing changes and it gets worse. Many hon. Members have drawn attention to David Mellor’s remark in 1991 that the press were drinking in the last chance saloon, yet as we have seen from the appalling misfeasance of the past decade, each time their reaction has been to call for another round.

As a result, some degree of statutory underpinning of press governance must now be inevitable. Of course, there can be questions about the details. The Government object to Ofcom as a fall-back regulator. There may be a need for a new sui generis body—perhaps called the press trust, if that is not a contradiction in terms—with appointment in accordance with the Nolan principles and subject to confirmation hearings by a Select Committee of this House. There is a case for modifying other elements of the Leveson framework. More protection is needed for the media when they are performing their proper function of holding the powerful to account. There needs to be a rebalancing of the burden of proof in the libel laws, which currently over-protect the very rich in their access to the courts.

There are also unresolved issues over media plurality. It cannot be a fair and balanced press when one proprietor, Murdoch, still controls 34% of the market. No one proprietor should own more than one daily and one Sunday. Nor do we have a fair, balanced press reflecting the diversity of opinion in the country when ownership is determined almost entirely by wealth. I conclude that Britain will be a better place if the central thrust of Leveson is accepted, including statutory underpinning.