Analysis: The press needs shake-up, but PM's remit goes too far

Published on Wednesday 20 July 2011 19:52

Ever since the News of the World scandal broke, the newspaper industry has been bracing itself for sweeping reforms of the self-regulatory system that has clearly been exposed as an abysmal failure.

But the entire British media, including the press, broadcasters and even social media, were put in the dock yesterday when David Cameron announced the scope of the judicial inquiry would be extended.

Everyone - even a humbled Rupert Murdoch - accepts that the press needs to clean up its act. But broadcasting is already tightly regulated, and social media, as many repressive regimes around the world have found, is a beast that refuses to be tamed.

Cameron's attempt to shine a light into the murky recesses of a wider media pool, together with his belated statement of regret over the hiring of Andy Coulson, will be seen by many as simply an attempt to keep himself out of the glare.

But with yesterday's announcement that three former senior journalists will sit on Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry, and with Cameron's words - "We put on the back burner for too long the issue of how to regulate the media" - ringing in their ears, just what's in store for the Fourth Estate?

The press has always resisted statutory regulation, insisting that the imposition of legal shackles would inhibit its public watchdog role and compromise its place at the heart of a free democracy. But with freedom comes responsibility, and the industry's argument has been wearing a little thin amid the torrent of revelations flooding out from the beleaguered News International stable. Self-regulation, so fiercely defended by the industry, is weak and ineffective when it comes to standing up to media giants such as Murdoch's newspapers.

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) - whose hard-working team actually resolve around 90 per cent of complaints received - is unlikely to survive in its present form. Whatever success it can point to in its day-to-day deliberations, when it comes to the high-profile cases of national significance it is a toothless watchdog. Clearly, newspapers such as the News of World did not live in fear of the PCC's censure or its only real weapon - a printed apology.

For broadcasters, it is difficult to see how the picture is going to change. The BBC Trust has a robust internal complaints system, and Ofcom can hit both the BBC and independent broadcasters with massive fines.

As for the chattering classes on social media, Mr Cameron should tread warily. He wouldn't be the first politician to be toppled by Twitter.

• Charles McGhee, a former newspaper editor, sat on the PCC for two years.