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A very good day for democracy

September 9, 2010 4:02 pm

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Phone campaigningBy Diana Smith / @mulberrybush

The debate on phone hacking, which unanimously agreed to refer the row to the most influential committee in the House of Commons, could have been an unpleasant affair, with heavy party political overtones. It was not.

MPs on all sides of the house unanimously agreed that there had been too much fear of the press, and that now is the time for the many issues of inaccurate and sensational reporting and underhand journalistic methods to be challenged.

The committee will now use strong powers to get to the bottom of the phone hacking allegations. More importantly though, there is now an appetite amongst MPs to look at how to help the media regulate their affairs more effectively. The Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, who is himself no stranger to aggressive reporting, called for the creation of a new commission.

I am certain that this is the right way forward. I have recently been looking at our current Press Complaints Commission. This body, which is designed for the press to regulate themselves, may have been appropriate when it was created. But it simply does not have the remit or the right rules to be able to cope with the interconnected world of journalism now, where an unattributed story, which may be misleading or obtained by questionable methods can be around the world in the course of half an hour.

It is a good day for democracy, and for those people who have been damaged by an under regulated press. It is also a good day for journalism. I know that there are many good journalists who want to do their job well and want to articulate the needs of their communities. This is a real opportunity for journalists to set great standards for their profession and get the respect they deserve.

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