phone hacking scandal a massive ethical disaster and compared it to the current scandals unraveling at FIFA and Volkswagen.

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1 "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers." (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 19, 1948) claims that freedom of the press still exists, 800 years after the Magna Carta was signed. However with seemingly more and more surveillance being pushed on the public by the government and stricter guidelines on what press can report and what they can t, is there still such a thing as a free press in Britain? It will be argued whether or not press freedom exists in the UK, but the consensus is, that there is no freedom of the press anymore. Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties), wrote an article for the British Library about the Magna Carta and human rights. In this article Chakrabarti (n.d) wrote that the Magna Carta: remains a bedrock of Britishness; the foundation of all that s good about laws and liberties from Land s End to John O Groats. The alternative view is that Magna Carta has been reduced to nothing but a symbol; a crumbling relic, redundant at law and in practice. Meanwhile the freedom of the press continues to diminish. According to Freedom House, a U.S. based government funded organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights, 14 percent of the world's citizens live in countries that enjoy a free press. (Freedom House, c2015) With this statistic in mind, not many countries are able to print what they want within their press. Though there are very important tools available to both the public and to journalists in the UK, such as Freedom of Information requests. Basically these are requests that anyone can make to governments or organizations that are withholding information from the public. However the UK government have recently been trying to intervene and alter the FOI act. In an article from The Guardian on 19 th October 2015, titled: Government accused of trying to water down Freedom of Information act, the government proposed new changes to the act, such as changes to make it easier to refuse requests on cost grounds and plans to strengthen ministers powers to veto disclosures. (The Guardian, 2015) Nick Turner, president elect of the Society of Editors, said: This would be a cynical and, indeed, dangerous backward step in the long fight for greater openness and transparency. (Turner, 2015). He started a campaign called Hands Off FOI in conjunction with Press Gazette and HoldTheFrontPage in order to fight the government s plans. In Britain, freedom of the press has been affected heavily by the ongoing investigation into the phone hacking scandal. The Leveson inquiry has had a huge impact on press freedom, with many respected journalists speaking out against it. Former Guardian Editor in Chief Rusbridger (2015), called the

2 phone hacking scandal a massive ethical disaster and compared it to the current scandals unraveling at FIFA and Volkswagen. The New York Times wrote an editorial on the subject in Due to Britain not having a bill of rights which entitles them to a free press, it is becoming clearer that the UK government is restricting the press. This is done by the arrest of journalists for not giving up their sources or by trying to alter the Freedom Of Information act. In the article the NY Times wrote: These alarming developments threaten the ability of British journalists to do their jobs effectively. (New York Times, 2013) This article was written at a time when the Leveson investigations were in full flow, and they were a clear realization that the free press that Britain once had has gone. Politics in Journalism have always been commonplace, the headlines are filled with what politicians say and do, none more so than the Prime Minister, David Cameron. The Conservative party leader was supposedly fighting, according to the Daily Mail, for press freedom. However instead he went back on his word, the article, titled: How PM betrayed Britain s free press, says: I thought he (Cameron) got everything wrong, The way he set up Leveson was wrong. Frankly, putting Oliver Letwin in charge of anything is a terrible mistake. Marching everyone to the top of the hill in March, saying it was all set in stone, was almost a disaster. And then backing this Hacked Off charter, which three days earlier he d said he was willing to die in a ditch to avoid. (Daily Mail, 2015) He introduced state and press regulation, camouflaging it as a relatively small legislative change. This hasn t been seen in the UK since the 17 th century, and means that the freedom of the press is slowly disappearing. Evgeny Lebedev is the Chairman of Independent Print Limited and publisher of newspapers such as The Independent and The London Evening Standard. Lebedev (Independent, 2011) said that: Unfortunately, their dereliction of duty brings all the press into disrepute. It invites a crackdown of enforced draconian laws and threatens our much-valued press freedom. Freedom of the press is very much akin to free speech, as it s a basic human right for people to be able to say whatever they want. However the idea of free speech is slowly dying. In an article from Press Gazette, dated 5 th December 2013, Tory MP and former journalist Drax (2013) said: It is claimed that the royal charter protects press freedom because it can be changed only by a two-thirds majority in Parliament, but that is

3 illusory. Perhaps one day we can create a British Bill of Rights that incorporates freedom of speech and freedom of the press, which would give us the same protection as the American First Amendment. Despite the fact that all three parties are agreed on the royal charter, I hope that self-regulation will prevail. It is in all our interests. Drax appealed for a UK Bill of Rights in order to try and retain freedom of the press in Britain. The Oxford Dictionary (n.d) definition of free speech, is: the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc. There are some, if little, positives to the current state of Freedom of the Press in the UK. The Guardian have been pioneers in what they ve done as they ve introduced what is called an Open Journalism Policy. Former Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger defines this method of Journalism as the ability of anyone to publish and share material to give a better account of the world. This means that any member of the public can contribute to articles and stories, meaning the boundaries between press and public are being blurred dynamically. Therefore there are, in some cases, much more press freedom than others, through pioneering newspapers such as The Guardian and their ability to bring everyone together. Freedom House hold an annual check on press freedom in countries around the world, and according to their website, in 2015 the UK s press status is free. On a score of 0-100, with 100 being the worst, the UK in 2015 scored 24. This means that we have relatively high amounts of press freedom in our country. However what s interesting is since their records began in 2002, the 2015 score is the highest they ve had for the UK. Scores averaged between 18 and 19 for most years before a huge spike in 2012 to 21. This may be in part due to the phone hacking scandal, which happened in Going back to the idea of the Magna Carta, many would agree with the view that it s become somewhat obsolete and archaic in today s society thanks to other government legislatures in place. Acts such as the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Humans Rights Act 1998 are in place now and render the Magna Carta down into a simple archaic charter which has become a historical wonder, instead of rules we as citizens should live by. While some charters or older work such as the Magna Carta lose resonance as time goes on, others remain relevant and hold bearing within society. For example, Areopagitica, written by Milton (1644), is a pamphlet which opposes censorship and the attempts by the government to limit the freedom of the press.

4 The famous quote of the pamphlet is: He who destroys a good book kill s reason itself. It s also referenced to in the Orwell (1946) essay, The Prevention of Language. Itself an essay regarding the freedom of the press, Orwell writes about totalitarianism and how Freedom of the intellect means the freedom to report what one has seen, heard and felt, and not to be obliged to fabricate imaginary facts and feelings. This is somewhat true when looking at war journalism. In John Pilger s The War You Don t See, Pilger (2011) talks about embedded journalists, and that what is reported on the big news networks may not necessarily reflect what is actually happening in the war torn countries. He says in the film: For propaganda relies on us in the media to aim its deceptions not at a far away country but at you at home... In this age of endless imperial war, the lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth or their blood is on us... Those whose job it is to keep the record straight ought to be the voice of people, not power." This relates directly to the stifling of press freedom, as due to the real stories not being told and propaganda being used. Also political allegiance has a big say in free speech. Nearly every national media institution leans a certain way politically, be it The Daily Mail and their more right wing stance, or The Daily Mirror s leaning towards the left wing, what paper a journalist writes for can have a big impact. If the journalist is a member of the left wing, it will be incredibly difficult for them to write for a Conservative paper such as the Daily Mail. Orwell wrote: Freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose. However should a left wing journalist writing for a right wing paper start criticizing David Cameron s latest policies in their articles, their credibility within the paper disappears, as well as his right to free speech. One rather interesting topic in which to end on would be; Orwell wrote The Prevention of Literature in 1946, next year will be its 70 th anniversary. In his essay he writes: To exercise your right of free speech you have to fight against economic pressure and against strong sections of public opinion, but not, as of yet, a secret police force. If we go back to the earlier point regarding Theresa May s plan to instill surveillance on the internet, maybe Orwell prophesized such an event happening. As now one s every move on the internet will be monitored and restricts free speech and freedom of the press much more. The popular consensus is that freedom of the press and free speech no longer exist, especially not in the UK. The US are saved by the bill of rights

5 which names it a basic human right to be entitled to free speech, but as Orwell s most famous work is 1984, are we as a country heading towards a totalitarian style society? Perhaps not to the extent of Newspeak and the Thought Police, but the press is further restricted and soon a free thought may not be possible, with more and more scrutiny being placed on an individual s right to speak their mind and write about what it is they feel passionate about. In conclusion, Britain is in a state where freedom of the press doesn t exist. This has been proven through the arrests of journalists for refusing to reveal their sources for stories. The UK government attempting to alter the Freedom of Information act, and the lack of a Bill of Rights-esque document in place which preserves both freedom of the press and free speech.