CAROLINE FLACK suicide fuels press reform calls but not from gov

The Labour leadership have picked up on the case, Keir Starmer especially - he stated he would act to improve the "diversity" of the UK press.

I'd say that's the most radical threat issued in a generation or more by a senior politician, signalling a very interventionist stance. He'd presumably subsidise new rivals? Not an easy outcome to achieve with almost all the national press being right-wing and pro-Tory.

Public disgust over the tabloid treatment of a sitcom star led directly to the Press Council being scrapped and replaced by the PCC after the Calcutt Committee report in 1989. Murdoch responded to renewed public disgust after the NoTW was revealed to be tied into phone-hacking a murdered schoolgirl's phone (Milly Fowler) by shutting down the paper to stop a highly effective advertiser boycott campaign spreading to The S*n, Times, Sky or his US interests.

It's always harder to achieve reform under a Tory government, whose electability is enhanced by the press, but this case has the potential to build huge pressure to do something about the state of press (voluntary, self-!) regulation.

Politicians condemn press intrusion after Caroline Flack's death

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/feb/16/politicians-condemn-press-intrusion-after-caroline-flacks-death?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail