The Pendulum of Power

Goodbye News of the World.

The website www.newsoftheworld.co.uk now simply showcases a newspaper wrap-around entitled: News of the World, The World’s Greatest Paper 1843-2011, Thank You and Goodbye.

The demise of this British media institution became a snow-ball of inevitability as the myriad of phone-hacking scandals continued to surface and float in the murky News Corp pond. Journalists and members of the public from around the world watched in shock as the scale of the problem emerged and wondered of the impact beyond the British Isles.

The media is a force to be reckoned with and one that continues to grow in strength, reach and mass, enabled and fuelled by the exponential growth of technology. Working in the media industry we often hear uttered “Just how do they [journalists] manage to get away with that?”

Journalism fulfilling the role of watchdog harks right back the late eighteenth century in England, when the term the ‘Fourth Estate’ came into being. The function of the ‘Fourth Estate’ was the press’ role in acting as a watchdog to monitor government activity. The name was a reflection of the political power possessed by the British press at the time, which levelled somewhat with the power possessed by the other three estates; Lords, Church, and Commons.

The watchdog role of the ‘Fourth Estate’ has since evolved into a modern-day mutation which not only monitors the activities of the government but also any institution of societal significance, powerful individuals and the celebrity.  

What The News of World didn’t seem to know or wilfully chose to ignore, is that working hand in hand with the role of watchdog is a journalistic responsibility to guardian the rightful disclosure of content; what should be disclosed, and using legal and legitimate means to source news and information. 

So what retribution has been sought and claimed for these journalistic wrong-doings?  Numerous ‘implicated’ bodies have resigned, been fired, prosecuted or are currently under the eye of the law. The paper has closed down. And now the UK government is engaging in some regulatory hand-slapping.

In a statement addressed to a committee of senior MPs the British PM, David Cameron, is calling for “tougher independent regulation that is not government controlled."

But what a seemingly delightful opportunity for the government to turn the tables on the Fourth Estate and show them whose boss… however David Cameron has warned ‘expense scandal burned’ MPs against taking a "gleeful"  or vitriolic approach to parliament's job of regulating the media.

"I do think we need to be extremely careful though... if this is any way seen as revenge for expenses I think it would be a disaster for Parliament."

The Leveson inquiry is looking at media regulation as part of the inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal and the outcome of this will see MPs with the responsibility to legislate and regulate.

In a quest for a "more healthy relationship" with the media industry, Cameron is boldly suggesting that the current Parliament “reset the clock” on the relationship between politicians and the media. But what exactly is required to 'reset the clock'?

The Press Complaints Commission, the current self-regulatory body for the journalism industry in the UK, whereby journalists effectively police themselves, has obvious deficiencies highlighted by the extent the hacking scandal was allowed to reach.

Only time will tell how the proposed independent regulation will take form, however it has raised a far from new but albeit important question - how should the media be regulated to ensure it fulfils its role legally while also allowing for free media? Finding the right balance is the challenge and Cameron knows this only too well:

"There's a danger of the pendulum swinging too far the other way."