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Dear colleagues - I attach a statement prepared by the Coordinating Committee for MEdia Reform that they want to submit to the Leveson Inquiry. As you know, we voted to support their initiatives at the Meccsa AGM. If anyone has any comments on the attached, can you let me know asap, as we have a Meccsa Exec on Friday, where it'll be discussed.
In case the attachment doesn't work, here's the message in the body of the email:
Ownership is a Key Issue – Subsmission to Leveson
The Leveson Inquiry has so far revealed valuable details about the complicit relationships between police, politicians and large media corporations that undermine prospects for real democracy in this country. It has also highlighted the need for substantial reform of our media system, parts of which have, for too long, sanctioned unethical and illegal practices and fostered a culture of impunity among their perpetrators.
We fully support reforms to press regulation and debates about how to protect free expression but we also believe that such reforms will fail if they are not accompanied by a more decisive challenge to the concentration of media ownership and a more robust pursuit of media plurality.
In the light of the recent publication of the Inquiry's call for further evidence, we are concerned that this focus on the need for structural change is in danger of being lost amidst much needed but narrower discussions concerning freedom of expression and the best way to balance editorial independence with public oversight, a debate largely framed by editors and proprietors.
This is all the more worrying given that the original terms of reference for the Inquiry specifically called for recommendations about plurality and ownership. Indeed Lord Justice Leveson himself recently insisted that he wanted ‘to provide something that's meaningful and helpful’ in relation to recommendations concerning media policy, regulation and cross-media ownership.’
We are faced with a huge opportunity to put in place a more accountable and transparent media system that will do justice to the journalists who work in it as well as the public who depend on it. It is vital that we do not lose sight of the overwhelming need to break up the concentrations of media power that have corrupted British political life.
Máire Messenger Davies, PhD, FRSA, MBPsS,
Professor of Media Studies, Centre for Media Research,
School of Media, Film and Journalism
University of Ulster, Cromore Rd,
Coleraine BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland,UK
http://cmr.ulster.ac.uk
twitter:@mairemd
email: [log in to unmask]
office telephone: +44(0)2870124069LATEST BOOK - 'Children, Media & Culture' http://www.openup.co.uk/children_media
-----Original Message-----
From: Justin Schlosberg [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wed 6/20/2012 10:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Leveson statement
Dear Maire
Just following up on the statement we are planning on submitting to
Leveson next week (see attached). Let me know if Meccsa are happy to endorse.
I'd be very grateful for any feedback.
Best regards
Justin
--
CCMR coordinator
Tel 07505 053 553
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