Trial of journalism, not trail by journalism

By Gary Quinn, Head of Media, Tangerine PR

Five years ago this month the former royal reporter at the News of the World, Clive Goodman, admitted conspiracy to intercept St James's Palace phone calls "without lawful authority". His cohort, the now infamous Glenn Mulcaire, also pleaded guilty to the same offence and to further charges of intercepting phone calls. The News of the World editor at the time, one Andy Coulson, said: "I have put in place measures to ensure this will not be repeated."

It was rightly seen as the darkest of days for British journalism, compounded six weeks later when both Goodman and Mulcaire where jailed and Coulson resigned as editor of what was once the largest selling English language newspaper in the world.

But this was merely the beginning, the tip of a seething mass of criminality and dehumanised behaviour, including stomach churning revelations about the hacking of the phone belonging to murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, as she lay dead in a woodland ditch.

We all know what happened next, the once mighty and feared News of the World was shut down. David Cameron ordered a public enquiry into media ethics and practices, to be headed by Lord Leveson.

There was Rupert Murdoch’s most humbling day ever as he gave (sketchy) evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee and, lest we forget, was attacked by a ‘foam flinger’ for his trouble.

His son James has been back before MPs only last week, where he delivered another stern defence of News International procedures and sought to assure one and all that he had no knowledge in 2007 that phone hacking was widespread.

And now the Leveson Inquiry has opened, a sort of trial of journalism as opposed to trial by journalism, if you will. Victims of phone hacking will take the stand and give evidence, as will many from within the industry, including editors, associate editors and proprietors.

But as the negative headlines continue to rain down I can’t help but wonder the affect all this is having on the regular working hack; those who help churn out newspapers and magazines under intense pressure day after day.

It feels like, certainly for the last year anyway, that rarely a day has gone by without some form of a phone hacking story in one newspaper or another, but mainly in the Guardian which has pursued this story relentlessly.

I asked some of my former colleagues, who now work on a range of titles including the Daily Mirror, The Sun, Daily Mail and The Times, if and how they have been affected by the constant stream of negative stories about their beloved trade.

Overall there was more than a touch of the Blitz spirit and if the truth be known, most are far more worried about securing their next big story than what the next big phone hacking revelation is.

You see all this time, as the trade of journalism has been torn to shreds, hacks have continued to produce some of the best newspapers and magazines in the world. Of course they are aware of what’s going on around them, they are trained observers for goodness’ sake, but they have a job to do.

Just as they had a job to do when the 7/7 bombs hit London, or during the riots that blighted our cities this summer.

Yes some members of the press lost their way and indulged in despicable acts in the name of chasing a story but let’s not tar all hacks with the same brush. The industry itself is fighting a decline, and is facing the toughest challenge yet to its survival.

I believe the announcement of the death of newspapers is much too premature but there is no doubt that in the next five years there will be more casualties.

And this, I believe, will make British society poorer. A strong and vibrant press helps maintain a strong and vibrant democracy. Proper journalism is about keeping the powerful in check and every society needs a powerful press. However with power comes responsibility and for some, just some, in the press, they were happy with the power but forgot about the responsibility.

Let us all hope that events over the last five years have helped redress this balance…