JOURNALISTS in the United Kingdom found guilty of improper conduct should be disciplined by an industry-appointed regulator with powers to limit their ability to earn a living in the trade, one of the UK’s most powerful editors has proposed.
Under a plan put forward by Daily Maileditor Paul Dacre, a single national press card would be issued, rather than the 17 professional identity cards currently available from the National Union of Journalists, the Metropolitan Police and others.
It would be available only to staff working for publications registered with a new, more powerful version of the Press Complaints Commission, Mr Dacre told the Leveson Inquiry.
“The public at large would know journalists carrying such cards are bona-fide operators committed to a set of standards and a body to who complaints can be made,” he said. “Reporters and photographers would use the cards as proof that they’re responsible journalists.”
In return, all government organisations, police, sporting bodies and other organisations would agree to admit only registered journalists to their press conferences or briefings.
Such a trade-off would ensure publishers signed up for tougher self-regulation. “No publisher could survive if its reporters and writers were barred from such vital areas of journalistic interest.”
Supporting the creation of a press ombudsman similar to the Irish model, he said such a figure should have powers to withdraw the press card from journalists guilty of “gross malfeasance”.
It would not amount to state licensing, since it would be created and controlled by journalists, but the power to withdraw the card would encourage good behaviour.
Meanwhile, he said mistakes had been made in a Daily Mailcolumn printed days after Boyzone singer Stephen Gately was found dead on holiday, which said "there was nothing natural" about his "strange and lonely" death.
The column, by Jan Moir, elicited 25,000 complaints.
“Perhaps the timing was a little regrettable,” Mr Dacre said. “The column could have benefited from a little judicious subediting, but I would die in a ditch to defend a columnist’s right to have her views. There isn’t a homophobic bone in Jan Moir’s body.”
During testy exchanges with the inquiry’s counsel Robert Jay, Mr Dacre rejected a suggestion he had taken a strong interest in the killing of London teenager Stephen Lawrence, because the boy’s father had “once done some plastering” for him.
The Daily Mailran a front-page headline calling five men "murderers" the day after their trial for murder collapsed in 1998, daring them to sue. Two of the men were finally jailed last month for the killing.
He also defended his decision to accuse actor Hugh Grant of having uttered "mendacious smears" at one of the Leveson Inquiry's first hearings when the actor accused the Daily Mailof phone hacking.
"I have never placed a story in the Daily Mailas a result of phone hacking," Mr Dacre said. "I know of no cases of phone hacking. Having conducted a major internal inquiry, I'm as confident as I can be that there's no phone hacking on the Daily Mail."
Grant had made “a career by invading his own privacy” by constantly talking about wanting to be a father, yet complaining his privacy had been invaded when photographers sought to get shots of his daughter, born last year.
Paparazzi could be controlled, he added, by ensuring agencies selling their photographs were registered with the new regulator; publications should be discouraged from dealing with any who refused to sign up to its code.
