By ABC's Emma Alberici
Updated
Harry Potter author, JK Rowling made a thoughtful observation about the state of journalism in Britain.
Many journalists she said were involved in courageous reporting in dangerous environments. It seemed incongruous then that those working for the tabloids who engage in criminal activity with no public interest defence should carry the same title of journalist.
In my 20-odd years as a reporter, I have never come across the kind of shameful tactics that charade as journalistic endeavour that I heard about in court 73 this week. It started with Bob and Sally Dowler whose 13-year-old daughter was missing for six months before her dead body was finally found. During the torturous wait for information, they were given false hope that she was alive when attempts to call her telephone revealed that someone had accessed her voicemail. It wasn't her. It was staff from The News Of The World. Not only did they listen to her messages. They erased some to make way for more that they could then listen to. Police fear they may have compromised early investigations.
Actress Sienna Miller told the Leveson Inquiry into Press Ethics that she was spat on so the photographers could elicit a look of anguish to suit their caption. A pregnant woman pushing a pram was knocked over by a car driven by a photographer chasing Ms Miller through a busy street. She told the court that at the age of 21 she was running down a dark alleyway at midnight pursued by 15 men with cameras. Take the cameras away, she asked, and what do you have? At a charity event, she was playing with a terminally ill child on the floor of the venue when a photographer took her picture. The editor at the newspaper then cropped out the boy and wrote a headline about her having fallen over drunk. There was later an apology in the newspaper but by then the perception that Sienna Miller goes out and gets drunk at a children's charity event sticks.
Then there were the more disturbing tales of utterly fictitious stories that ruined lives. Gerry and Kate McCann endured the vitriol of false judgments by the tabloids for the years after the disappearance of their daughter, Madeleine. They were accused of selling their daughter into slavery to pay off their mortgage. In other stories they had killed the four-year-old and stashed her body in a freezer. All accounts were entirely made up. The Daily Express and the Daily Star published front-page apologies and agreed to pay the McCanns 550,000 pounds in damages. Defamation law is clear. Truth is a defence and there was no truth to the claims.
Sheryl Gascoigne is the former wife of a footballer. She never asked to be thrust in to the public eye yet she was forced to crawl on her hands and knees in the living room to evade detection until curtains were fitted. Photographers camped on her front lawn for weeks. Then there was perhaps the most traumatic story recounted by Jim and Margaret Watson. Their 16-year-old daughter, Diane was stabbed to death in the school playground by a fellow student. The Glasgow Herald labelled Diane a bully who had provoked the attack. Marie Clare magazine jumped on the bandwagon and continued to sully Diane Watson's memory. Young Alan the Watson's only other child committed suicide clutching those same articles that were so critical of his sister. Max Mosely blames the suicide death of his drug addicted son on the tabloids whose relentless pursuit of his private life was too much to bear. Footballer Gary Flitcroft's father had never missed his son's matches. He had attended every one until details of Gary Flitcroft's extramarital affairs began appearing in the press. Flitcroft senior couldn't stand the taunts of the crowd and stopped attending matches. He committed suicide.
Half my time in this industry has been spent in tabloid news in Australia. Whenever I was involved in secret recordings (never phone hacking) it was always to expose an abuse of power or corporate wrongdoing. Never did the newsrooms I worked for in commercial news ever succumb to the kind of cruel and nasty behaviour on show before Lord Justice Leveson. From the very week I arrived in Britain I was struck by the kinds of stories on the front pages of the seven daily tabloids... yes seven. How on earth did they find out who is sleeping with who... How did they know celebrity couples were breaking up before the divorce papers hit the courts?
Events of the past two years have revealed that the source of many of those stories was information gleaned from hacked phones. It wasn't just the private investigators gathering the information. We now know that those men were providing step by step instructions on how to hack phones to around 28 reporters at The News Of The World. Last week we also learned about how hospital staff and police sell information to the press. Hugh Grant revealed that he'd called Scotland Yard after a burglary only to have press photographers show up before the police. His medical records were front page news the day after he was admitted to the emergency ward at his local hospital.
Max Mosley, the former head of international motor racing told the court that invasion of privacy was worse than burglary. At least you can replace items that are stolen but no lawyer can ever repair the damage done to your reputation once it has been traduced. At 71, he wanted to be remembered for what he did in his career and the much good he brought to people's lives. Instead he will forever be known for being involved in a Nazi-themed orgy. It wasn't that at all but once the damage is done…
Apologies, often buried deep in the newspaper can do little to repair the hurt.
It is a cause for concern to many that the Chairman of the Editor's Code of Practice Committee, which helps set the benchmark for ethical standards, is the editor of the Daily Mail - Paul Dacre. With the News Of The World a relic of the past, The Mail is the newspaper most people believe is most reprehensible. The Press Complaints Commission is the body that handles complaints. JK Rowling called the PCC toothless. The McCanns admitted they'd never even heard of it. Justice for those at the receiving end of press malfeasance in Britain according to Max Mosley is the exclusive domain of the wealthy and the bold.
It was most disturbing to hear lawyers who have worked in media law their entire careers talk about the commercial justification for breaking the law. Tabloids, it was said, calculate the likely revenue generated by a particularly salacious headline. They then subtract the damages payout that might arise from publication. If there is a profit then the presses start rolling. Breaking the law has become a common device for the men and women who call themselves journalists. When it comes to celebrities they employ the public interest defence. Apparently famous people are all role models who trade on their good name. As Hugh Grant reminded everyone: he doesn't have a good name. He was photographed and arrested with a prostitute and yet his subsequent film was a box office hit. As it turned out, the viewing public didn't seem to care about what he did in the back of his car.
When the prosecution case ends in the next week or so it will fall to newspaper editors and reporters to mount a defence of what, so far, seems rather indefensible. Pity Lord Justice Leveson as he decides how to bring order to a disorderly trade besmirched by some who probably should no longer be allowed to call themselves journalists. Author and journalist Joan Smith raised the point: how many important stories are being missed because these people are busy looking up women's dresses?
Editor's Note (30 November 2011) : This article originally stated that Paul Dacre was the Head of the Press Complaints Council. He is, in fact, the Chairman of the Council's Editors' Code of Practice Committee. The reference has been amended.
Emma Alberici is a London correspondent for the ABC.
Topics: print-media, information-and-communication, internet-culture, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, crime
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