The transcripts of the official inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press. More…
Thank you.
I feel we've covered the ground, and having been a Member of Parliament for 30 years and, before that, being involved in press issues, I really do feel that this is a real moment of opportunity, and I think all of us in Parliament and those in the press ...
Well, really, just to -- I don't want to reiterate what Ed Miliband said, but that as well as having cross-media ownership addressed, there is also the issue of ownership of newspapers. The fact that things are changing fast doesn't mean that you are rendered unable to take any ...
I mean, I can see the protections at the beginning and the protections at the end. I think that -- you know, my main concern is that we make some progress, we have a redress system, we have protection against too great a concentration of ownership. I think it's an ...
Yes.
I certainly think that it's been made much clearer in terms of the decision to prosecute, but I can -- I do actually think there would be some benefit of looking at further safeguards in terms of substantive defences. You know, it might be that you think the press is ...
But I don't think you'd be providing a protection for wrongdoing of the sort that the evidence has been in front of this Inquiry -- would be --
I think we've got as far as agreeing the principles. It's just how you put those principles into action. I think that a lot of the discussion around the Inquiry, I can kind of see the topography of the principles. The next stage is, you know, quite how ...
Because I think that in a way we have to leave enough scope and flexibility for there to be an agreement about this and we have to move away from: "Well, actually, I'm going to take this position." We have to leave ourselves enough scope without being wishy-washy.
Yeah. I mean -- yes. I don't think that we'd have tablets of stone, because we want to be flexible, but there are, you know, various criteria which have to be met. I mean, I've resisted the temptation of actually thinking that I know what the answer is ...
Well, it's ... um ... good. I think it's as yet relatively untested but it tries to have statutory underpinning or an independent system.
Well, I think the argument that if they do it under seal, that they are bound at least for five years, but then there could be what happens after that or ... I just don't think it's good enough. It does need to have some statutory empowerment, some statutory ...
I think it would have to, and it might not even be a sort of joining model. But I think that any model which just requires you to join it voluntarily, and if you don't doesn't apply to you, that's not -- that is the status quo, basically ...
I mean, I would throw in one thing on the code, which is that it rightly affords protection for young people and children, but actually there is a vulnerability for the very elderly which probably should be added in. But I think by and large the focus and concern has ...
Well, I suppose it could be called a statutory recognition. I think it's a process of elimination, really. The contract model has the problem which is -- I think the definition of a contract is an agreement freely entered into by two parties. If it's freely entered into, they ...
They don't want a slippery slope. It's a very unusual situation for me to be speaking on behalf of editors of the press, but -- I don't think they want a slippery slope, but I think that we could have a firm cross-party consensus where actually, if the ...
Well, there's been, I would say, more of a sense of what they don't want than what they do want, which I've pointed out to them and said it would be good for them to put forward what they do want, what they don't want, and ...
I think if they circle the wagons around the status quo, then we will have heard the heart-lending testimony to this Inquiry of the Dowlers, the Watson family, the McCanns, and nothing will have changed, and that can't be acceptable. So I've been trying to encourage them that ...
One of the reasons why I've been talking to individual editors is to, in a way, encourage them to circle the wagons, but around a set of principles which everybody can agree on, which is that there does need to be redress for people where the code is breached ...
Well, I think it goes back to what Tony Blair said in what became known as his 2007 "feral beast" speech, is that we, after all those years in opposition and believing that we wanted to get into government to do things on the health service and on unemployment and ...
Yes, 1988.
Oh, 1988.
I'm sure there were, and I'm sure there were many things which contributed to us not getting elected in 1992 over and above the bombardment that we'd received from the Murdoch press, but we felt that since, I think, Neil Kinnock first put forward those arguments in ...
Well, I think that the -- this Inquiry provides the opportunity for a real stepping back and for a recognition that actually politicians of all parties have got a great vested interest in a free press in a democracy, and that part of that obviously is making sure that the press ...
Harriet Harman.