By Jeremy Sare, England.
It was summer last year, when in Britain we learned Milly Dowler, the murdered 14 year old schoolgirl had her phone hacked by News of the World (NOTW) journalists. There was also evidence the act of listening into her voicemail messages led the family to believe, wrongly, that she was still alive.
The public’s revulsion at these excesses of the press eventually led the Prime Minister, David Cameron, to establish an inquiry under Lord Justice Leveson into the “culture, practises and ethics of the media” and the inter-relationships between press, politics and policing.
The impact was sudden and devastating: amid the exposure of corruption, collusion and criminality, the News of the World was culled, several senior police were forced out and Rupert Murdoch’s $15Bn takeover of BSkyB fell apart. More recently, dozens of journalists have been arrested and charged with hacking, paying officials for information and perverting the course of justice. The Prime Minister’s former chief pressman, Andy Coulson, is facing a perjury trial.
Leveson reports on Thursday this week, and yet, many current press stories about the potential findings blithely ignore all the turmoil and heartbreak the excesses of the press had revealed.
Phone hacking extended way beyond celebrities and the royal family although that is certainly reprehensible too if you consider the daily hounding and privacy invasion of the actress Sienna Miller as an example. But the revelations that editors saw fit to hack the 7/7 bomb victims and the widows of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan spilled over into public fury.
Illegal phone-hacking became the default position of tabloid investigation, whatever the level of the story, however marginal the advantage it could offer over its rival newspapers. Campaigns against celebs and individuals, suddenly thrust into the limelight, were nothing short of organised harassment and intimidation through stories which were, “a mixture of smear, innuendo and complete fiction.” Editors clearly acted with arrogant impunity. So far phone hacking has only been accepted as a practise by the Murdoch media empire but disgraceful bullying by journalists also concerned the Mirror Group and Associated newspapers.
When the scandal was finally exposed by the Guardian newspaper, the Metropolitan Police refused to progress it and the multiple ties between the force and News International seemed to make them complicit. The one story which linked all three sides: media, police and politics was the farcical revelation that the Met had lent former NOTW editor Rebekah Brooks a horse on which her neighbour, the PM, had enjoyed a jolly good ride.
The Leveson report published on Thursday presents PM, David Cameron, with the most difficult series of dilemmas. First, he was arthritically slow to react to the urgency of the situation, partly because he is implicated himself by his friendship with Rebekah Brookes. His testimony to the Inquiry was desperately defensive, very memory selective and lacked the statesmanlike performance the role required. He looked like any grubby politician desperate to save his skin. To lead the country back to the moral high, the Prime Minister will be forced to distance himself from the actions of this David Cameron chap.
His cabinet is mostly opposed to any statutory changes which would tie all editors to an ethical guide. Any acquiescence by Cameron to Leveson would be heartily opposed by his closest generals and the charge would be led by Cam’s greatest rival, London mayor Boris Johnson. But 70 of his own Conservative MPs have made clear their support for change to the media power balance which means if it came to a Parliamentary vote it would be carried. Dave faces being shot by the right wing of his own party or picking a confrontational and obviously losing strategy.
A compromise could be cobbled together, ‘legislation but not yet’ which would show him to be expedient and gutless but could be the option left to him in the end.
Press behaviour can be compared to some degree of power addiction. After years of abuse culminating in the Milly Dowler outrage, all parties agreed initially a “moment of clarity” had been reached.
But last Saturday the Daily Mail included a 12 page preposterous and transparent hatchet job of one of Leveson’s assistants, Sir David Bell. This is exactly the kind of irresponsible, twisted journalism Leveson was established to prevent.
This Sunday “Government sources”, in other words resistant Ministers, began counter briefing. Brian Leveson, always formidable, focussed and good-humoured has faced many personal attacks suggesting impartiality. On Sunday in the Mail, apropos of nothing, he was described as an “Orthodox Jew” (he isn’t) as if that made a difference to his judgement (it doesn’t).
This enquiry has performed the function of the therapy towards recovery. Yet now the moment of truth has been reached, it seems they can’t bring themselves to change. Relapse appears imminent.
