From privacy to piracy

Last Modified: 24 Jul 2008
By: Newsroom blogger

Inside the morning meeting...

The big story today is the Max Mosley case, and while we were in the news meeting the judgement came in, as expected, of a win for Mosley. Although how meaningful the ruling can really be in up for debate.

Not only has the case itself revealed a litany of eye-popping details, millions are thought have viewed the sex video on the News of the World website before it was taken down and subsequently made available on YouTube.

The key to this case is therefore felt to be the implications for privacy laws in Britain. There is a suggestion that we should run a roll-call of recent privacy cases brought by the likes of Naomi Campbell and Sienna Miller, and look at how these laws are evolving.

Someone makes the interesting point that privacy laws in this country have come about largely as a result of legal precedent rather than ever having been created by an act of parliament.

A cynic might suggest that no politician would risk the ire of tabloid editors by introducing a bill which would jeopardise the media's ability to get a good story, and this could form the basis of tonight's discussion.

Of course it would be even better to interview Mosley himself, although this looks unlikely.

Our media naval-gazing continues to some extent with Barack Obama's visit to Berlin today. While widespread Obamamania seems inevitable, the focus turns more to the way the press is responding to the Democrat candidate.

Thoughts of our own "dream-ticket" studio discussion have us imaging a Jon Snow-Katie Couric debate.

Apparently John McCain's camp is outraged at the media fawning and there are whispers of a plan to derail the blanket coverage by a timely announcement of the Republican's running mate.

Still, in Europe at least, this won't be enough to hijack the debate and it seems we'd rather talk about the media's roll in all this. Thoughts of our own "dream-ticket" studio discussion have us imaging a Jon Snow-Katie Couric debate on the media's role in Obama's rise.

There's a look at Olympic funding and a possible interview with cyclist Mark Cavendish, one of the UK's best hopes for a medal in Beijing (although he is from the Isle of Mann)

There's also the deal between ISPs and record companies, which plan to charge illegal down loaders for music and films, or impose other penalties. The decision has split the music industry, with some arguing it will criminalise a whole generation and others suggesting its just record labels preparing consumers for the introduction of their own paid for services, a last gasp before they give up entirely on trying to make any money from album sales.

We'll also be watching to see what comes out of the FSA's annual press conference. With the raft of bad economic news lately there is likely to be quite a lot of interest.

As always, there's a lot more.