Newspapers - good or bad for democracy and law ?

[unclebulgaria67]

I find the media a fickle bunch, who change their views depending on the wind direction.

 

Tom Watson MP was seen as a hero for pursuing allegations about child abuse, but now that some of the alleged victims have had their allegations questionned, Tom is being criticised. The Police have not finished their inquiries yet and it is a bit too early for friends of alleged abusers to start demanding apologies.

 

Because the newspapers keep going on about such stories for days on end, digging at the information, it must put the Police in a very difficult position. And it is not just newspapers, but some TV programmes as well.

 

Let the Police complete their investigations without unhelpful media involvement and see what happens. If any cases get to court, media coverage of victims and alleged abusers, may hinder any chance of a fair trial.

 

If politicians want to be helpful, perhaps they should pass laws that require abusers and victims to be anonymous until after the alleged abuser has been formally charged, with a court date set for a hearing. The Judge can then decide on whether identities should be revealed, to help serve fair justice.

 

We want an independent robust free press in the UK, but they must remember that they should look to serve the public interest and not act in a way that disrupts the Police or courts.

[citizenB]

Tom Watson, like the press, had already tried and found Leon Britain, guilty. Using a privileged position to defame someone was unworthy. Aside from which, the man was dead and unable to defend himself.

[unclebulgaria67]

Tom Watson, like the press, had already tried and found Leon Britain, guilty. Using a privileged position to defame someone was unworthy. Aside from which, the man was dead and unable to defend himself.

 

The allegations were around months before he died.

 

There are apparently a number of alleged victims who have made allegations, so it is up to Police to see what evidence there is.

 

If you were an MP passed details and there appeared to be a cover up or lack of interest, would you not look to do something about it ?

 

Remember the missing files of allegations from the 1980's, when Brittan was Home Secretary. This added to the story.

[obiter dictum]

There was once a time the press were Guardians of democracy and held Governments and public bodies to account.

Murdoch changed all that, You only have to look no further than FOX news.

 

A corner stone of our democracy is an open and fair justice system, that is why the press are allowed in our courts. It is for the legal process to decide innocence or guilt, not the media. You only have to look at the Craig Charles false allegations, or what about Freddie star and Cliff Richard

 

The press do need some sort of regulation, the News of the world phone hacking story shows they are out of control. They have absolute power without any acccountability and operate Carte Blanche with little or no ethics

 

Gone are the days when newspaper hacks confirmed their stories. Now it is all innuendo and titilation to sell advertising space.

Edited October 13, 2015 by obiter dictum

[unclebulgaria67]

,

There was once a time the press were Guardians of democracy and held Governments and public bodies to account.

Murdoch changed all that, You only have to look no further than FOX news.

 

A corner stone of our democracy is an open and fair justice system, that is why the press are allowed in our courts. It is for the legal process to decide innocence or guilt, not the media. You only have to look at the Craig Charles false allegations, or what about Freddie star and Cliff Richard

 

Gone are the days when newspaper hacks confirmed their stories. Now it is all innuendo and titilation to sell advertising space.

 

Well put.

 

The media have destroyed the lifes of innocent people by publicising allegations which have proved not to be true. So they are equally as guilty as anyone else who has sought to bring an issue into the public spotlight. Sometimes mistakes are made, as there is just no evidence to support an allegation.

[caledfwlch]

A decent, fair, and well run Press certainly used to be vital for democracy, however, it is not such a vital tool these days with the Internet.

 

Of course, there's plenty of rubbish on the internet, but equally, there are plenty of Sites monitoring everything from Human Rights, to our Courts which ARE reliable, and act how Newspapers used to.

 

What is needed are genuinely horrific fines for a newspaper that publishes falsehoods. If a legal team can prove a Journalist did everything human possible to confirm a story, and thus could genuinely state he believed the story to be true that is fine - in almost every case of falsehoods etc recently, they have often not performed even basic checks into a story, its all about selling papers regardless of the truth.

 

I would actually like to see tighter privacy laws, even for Celebrities, though when people make a living by being in the media, they can't really expect as much protection for privacy as everyone else, good for the goose and all that.

 

But, I genuinely don't see why the Affair, or other relationships of an Actor or Singer should be open game to the press, that is not freedom of the press, its certainly not something that benefits the public - if the Celeb's marital woes end up in a court room, by all means publish the information, but factual.

 

On the other hand, politicians are absolutely open game for reporting on stuff like cheating on their partners - if they cant even keep one of the most important and basic vows a person can make, of love, and marital vows etc to a Partner, then how the hell can we trust them to ever behave with integrity in parliament?

[SabreSheep]

The other problem is that newspapers sell the political view of their editor.

 

Also

 

As we have seen here, the stroy of Watson did not change from hero to zero due to changes in the facts but due to Watsons Change in position in politics

[tobyjugg2]

Don't know about newsspapers, but free speech is not good or bad for democracy, it is essential.

[unclebulgaria67]

Don't know about newsspapers, but free speech is not good or bad for democracy, it is essential.

 

That almost goes without saying. The question is whether current UK newspapers are 'on balance' good or bad for democracy and law.

 

In regard to democracy, they mostly represent right-wing politics and use 'news' stories to actively campaign against left-wing parties. Whilst they should cover genuine news and fully engage readers in debates, they should not be so partisan that they influence voters. Even if there are other sources of information, TV and online media debate still refers to what is being reported in newspapers. I personally don't believe the partisan nature of newspapers as being healthy for genuine democratic debate.

 

More serious is newspapers interfering in the natural course of justice, by reporting information which makes it difficult for Police, CPS and Courts. There is also the poor innocent victims of false allegations who have their lifes wrecked, because they have been found guilty by media trial, before Police have even been able investigate properly.

 

The newspapers had a real problem with Ed Miliband and Tom Watson over hacking and regulation. Had Labour win the election, they would have introduced media regulation which was independent. Therefore they had a real self interest in manipulating news to stop this happening. Tom Watson as Labour deputy is now under attack and i expect this to continue.

[tobyjugg2]

If newspapers didn't do it, then one would start up as soon as it saw the market .

If one didn't, then social media sites would do it all the more.

 

Its human nature.

 

I think the issue is more that people chose what 'perspective' suites them rather than look for the truth.

[andydd]

Tom Watson, like the press, had already tried and found Leon Britain, guilty. Using a privileged position to defame someone was unworthy. Aside from which, the man was dead and unable to defend himself.

 

Tom didnt make up these allegations though.

[unclebulgaria67]

Tom didnt make up these allegations though.

 

And they were from several people who had never met each other.

 

There may be more information known to Police and others, that is not in the public domain. I would leave it to the Police and CPS to review evidence.

[Conniff]

There was once a time the press were Guardians of democracy and held Governments and public bodies to account.

Murdoch changed all that, You only have to look no further than FOX news.

 

A corner stone of our democracy is an open and fair justice system, that is why the press are allowed in our courts. It is for the legal process to decide innocence or guilt, not the media. You only have to look at the Craig Charles false allegations, or what about Freddie star and Cliff Richard

 

The press do need some sort of regulation, the News of the world phone hacking story shows they are out of control. They have absolute power without any acccountability and operate Carte Blanche with little or no ethics

 

Gone are the days when newspaper hacks confirmed their stories. Now it is all innuendo and titilation to sell advertising space.

 

Except, of course, a paper like 'Komsomolskaya Pravda' (or should that be Daily Mirror), when they say something in your favour.

[tobyjugg2]

And they were from several people who had never met each other.

 

There may be more information known to Police and others, that is not in the public domain. I would leave it to the Police and CPS to review evidence.

 

 

Yup, we'll review it at the lodge meeting tonight...

Wheres me best socks being as I'll be rolling a trouser leg up and meeting the chief constable.

[unclebulgaria67]

Yup, we'll review it at the lodge meeting tonight...

Wheres me best socks being as I'll be rolling a trouser leg up and meeting the chief constable.

 

I have family in the masons. An uncle i never met as he died before i was born, was the Grand Master in the main central London lodge. But he was avery senior manager of one of the big Banks at the time, so i think membership was almost compulsory.

 

Another family member was a member of the local lodge, but got fed up with doing free work for others, so left. You get people join from various trades and they do work on a favour basis, but if you are not careful, you end up doing more than you get back. But it can be very useful to make contacts with people in the right places to help or to gain paid business.