Thurso backs Lord Leveson on press regulation
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FAR NORTH MP John Thurso is at loggerheads with Prime Minister David Cameron over the future of press regulation in the wake of the Leveson report into ethics, culture and standards.
The Lib Dem backbencher put his weight behind Depute Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s call when speaking to the Caithness Courier this week after holding the first Westminster commission outside of London.
He said people are right to be wary of the process of reform in a press regulator but he regarded Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendation in favour of a free press with statutory underpinning as the best route to take.
"My view is that Leveson has come up with a pretty balanced approach to dealing with a status quo that absolutely nobody thinks is fit for purpose," said the MP.
"I actually think a statute that enshrines freedom of the press – a bit like America’s first amendment – together with the statutory appointment of the regulator is probably the best compromise you could come up with.
"This is not statutory regulation. It is about enshrining the rights of an independent regulator in statute."
The former viscount has first-hand experience of the press having been astounded by the "extraordinary arrogance" displayed by certain Fleet Street editors while he sat on the culture, media and sport Committee from 2001 to 2005.
"One of them said to me: ‘we get voted in every day by our readers – you only have to be voted in once every four or five years,’" he recalled.
"If that was how they felt, what chance did we have?"
The MP said that it was indicative of the cultural problems at the time which led on to scandals such as the expose into the scale of phone-hacking at media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News International.
A quick nod and apology and then back to work is not good enough, said John Thurso.
"We all know that you have a big crisis like this and all the Fleet Street editors apologise," he told the Courier.
"But time goes by and the competitive thrust is such that as the collective memory of the last scandal dims someone caves and says get a private eye to go through the rubbish bin or whatever.
"We can’t afford to do that again."
He added: "We must make sure that we get this right but I think Nick Clegg has made the right call in backing Leveson."
The seasoned politician, who sat in the House of Lords from 1995 to 1999, also said Leveson had been "dead right" about the importance of local press.
"For most people in the far north their main sources of important news locally comes from North of Scotland Newspapers or the Press and Journal," he said.
"If those were not in the equation, it would be very difficult for people to
acquire news locally. We don’t need to rush into legislating in 10 minutes but I think we need to make the decision of broadly where we are going."
John Thurso was in Inverness on Monday to grill bank bosses over lending practices prior to the worldwide financial collapse.
