BBC Breakfast - 16th July onwards

An anti-BBC campaign on Twitter isn't a new thing but one going around last night was quite interesting petitioning for paper reviews not to be done during the election campaign due to the majority of papers being right wing leaning.

I don't think any papers have officially declared yet for the party they're backing, but it's generally pretty predictable.

In a demorcracy all views should be allowed. You sound like you want a dictatorship.

Apologies for the double post, post deleted here as this version was incomplete.

All views are allowed. People can hold any views they want to. But that's not what this is about. This is about the press, and how they have, for longer than I care to remember, spouted such absolute rubbish that has little actual connection to reality. Newspapers should be about reporting the news, not making up stuff or massively editorialising the news content in order to push a publisher's point of view. News should be News, and they shouldn't be messing with it.

That's not to say there shouldn't be opinions in the newspapers, there absolutely should, but the merging of opinion into the news content, shouldn't be allowed. But there is no room in today's society for sexism or racism, or the anti-LGBT stuff. People are people, and should be allowed to be who they are without living in fear of somebody trying to use that against them. Again, not to say that people can't hold those views, but printing them in the press should be viewed with the same distate, as broadcasting them on the public airwaves. We need our media to be responsible, and sadly these days, responsibility seems to be a dirty word.

There are sufficient libel laws to stop newspapers printing false, defamatory stories, and laws around hate crimes.

We have a free press in this country which is a good thing. You may not like what they write (nobody is forced to read it, by the way) but I’d prefer to live with a free press than censored. That article is an opinion, one that you don’t share, but an opinion nonetheless.

Trouble is the exact dividing line between what is 'acceptable opinion' and what isn't is subjective, so who acts as the arbitrator, what criteria do they apply, and who appoints them ?

Doesn't stop it actually happening, doesn't stop the Daily Mail being the most sued newspaper in the UK for printing false, defamatory stories. It's not new libel laws that are needed, it's either increased penalties for breaking those laws, or we can go even further, and say to the offending newspapers who keep doing this, beause it makes them more money than they payout in damages, you either change your behaviour, or we shut you down.



That article is also very sexist, and frankly such material belongs in the past, not the present and definitely not the future. You can be sexist as a person, but our media should be above that.

Governments going round shutting down newspapers doesn’t sound like the wisest idea.

It should be the last resort, always. I'd much prefer to see a free but responsible press, as opposed to a press that isn't free at all. I just don't like how irresponsible the press is currently. We shouldn't make the mistake of compromising press freedoms, because the press has behaved so irresponsibly for so long. We need a free, but responsible press, not what we currently have now, which is free to propagandize and slander, with little real consequence.

If the press were regulated in the way broadcasting was we wouldn't be in the mess we're in. They've proven time and time again they are unfit to regulate themselves and Levison changed nothing.

Obviously the press always use the "free press" argument when threatened with a government regulator but I don't think anybody genuinely believes the broadcast media aren't free to report as they should. Responsibility is often forgotten in such arguments and in journalism IMO it should be the responsibility to report honestly rather than than the freedom to report what you wish which should underpin things.

Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. It just riles me up that as a broadcaster, we have to be very scrupulously fair in the run up to an election, and the press just absolutely can spew any rubbish they think will make them money. The press should be have to follow the same rules we broadcasters do.

I think I prefer the system we have to be honest. A free press with regulated tv and radio keeps the balance about right - no abuse by the state controlling media, but no carte blanche for it to do as it pleases either.