7 Oct 2011

Sun executive says ‘media force for good’

Newspaper bosses come out in force to defend their industry at the first seminars of the Leveson Inquiry, set up in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.

Trevor Kavanagh defends the tabloids at Leveson seminar (Getty)

Trevor Kavanagh, former political editor of The Sun and now an associate editor, led the charge at the first Leveson Inquiry seminars, held at the QE2 Conference Centre in Westminster.

The Leveson Inquiry was set up by the government after the phone-hacking scandal in summer this year rocked politicians, the press and the police, leading to resignations, arrests, the recall of Parliament and the closure of the UK’s biggest Sunday paper, the News of the World.

Newspaper bosses, aware that their industry has not emerged well from the scandal, were at pains to defend its core principles.

Mr Kavanagh said: “Without free speech we cannot have a free society. Once lost it would be almost impossible to restore.”

Without free speech we cannot have a free society. Trevor Kavanagh

Mr Kavanagh said despite criticisms by some, the tabloids “drive the daily news agenda”. He said it was in the public interest for newspapers to be able to investigate national figures. He said mistakes were relatively rare considering the sheer number of stories newspapers produce, and stressed that, despite some flaws, the media was a “force for good”.

“Gagging the media on the pretext of the public interest is one means of ensuring the public never learns the answer,” he said.

No ‘publish and be damned’

Mr Kavanagh was speaking at a seminar on the rights and responsibilities of the press, also attended by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, who said the world still watched the UK to see how it protected media freedoms.

Other newspaper bosses, speaking at a separate seminar on the competitive pressures on the press and the impact on journalism, said the “publish and be damned” attitude was long-dead on Fleet Street.

Phone hacking: the directory of inquiries

Former News of the World editor Phil Hall, who edited the new defunct tabloid from 1995 to 2000, said competitive pressures on newspapers had not led to a drop in standards.

He said phone hacking had not come about because of pressure for big stories but because a group of people had “indulged in illegal activity” and the checks and balances that should have been in place had failed.

Mr Hall said in his experience most journalists were professional and their stories were accurate.

“My experience is that 99 per cent of journalists do act professionally – they are impartial, thorough and work within the PCC (Press Complaints Commission) Code of Conduct. And the vast majority of stories are accurate.”

Questions over trust

But he said the PCC had become “invisible”, adding: “The PCC needs more clarity, more clout in what it does, and more visibility when it does act.”

The founder of the Hacked Off campaign, Brian Cathcart, told the seminar that the very existence of the Leveson inquiry was a sign that the public had lost faith in journalism.

But Lord Leveson himself said the opening seminars had achieved what they set out to do, creating a “broad and open discussion of a number of important issues”.

The seminars are the first part of his inquiry, looking into “the culture, practices and ethics of the press”, including their relationship with the police, failures of regulation and cross-media ownership.

The second part of the inquiry will look into improper conduct at the News of the World and other media organisations. Lord Justice Leveson has said this work cannot begin until the police investigations are complete.