{"id":11053,"date":"2011-07-14T09:22:45","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T08:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=11053"},"modified":"2011-07-14T09:22:45","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T08:22:45","slug":"if-were-to-eliminate-fear-of-and-from-the-media-then-we-have-to-reform-libel-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/07\/14\/if-were-to-eliminate-fear-of-and-from-the-media-then-we-have-to-reform-libel-too\/","title":{"rendered":"If we&#8217;re to eliminate fear of and from the media then we have to reform libel too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As many have, rightly, pointed out \u00a0the reason for Murdoch's extraordinary power has been the fear he's been able to create. \u00a0The effect has been pernicious. \u00a0Reform to shatter that power, and remove that fear, is essential. I take my hat off to those organisations \u00a0like <a href=\"http:\/\/38degrees.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">38 Degrees<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avaaz.org\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\">Avaaz<\/a> who have helped start that process through their mass, online, campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>But there is another aspect of fear that has to be removed from the media if we are to have an effective <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fourth_Estate\" target=\"_blank\">Fourth Estate<\/a> in this country. \u00a0Our libel laws are \u00a0also pernicious. \u00a0They stop us holding people to account. \u00a0They stop us telling the truth about those who hold power, and who abuse it. They stop us \u00a0telling the truth \u00a0because the price \u00a0of defending that truth is too high.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, we must transform the press, \u00a0and not just the News International \u00a0part of it. \u00a0I look forward to the Mail, \u00a0at least, being held to account as well. \u00a0But that is only the starting point. \u00a0Unless we reform our libel laws \u00a0our freedoms will remain shackled, \u00a0and that is simply unacceptable if we are to create the necessary freedom to prevent corruption and abuse in this country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As many have, rightly, pointed out \u00a0the reason for Murdoch&#8217;s extraordinary power has been the fear he&#8217;s been able to create. \u00a0The effect has been<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/07\/14\/if-were-to-eliminate-fear-of-and-from-the-media-then-we-have-to-reform-libel-too\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}