Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

MEDIA

Do you believe everything you read or hear in the national media? Are you convinced that every story you come across is accurate and without hidden agenda? Or are you getting a bit fed up with reading stories and thinking: what a load of over-hyped garbage.

Put like that, I suspect that many of us agree that in Britain we have a media that is too often over-sensationalist and wildly irresponsible, more so than any other media pack in the world, for reasons I do not understand. We need a free press; many of the citizens of the countries I visit in my democracy-building work would love to have our press, but there must surely be limits to the current free for all.

I exclude the local media from this attack: newspapers like this one which seek to faithfully report on local events and are at the heart of the community.

It is very difficult for any political party to take on the media, as we rely on them so much to get our message across to the electorate. They have the power to destroy, or even worse, to ignore! I cannot see any party at the next election putting in their manifesto: we think the media in this country is out of hand and we are going to legislate to clip its wings! That might not happen, and I say again, we must never try and shackle a free and robust press, part of the checks and balances that keep us free from tyranny.

But there are other ways: a series of small measures that might help. For example, I would like to know when I read a story, whether or not anybody has been paid for spilling the beans to the press. Has the employee/former boyfriend/neighbour etc who blows the whistle been the beneficiary of cheque-book journalism? In this age of transparency and disclosure I see no reason why the reader should not be given that information at the foot of the article. It would help the reader decide what credence to give to the material printed or broadcast. Has an informant been paid, and if so, how much?

On 23rd May I am introducing a bill in the Commons suggesting precisely that. It will not become law; it is just a Parliamentary device for putting down a marker for 10 minutes.

posted by Nigel on Monday, May 21, 2007