Leveson, Libel and Social Media

From the Grauniad:

Lord Justice Leveson has warned that unless criminal and civil law is enforced against bloggers, the quality of journalism in conventional media could deteriorate. Leveson, speaking in Melbourne, Australia on Wednesday morning (UK time), said journalists on newspapers might be encouraged to cut corners and to adopt unethical and potentially illegal practices to get a story in the face of competition from the internet.

The argument is now fairly old news, that the unrestrained freedom of speech of the Blogosphere and Social Media allows unethical goings on that the Print Meedjs wil be tempted to dive headlong into:

In a speech entitled Hold the front page: news gathering in a time of change, he told the University of Melbourne that "the question for us all" will be what changes will become necessary "to ensure that the criminal and civil law remain effective" for both the internet and conventional media.The competition from bloggers and tweeters, "may encourage unethical and potentially unlawful practices to get a story", he said. "The effect then is an indirect one, and one which lies behind the headline and the front-page scoop," Leveson added. "In a culture which sees some act with impunity in the face of the civil law, and the criminal law, a general decline in standards may arise."

He described bloggers and tweeters as an "electronic version of pub gossip" and said they acted differently to established journalists who have "a powerful reputation for accuracy". He added that it was a "pernicious and false belief" that bloggers were not subject to the same laws as print and broadcast journalists.

There is a corollary though - in the UK at any rate, the ability of "The Establishment" to stifle the truth is too strong - super-injunctions, draconian libel laws (its no accident that the rest of the World's powerful rush to the UK to get their cases heard), and a very high cost of access to the legal system in any shape means that the only place "Free" speech is anywhere near economically viable in the UK is on the Interwebz. And the reality is, that the Internet routes around obstructions anyway.

Thus I'd like to see, hand in hand with some curtailment of the extreme end of Social Media Hatespeak by the "Twitchfork mobs", a rebalancing and curtailment of the just those "criminal and civil laws" Mr Leveson is so keen on, to ensure a right for people to speak truth unto power, and to know things that impact them will emerge into the light. It's not too late, other countries have models we could follow. It would be nice if a reasoned debate would be held within the UK to do so, but I fear that significant investment by the vested interests will ensure the reality is we yet again risk become a "Spycatcher Media Island" (Spycatcher was a book written a few decades ago, banned in Britain, but widely available overseas and read by anyone who wanted to anyway).