One of the key moments of the 2011 Leveson Inquiry into press standards came when the Daily Mail’s then-editor, Paul Dacre, took to the witness box to accuse Hugh Grant of pursuing “mendacious smears driven by a hatred of the media”. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Steven Barnett (Page 1 of 4)
Channel 4 first flashed onto British TV screens under the watch of a Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher. Forty years later, in a move described by critics as “cultural vandalism”, the current Conservative government has decided to put it up for sale. Continue reading
The government is finalising its choice for the vacant position of chair of the UK’s broadcasting and telecoms regulator, Ofcom. Continue reading
“I would sit up at night, and I was just, like, I don’t understand how all of this is being churned out … And I just didn’t want to be alive anymore.” This stark admission from the Duchess of Sussex during her and her husband’s much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey captures how press treatment of Meghan drove the couple’s decision to step back from royal duties. Continue reading
As Black Lives Matter protests swept through parts of Britain after the killing of George Floyd in the US, a self-described Conservative student, James Yucel, became so disillusioned with what he interpreted as left-wing bias at the BBC that he established a campaign that he christened “Defund the BBC”. Continue reading
Here are three questions that anyone interested in the health of UK democracy should be asking. Should reputable political journalists allow themselves to be exploited as conduits for the unfiltered messages of political leaders? Where does accurate reporting end and uncritical stenography begin? Continue reading
When the then culture secretary, Matt Hancock, first announced a government review of the future of “high-quality” journalism, there was widespread scepticism about his motives. Having just surrendered to a powerful press lobby in abandoning the Leveson recommendations on self-regulation, was this government making an honest attempt to resolve the growing and serious problem of journalism’s broken business model? Continue reading
Reactions to Jeremy Corbyn’s alternative MacTaggart lecture were predictably mixed. But amid proposals that attracted both acclaim and opprobrium in equal measure was one that was barely noticed. Continue reading
Recent amendments to the Data Protection Bill, supported by the House of Lords and then narrowly defeated in the Commons, would have revived Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry into unlawful conduct and corporate cover-ups in national newspapers. Continue reading
Many years ago, in those halcyon days when The Guardian could afford to pay freelancers, I was commissioned to write a piece on the beginnings of TV sponsorship. Shockingly, rules were about to be relaxed to allow commercial channels to seek sponsors for programmes (it was a very long time ago). Continue reading
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