Torbay MP Adrian Sanders speaks out on media reform

By PRSD, on Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders, who’s on the Culture Media and Sport Committee, has spoken about the media’s right to free speech and the necessity to have a robust press with good investigative powers.

He was speaking at the launch of a report on Press Standards, Privacy and Libel, which aimed to address the concerns that current regulation of the media doesn’t work.

Adrian said: “Newspapers need to be able to investigate and scrutinise people in positions of power. When they take this too far, by phone hacking or providing inaccurate material, it makes everyone lose faith in the media.

“The press must have the freedom to report without fear of going to court, but we don’t want to see ordinary individuals being treated with contempt by newspapers. Journalists must be made to uphold certain standards, to be mindful of the rights of those who are written about and be accurate in what they report.”

The new report suggests a number of reforms – including financial penalties for newspapers that breach the code.

Adrian once famously said – well, famously to us – that websites were ‘tittle tattle‘ – apart from us of course. Here’s what he said about South West websites and newspapers: “I have no doubt there is an important role for hyperlocal sites to play scrutinising local decision making – in my area we have the People’s Republic of South Devon and the satirical Westphalia on Sea websites – but I would see this as complementary to a local newspaper, not as its replacement. A plural system is always preferable to a monopoly whether on-line or dead-tree.”