Thursday 8 March 2012

PCC to close + relaunch new body

Extraordinary news - and, arguably, extraordinary cynicism: seems the PCC is set to shut itself down ... but, like the News of the World, re-emerge under a new badge. This could happen around April/May - well before your exam, so will be a key event to look out for.
You're asked to be able to intelligently speculate on the future of media regulation, so the key question here is will this gambit work? Will the largely right-wing press be able to effectively escape the tougher regulation that Leveson will surely recommend - and that a right-wing government might be reluctant to implement? The history of press regulation in the post-war era has been of critical reports but very limited implementation of recommendations from these, down to a combination of ideological bias (why would right-wing governments shackle a right-wing press?) and fear of press retribution (all 3 major parties clearly fear the consequences of making enemies of a powerful press; both Labour and the Tories have gone to great lengths to court Murdoch/News International).
Read more in this excellent Indie article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/press-complaints-commission-to-close-itself-down-in-fasttracked-programme-7544474.html.
The Indie doesn't have such an extensive tagging system as The Grauniad (common nickname for the Gdn), but here's its page for Hackgate (including Leveson) stories: http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/PhoneHacking
While the Gdn is centre-left, the Indie is seen as more centrist in its ideological perspective.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments and suggestions are very welcome ... but please ensure all comments are appropriate! All comments are moderated before publication. Spam will be reported