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[Bionic]

 
Looks like Cameron well and truly dropped the ball on this Leverson business by going against everyone elses opinion and some of those are from his own party. It might also be his undoing by alienating even further the LibDems. It also now looks like he is trying to get into bed with UKIP just in case the LibDems withdraw their support. Funny thing is even that wally Labour shadow PM wanted the Leverson findings implemented!
Cam either got too big a head or went blind and deaf by becoming a virtual god..............
I have gone off him a bit now cos his true colours are starting to show. Only fear or regret I have is that Labour might just win the next election and drop us further into the **it by doing as they always do and borrow, borrow, borrow to line their nests and pay for promises they made without any foundation in common sense..........
One day we might just get a leader and party that actually believes in the UK and its electorates wishes......BUT probably not even in our kids lifetimes 
How sad is that........

[omega3000]

Camorons lost the plot imo 

[Nickbat]

Looks like Cameron well and truly dropped the ball on this Leverson business by going against everyone elses opinion and some of those are from his own party. It might also be his undoing by alienating even further the LibDems. It also now looks like he is trying to get into bed with UKIP just in case the LibDems withdraw their support. Funny thing is even that wally Labour shadow PM wanted the Leverson findings implemented!
Cam either got too big a head or went blind and deaf by becoming a virtual god..............
I have gone off him a bit now cos his true colours are starting to show. Only fear or regret I have is that Labour might just win the next election and drop us further into the **it by doing as they always do and borrow, borrow, borrow to line their nests and pay for promises they made without any foundation in common sense..........
One day we might just get a leader and party that actually believes in the UK and its electorates wishes......BUT probably not even in our kids lifetimes 
How sad is that........

Much as I think Cameron is an absolute half-wit, even half-wits occasionally get things right (often by mistake, though). On Leveson, I think he is right to baulk against any trend towards legal control of the media. After all, the laws are made by MPs, so who can say that the laws - once in place - will not be modified by a future government to outlaw anything it feels like, such as criticism of government. We have a free press here and that's the way it should stay. Where it all went wrong was mismanagement by the politicians, the media and the police. We already have all the laws we need to protect people.

Plus, I really loathe the posturing faux outrage of Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan.     

[Sir Tigger KC]

I'm deeply uneasy about state regulation of the press. 

[tigers_gonads]

The days when a "free press" went out the window when they became profit making organisation 

Because of this, they all are competitors and as in all walks of business, it they are all out to be number one.
To be number one, you have to sell more papers then your competitors and you will do whatever you can to do that.

So how can they regulate themselfs  ?

[TheBoy]

I think, accidentally or otherwise, he is actually right on this one.

Unfortunately, the popularist view driving many of the news articles is blowing the actual argument out of proportion.


What are we talking about here? Although under an umbrella of press standards, its about phone hacking. Which is already a criminal act, and people have gone to jail for.  Any other illegal press activities are convictable, because they are illegal.

So we already have the laws in place. Why do we need new ones?


But thats a dull story, so mainstream media are finding any anti-government celebs - JK Rowling this morning on the beeb, a staunch Labour supporter, so even an idiot like me could tell which way that was going to go - to moan at how the PM is treating this.  And the sheep of society accept this side of the debate without actually thinking it through, because we've become a lazy society from this point of view.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Looks like Cameron well and truly dropped the ball on this Leverson business by going against everyone elses opinion and some of those are from his own party. It might also be his undoing by alienating even further the LibDems. It also now looks like he is trying to get into bed with UKIP just in case the LibDems withdraw their support. Funny thing is even that wally Labour shadow PM wanted the Leverson findings implemented!
Cam either got too big a head or went blind and deaf by becoming a virtual god..............
I have gone off him a bit now cos his true colours are starting to show. Only fear or regret I have is that Labour might just win the next election and drop us further into the **it by doing as they always do and borrow, borrow, borrow to line their nests and pay for promises they made without any foundation in common sense..........
One day we might just get a leader and party that actually believes in the UK and its electorates wishes......BUT probably not even in our kids lifetimes 
How sad is that........

Much as I think Cameron is an absolute half-wit, even half-wits occasionally get things right (often by mistake, though). On Leveson, I think he is right to baulk against any trend towards legal control of the media. After all, the laws are made by MPs, so who can say that the laws - once in place - will not be modified by a future government to outlaw anything it feels like, such as criticism of government. We have a free press here and that's the way it should stay. Where it all went wrong was mismanagement by the politicians, the media and the police. We already have all the laws we need to protect people.

Plus, I really loathe the posturing faux outrage of Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan. 

I agree Nickbat!

There is a great fear, actually amongst many, with a growing number in and around politics, that any political reform could damage the very precious freedom of the press.  Cameron may not be impressing many, including me, at the moment, but he could be right about this one.

One political commentator explained Cameron's difficulty; how can he go to China and bleat on about the lack of a free press there when at home he is introducing laws to muzzle the press.

Ideally there should be no political control in a true "free speech" country but, as Locke stated, freedom is a natural God given right of all humans, but exercising that freedom and liberty must not infringe on the freedom and liberties of others.  That then is the current dilemma for us all when considering laws, regulations, and controls on others.  Cameron has the challenge of acting like Solomon and finding the correct middle ground.  Will he be up to it?

[tigers_gonads]

I don't like the sound of regulation.
In fact, the sound of a "big brother" controling  watching the press scares the shite out of me but can the press be trusted to behave themselfs ?

If the muppets that have been arrested and charged are found guilty and hammered threw the courts then it may send a strong enough signal out but i'm not going to hold my breath .............

Question ............... can said muppets be banded from working in the media / newspaper industry in any shape or form if found guilty ?

[TheBoy]

Put some of the emphasis back on the media companies.  If a rogue employee is breaking the law doing his job, no point fining the company a mere £1m. Give them a business changing fine. That should be enough of a deterent.

[albitz]

There are plenty of similar measures which can and should be taken imo.Including making things much easier for ordinary non celeb people to get justice and redress from  the media.
Its interesting though how the left are pushing for state regulation (and therefore control) as control is the default setting of the left.It needs to be due to the fact that their philosophies are fundamentally flawed and do not bear objective scrutiny,so its best to stifle scrutiny or debate on the real issues.
The hypocrisy from the left has also been amusing.Coogan for example - who strongly objects to newspapers reporting his lifestyle of high class hookers,an expensive coke habit and his love of Farraris,Lambos etc. a champagne socialist,if ever there was one.
In interviews on the subject of phone hacking etc. he constantly rages at the Dail Mail.He can barely utter a sentance without mentioning it,but rarely mentions the Murdoch media empire.
Afaik the Mail was hardly involved,if at all.It was the Murdoch empire which was the biggest culprit by far.
Coogans autobiography was recently published by a Murdoch owned publisher,and his latest  (atrocious) Partridge series was broadcast by SKY.
So he hates the media but funds his millionare lifestyle by taking large sums of money from the worst perpatrator of media criminality in the country.

[05omegav6]

We've had a free press since 1694. To change that now would be treasonable, and the start of an irreversible slide to a totalitarian state, where noone has a say apart from the powers that be. At least now we have a voice, can vote for what we believe. And whilst it may be true that MPs don't always seem to listen to the democratic voice, this is still a free thinking democracy, not North Korea Syria or Iran, thank God

The only reason Millibland and co insist on Tory bashing is simply to distract everyone from the fact that this country is in the shocking state it is due to 12 years mismanagement by Bliar and co.

I might never vote labour, (I'm quite certain that union members could better spend their subbscriptions elswhere), but I am grateful to live in a country where there is a freedom of political thinking and the opportunities of choice that such a system affords each and every one of us.

Everything that started this firestorm is already very illegal, no ambiguity whatsoever. The failures can be pinpointed to individuals/organisations that failed to respond adequately, if at all, to events as they were uncovered. Those groups should be held accountable, and systems strengthened to reduce the likelihood of such failings happening in the future.

Consider this, had the press been regulated/controlled by Government, would the Guardian have been allowed to break the phonehacking story in the first place?

Personally, I think not, and that is why the Prime Minister is fundamentally right to resist sweeping legislative changes to media control

[tigers_gonads]

Put some of the emphasis back on the media companies.  If a rogue employee is breaking the law doing his job, no point fining the company a mere £1m. Give them a business changing fine. That should be enough of a deterent.

So they sub contract out to freelance journalists so the corporation is not liable for prosecution for the collection of the infomation.
If said journo brakes the law, the corporation denies all knowlage.
Journo gets sent down for a few months, comes out and sells his story to another paper and makes a mint 
At the end of the day, these organisations have got to be held accountable for what they print.
A million here or there is sweet opps all in fines when the grand picture of extra sales threw the publicity is taken into account.

And no, I haven't got a clue what i'd do either ............ 

[Sir Tigger KC]

Consider this, had the press been regulated/controlled by Government, would the Guardian have been allowed to break the phonehacking story in the first place?

Would The Telegraph have been allowed to report the MP's expenses scandal?? 

[05omegav6]

Consider this, had the press been regulated/controlled by Government, would the Guardian have been allowed to break the phonehacking story in the first place?

Would The Telegraph have been allowed to report the MP's expenses scandal?? 

The implications of living in a world like that just don't bear thinking about