Freedom of the press

joanlawson

My father was a newspaper editor for many years, and he was a strong believer in the freedom of the press as the life-breath of democracy and of a free society. However, he had very high professional standards, and kept a tight reign on all his reporters. He gave Jeremy Clarkson his first job in journalism, even managing to contol him too ( no mean feat! ) While he believed in press freedom, he also believed in the responsibility of the press to adhere to the highest standards. He impressed these standards on all his reporters and would never accept anything less. Sometimes he was known as a hard taskmaster, but he was always determined to maintain high standards of journalism. I was very proud of his achievements.

My Dad is no longer with us, but with all the phone-hacking scandal which is going on at present, I wonder what he would have thought of it? I think he would be sad that some rotten apples can give all the press a bad name. I'm sure that there are many hard-working and honest journalists out there like my Dad, but he must be turning in his grave at present.

Joan

mellman01

Hi Joan thing is Murdoch is a right wing thug and when he employs editors etc he would obviously give the jobs to like minded people, he’s well in it now though.
I will probably get more flack for saying this but Murdoch’s influence and power here was handed to him by Mrs T and the Tories all those years ago, she used him for a right wing propaganda mouth piece the kick back was getting her elected, and ever since he’s had his hand in the political system that’s why up until a month or so ago Cameron was still glad handing him and his editors, trouble is successive governments have not done anything about clipping the presses wings simply because they need him on side and he’s so now powerful (or was) they have avoided taking him on, now it’s coming to light how rouge he and his empire has become and honestly it’s breath taking but in some ways not surprising.
One last thing I think he'd look really good dressed as Darth Vader don't you?!.

mellman01

Good point Del thing is you'd need to hammer a stake into the buggers heart to be totally sure the feckers dead, that's if you can find it in the first place!.

joanlawson

The revelations about the activities of News International get worse day by day. There seem to be no depths to which they wouldn't stoop, and I don't know how Rebekah Brooks can still be in her job. She should definitely go.

PamieAFC1903

I got an email from News International yesterday.

As I entered a comp in The Sun in June & after the website was hacked on the 19th July, my details could now be in the hands of scumbags! How nice of them to tell me 2 weeks after it happened!

joanlawson

Hi Pamie

It's getting to the point now where one wonders who hasn't had their phones/emails hacked :shock: The corruption knows no bounds :roll: :shock:

PamieAFC1903

I emaild them totally raging.

Thinking about asking advice about it because who knows what will happen now, not that they would get anywhere as my name is pretty black listed lol