FULLY BOOKED Phone hacking – ethics and tabloid journalism
The closure of the News of the World following further revelations that schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone was allegedly hacked by private investigators has failed to draw a line under the growing crisis.
The print media has long defended its freedom from outside regulation. Is there a future for statutory regulation of the press or is it time for the Press Complaints Commission to be scrapped as has been called for by actor and recent privacy crusader, Hugh Grant?
The scandal poses massive questions — and not just for journalists. With Rupert Murdoch’s takeover bid for BSkyB in tatters, for instance, where do the events of the past two weeks leave Murdoch’s empire? And as more allegations surface concerning former NotW editor Andy Coulson, are Labour backbenchers right to call for prime minister David Cameron — who employed Coulson as his communications chief — to resign?
Join us at the Frontline Club with an expert panel to discuss this ever-deepening scandal, as we consider what ‘hackgate’ might mean for the future of journalism, politics and power in Britain.
Chaired by Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow.
With:
David Banks, former editor of the Daily Mirror and editorial director of Mirror Group Newspapers. Worked in London, New York and Sydney over a thirteen-year career with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp during which he edited two papers in Australia. Now a columnist and regular broadcaster.
Jane Martinson, women’s editor of the Guardian and former media editor;
Martin Moore, director of the Media Standards Trust, an independent charity that looks for ways to foster high standards in news and a founder of the Hacked Off campaign;
Toby Young, freelance journalist and associate editor of The Spectator, where he writes a weekly column. He also blogs for the Daily Telegraph and is the author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and The Sound of No Hands Clapping.
