As already mentioned on this blog, at least one editor has said the libel laws made him nervous of printing allegations of broadcaster Jimmy Savile’s abuse of young girls. There are certainly more complex reasons behind the failure to properly report the story in the past, but it is worth looking at the broader ethical questions the case raises. Former trustee and long-time associate of Index on Censorship Mark Stephens has posed one such question on Twitter this morning.
Moral dilemma of the day: would it have been ok to phone hack Jimmy Savile to get evidence and expose his child abuse and grooming? #leveson
— Mark Stephens (@MarksLarks) October 11, 2012
Or, to generalise the question: what kind of issue justifies intrusion and subterfuge on the part of journalists? And what level of intrusion and subterfuge? It’s a problem Lord Justice Leveson’s panel of assessors is bound to be discussing. What do you think?
6 Comments
If Jimmy Saville did do all the stuff he is alleged to have done then it’s nothing to do with libel. It’s a case for the police.
Nothing to do with libel? On the contrary, libel is largely irrelevant when it comes to the journalistic gathering of and publishing hard evidence of criminal activities. That is part of what journalists do. It is in their job description. You could call it a public service obligation.
Mark Stephens asks a most pertinent question, and one to which there is no easy answer. That the question raises issues concerning the largely vacuous public debate around Leveson says more about the inquiry than it does about journalistic ethics.
Hacking his phone would, presumably, have been tried because a journo a. knew Savile was a sex offender and b. thought some evidence of actual criminal wrongdoing was there. So it would be morally (if not legally) justifiable. It’s very different to simply ‘fishing’ for showbiz gossip. Dishonesty is often justifiable in the pursuit of a greater good. Who gets to decide what the ‘greater good’ is – that’s another can o’ worms.
No it wouldn’t have been. Phone hacking is just as bad as child abuse.
What about the paedophiles within St John who are about to be awarded by the Queen’s representative:
http://bit.ly/ourNZexperience
nice !