Another comment, if I'm allowed to, from an amateur: it does seem to me that it's important that editors should be seen as in charge, ethically speaking. That's -- so of course, it's their judgment whether a story is published, but it also ought to be under ...

In answer to the question I think I'm inclined to say "all of the above", as it were, but -- well, one should have more enforcement of whatever codes or laws are in place, and it does seem as though a culture change is needed and that more stringency in ...

I think I'm not clear what kinds of cases we're thinking of as being weighed in the balance, but it seems to me it would misdescribe certain cases to think that it's freedom of expression that we're weighing against privacy. If a journalist reports a story ...

I mean, if one takes a particular piece of vocabulary. Imagine that a word which now we know no one uses had continued to be used and with the same force, and that had been done through the press, cumulatively, to all. The consequences would be terrible.

There's not just the megaphone effect but the cumulative effect.

It connects directly with the megaphone effect. It would be intolerable that individual speech should constantly be monitored in case they were offending in any way but that's not the only reason why one cares more about press speech than individual speech. It's also because a million people ...

Can I agree with that? I think it connects with how one thinks about a right to free speech. Because it's much discussed in connection with the First Amendment of the US constitution, one tends to think of the right to free speech in legal terms, and given recent ...

In my view, it's not sufficient.

I mean that they haven't tried to bring it about, for instance, that they earn money by virtue of public exposure. They haven't stated opinions which --

Yes. I think one's private life is put in jeopardy only by voluntary acts which ensure that one's in the public gaze in ways that one otherwise wouldn't be. People who earn large sums of money, whether because they play football are not, are likely to be ...

Yes, I'm inclined to think that people's morality, whoever they are, whether public officials or not, is a private matter and protected as private. But I also think that there are things individuals can do which put their right to privacy in jeopardy, so for instance by ensuring ...

Yes. Yes. I mean, there are so many contexts in which speech is used. Professor Mendus has referred to the seminar room, and there I take it that an academic will ensure that no student is vilified by virtue of their being a member of a group and they have ...

Yes, I'm thinking that the legislation would certainly not prevent someone saying to his mate something which ensured that pejorative reference was made to a group, and it would -- we'd be extraordinarily restricted if there was legislation which prevented that. Nonetheless, when the press is reporting a story ...

Not matter so much, yes.

Yes, I want to mention the press' special responsibility or duty in respect of legislation, all of it relatively recent, which enshrines a right to equal treatment. So it's legislation under the broad head of anti-discrimination. It seems to me that the press -- given there's such legislation, the ...

Well, there's a view which I think in this country has been held since 1960 that what people do in private is up to them. That's a question of their morality; it's not a question for the law. And that could be true, but that doesn't ...

You wanted to know whether we would distinguish between press ethics and individual ethics, and when you spoke of the individual, you talked about morality and people can define their own morality. It does seem to me important to make a distinction between morality and ethics, and in the case ...

Can I just say something about your question?

Yes, that surely is the issue. Once one's acknowledged that entertainment can be a function, one has to take examples and see what the effects are of things which purport to entertain are doing besides possibly entertaining.

Sure, sure. No, indeed, and I qualified -- of course --

Oh, I'm sure it's fine that the press should entertain. There's a question how it should entertain and whether one has concerns which ensure that certain modes of entertainment have other effects than entertaining. But I do the crossword every day. It's entertainment. I realise you ...

I think it's extraordinarily important to distinguish between the free market, in which capitalists all believe and if it's restricted it's by competition law, and a free market and ideas, and in -- I agree that the free market isn't conducive to the best sort of press ...

Mm-hm.

Good.

Can I make a comment on this question of importance and whether the press is focusing on that? You suggested, I think, that it was, as it were, a subjective matter. Who is to say what's important? But I think the megaphone effect does raise a question about importance ...

It means that publications in the press are peculiarly vulnerable to promoting stereotypes, because it's -- what's heard is widely heard. If it's assumed that a member of a group is portrayed as a typical member of that group, then attitudes at large towards the group will be ...

There were a considerable number and I haven't written them all down.

It seems to me that individual freedom of expression of course accrues to journalists. I don't think freedom of the press could possibly be coterminous with individual free expression because I think the public has an ...

Yes. I mean, speech has an expressive dimension and it can when it's in print as well as when it's spoken, though it more readily is expressive, for instance, of hatred when it's spoken.

If I could just say, I was trying to distinguish speech que communicative ...

Can I say something about the qualification of the right? This is often thought of in connection with "fire" in a crowded theatre and John Stuart Mill had inciting a riot against the corn dealers or whatever -- so positive harm coming from a piece of speech -- but it does seem ...

Yes, I think there is such a right which accrues to individuals as autonomous citizens but I think that in understanding why a right to free speech should be accorded to people in a democracy, one needs to see beyond the questions of individual autonomy and to understand that in ...

My main areas are philosophy of mind and language but I teach courses relating to issues about free speech, hate speech, pornography, in connection with gender and philosophy.