IPSO Princess, Press, Privacy: Mail breaches Code

Why the bikini photographs of Princess Beatrice fell foul of Ipso.

WEB tightens as BBFC expands to online age checks

Pornography sites face UK block under enhanced age controls.


PRO
Protecting children


ANTI
Unrealistic aim?
Potentially restricting adult freedom of choice: many sites would simply block UK IP addresses (identifying web users as being in the UK) rather than run the risk of fines, or take on the cost of a separate monitoring and age verification system for this one market
Potential for government abuse: the legislation uses the terms pornography and adult content interchangably; as we've discussed with Baise Moi the term pornography is slippery enough, but adult content can be defined as widely as the government wishes.

ADVERTISING Mail bricks it over Lego boycott campaign

Campaigners claim victory after Lego stops Daily Mail promotions http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/12/lego-ends-daily-mail-links-campaigners-claim-victory?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Greenslade sums up why IPSO isn't credible

Greenslade has an interesting position: opposed to statutory intervention but argues that IPSO remains a regulator The Guardian should refuse to sign up to, for reasons he makes very clear...

Why I have opposed the Guardian being regulated by Ipso.

Why I reject press regulation through the royal charter.

Impress is here to stay. Let’s quit the barricades and think anew about press regulation.

Press freedom danger if MPs vote in section 40 by the back door.

MPs and peers question independence of press watchdog.

Mail is dangerous driver say 50 organisations

Note there is no mention of IPSO in this story. The Muslim Council of Britain organised 50 civic organisations (including the biggest teachers union, the NUT) to co-sign a letter of protest over a Mail front page claiming foreign drivers were much more dangerous than UK drivers. 

Not exactly a sign of public confidence in IPSO as a credible regulator.

Daily Mail draws criticism over front page story targeting foreign drivers http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/04/daily-mail-draws-criticism-over-front-page-story-targeting-foreign-drivers?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

In Brexit Britain, being a foreigner marks me out as evil

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/03/brexit-britain-being-foreigner-evil-tabloids-racist?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Press Power Politics History

PPPH
Taking the p's, rather like the tabloids who dehumanised migrants, deified Maggie, and told us the EU were insisting only straight bananas were sold. After 30 years of such incessant truth trashing trivia treasuring guff why would anyone be surprised by Brexit, or the 2015 Tory victory predicted by...well, nobody.

But...digital disruption has trounced the press, with much of its ad revenue sucked online, and Leveson a boot to a dog not just down but on its last legs. Press power?! Passe more like.

Such are the opposing trains of thought on the influence of the UK national press.

The lengthy article linked below takes a wider view, looking back over centuries at an industry that seems to have been through boom and bust many times in power terms but still sparks fierce debate over its power or otherwise.

T May is freshly 'elected' (no election other than amongst Tory MPs) PM, and Murdoch seamlessly continues decades of power by being an early guest.

Yet press circulation is collapsing...

Like film effects, press power seems a simple point to make but slippier than a greased eel advised by Blackadder when it comes to 'objective' academic proof.

If the UK press (and politics) are new to you, this long read will provide a great introductory briefing you could then extend by reading some of Brian McNair's superb work, or the more radical critique of the classic Curran and Seaton tome Power Without Responsibility.

Revenge of the tabloids http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/27/revenge-of-the-tabloids-brexit-dacre-murdoch?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

LAW Lords create charter by back door?

Phone-hacking victims win House of Lords support over legal costs http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/11/phone-hacking-victims-win-house-of-lords-support-over-legal-costs?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

LAW Courts put boot into press as fines rise

Newspapers warned of heavy fines if they identify victims in sex cases http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/11/newspapers-warned-of-heavy-fines-if-they-identify-victims-in-sex-cases?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Murdoch reigns with private PM meeting

Theresa May had private meeting with Rupert Murdoch http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/29/theresa-may-meeting-rupert-murdoch-times-sun?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

IPSO By George, royal privacy privilege harks back to Press Council

Are William and Kate right to pursue zero tolerance policy on privacy? http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/sep/16/are-william-and-kate-right-to-pursue-zero-tolerance-policy-on-privacy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

BBC chair sacked by Prime Minister

Theresa May's role in BBC chief's exit 'brutal and extraordinary' http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/14/theresa-may-role-bbc-chief-exit-brutal-extraordinary-rona-fairhead?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

IPSO condemned as toothless by Select Committee

'Toothless' press watchdog Ipso not delivering in key areas, say MPs http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/13/press-watchdog-ipso-mp-sir-alan-moses?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Facebook denudes democracy?

(denude = diminish, undermine)

More and more of us are growing used to Facebook as the site where we encounter news media content, ignoring its intrusiveness and focusing on its convenience.

If Facebook decides to censor content that can be as impactive (maybe more in some cases) than formal regulators or government intervention (which often backfires).

This latest example calls to mind the debate over a Scorpions album cover. Both centre on a nude image of a child, making discussing the cases problematic.

The CEO of Aftenposten’s publisher, Schibsted Media Group, said Facebook had tried to stop the newspaper publishing “one of the most important photos of our time”. Rolv Erik Ryssdal added: “It is not acceptable. Facebook’s censorship is an attack on the freedom of expression – and therefore on democracy.”

Facebook deletes Norway PM's post as 'napalm girl' row escalates http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/09/facebook-deletes-norway-pms-post-napalm-girl-post-row?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

See also Nudity and Facebook's censors have a long history

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/09/facebook-history-censoring-nudity-automated-human-means?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Zuckerberg continues to claim that Facebook is not a media company, just a technology company. But it is one with arguably more power than any other organisation on the planet for influencing the news agenda through promotion or censorship.

FACEBOOK BACKED DOWN AFTER ALL THE TERRIBLE PUBLICITY
Facebook backs down from 'napalm girl' censorship and reinstates photo

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/09/facebook-reinstates-napalm-girl-photo?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

The likes of Mark Zuckerberg already rule the media. Now they want to censor the past

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/09/mark-zuckerberg-censor-facebook-tech-titans?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

ADVERTISER POWER YouTube censors demonetised videos

A notable outcry here, as it reinforces one of the fundamental lessons needed to grasp the complexities of media regulation: advertisers form a de facto, informal regulator. If they won't pay for space in your outlet, in most media industries that will lead to a revenue crisis.

Chomsky has advertiser power as one of the five filters in his propaganda model.

The row and resignation over the Daily Telegraph spiking critical stories about HSBC to protect its advertising account with the bank; the 1960s manoeuvres of The Times to get rid of its new working class readers when advertisers refused to pay any extra for these non-ABC1s; Murdoch closing NoTW only when multiple advertiser boycotts were announced, with more to follow after social media campaigns, which threatened to contaminate other News Corp outlets; the fate of the Daily Herald, a left-wing, union owned paper that was for a time the biggest selling in the world, but would ultimately collapse and reappear as Murdoch's right-wing S*n ...

Some of the trashy YouTube content undermined by YouTube withdrawing ads from 'unsuitable' videos may appear trivial, but the principles of freedom of speech and media diversity are always most easily undermined by picking soft targets to establish censorial practices that can then be arbitrarily widened.

YouTube and Facebook, together with their all-important advertisers, exist as largely unregulated behemoths, gaining an ever expanding role in the media landscape. Censorship, whether it comes down to algorithm 'tweaks' or demonetising videos matters as mainstream media's reliance on digital platforms, not least these two, grows.

With more and more low/micro-budget and back catalogue films going online, not least through YouTube, this can also be viewed as an alternative form of regulation to the formal BBFC system.

YouTube video makers protest as ads are stripped from 'inappropriate' content.

LIBEL Mail faces $150m Trump suit

Read Guardian article here.

Another major example of the difficulty facing any NATIONAL regulator, and the limitations of any media regulator when the rich can always use law courts.

A suit has been filed in Maryland claiming an extraordinary $150m damages after a Mail article is claimed to have defamed Donald Trump's wife Melania.

Unlike the Gawker case this is not enough to bankrupt the Mail - but if they lose it surely will have a huge impact on the press in the UK and beyond.

Trump is using the same lawyer that successfully claimed huge damages in the Hulk Hogan case, seeing Gawker go bust.

This is something of a reverse from recent years when the UK was widely used for libel tourism as accusers were more likely to win than in their home country and also to gain much harsher punishments and publishing restrictions.

Trump has launched 100s of libel suits and legal cases - never forget that the sheer cost of defending these is a serious issue for many media outlets, who will be more reluctant to fulfil their democratic reporting function when it comes to Trump as a result.

IPSO, just like the PCC, has nothing to say on this - shouldn't it (with OfCom?) be a factor here?

See: Melania Trump sues Daily Mail for $150m over 'lies' about her past.