Why We Exist?

This has come about after some thought and obviously in light of the recent Phone Hacking Scandal and the Leveson Inquiry.
For far too long now I think we, as a country as a whole, have tolerated what is wrong with our media in terms of morality, ethics, and above all common decency! At the risk of using clichés, I am happy to see a liberal and diverse media, but what we see in some of our papers is more of a tyranny than freedom. It involves sharp practices and bullying to more than disgraceful levels. If there is ever a time to campaign hard and to work hard in whatever way each of us sees fit to create a national debate, change our media for the better and to hold them to account, and to make them realise that they are as answerable as MP's and bankers, and the rest of society this is it!
Here is something I wrote recently in light of the launch of the Sun On Sunday: 

I hope to one day live in a society where most people make moral choices in what paper they buy
I hope to one day live in a society where our media treat people as innocent before proven guilty
I hope to one day live in a society where papers do not invade people's privacy to the point where they might as well be a dissident in a dictatorship, and to cap it all the paper responsible pretend they are Woodward and Bernstein in their defence
I hope to one day live in a society where papers do not have moral outrage consistently paraded in their editorials, whilst consistently having page three girls or photos of attractive teenage girls receiving their examination results. Why not some average looking girls and boys as well?
I hope to one day live in a society where columnists no longer say outrageous and offensive things for the sake of attention
I hope to one day live in a society where the values of Reith outstrip the values of Northcliffe when it comes to journalism
I hope to one day live in a society where there are more Marie Colvin's and less hacks who defend ripping apart someone's private life for the sake of public titillation
I hope to one day live in a society where journalists, hacks, and Editors not only publicly apologise for painful and needless offence, but realise that to apologise is because you are wrong, not because you expect forgiveness, and to see where they are wrong
I hope to live in a society where some Editors are less Pharisaical and more humble
I hope to one day live in a society where whole sections of society are not demonised by some papers because they are different to many of their readers'
I hope to live in a society where some journos realise that their attitudes and behaviour put people like me off becoming a regular tabloid journalist for life
I hope to live in a society where tabloids realise they can be like the Daily Mirror in the 1970s and mix light entertainment with good investigative copy that educates, entertains, and informs, not titilates, divides, and causes fear, anger, and resentment
I look forward to the day when I feel there has been enough change in me where I can show more humility regarding the things I detest and loathe within the media

None of us are saints, we all have, simply through parting with our loose change, perhaps helped contribute to much about what we dislike about our press. This is also not ignoring the dumbing down sensationalism of TV to levels that are beyond acceptable. One thinks of the Big Brother fiasco some five years ago where a Bollywood actress was bullied and harassed. Equally I am aware that some of my own choices may be wrong for all I know.

The aims of this group is to discuss, debate, and consider what is wrong with our media, and communicate to the wider world what we want to see change. Papers like the Sun, or the Daily Mail, or Express (three obvious examples) will not change unless enough people are disgusted enough and do more than shrug their shoulders or buy such papers for justifications such as good supliments or crosswords. Equally it does us no good as a society to denigrate and insult such readers when they have fears that are being preyed on. They need our understanding and our opportunity to gently persuade them, not our insults because we deem them less intelligent and/or less moral.


We hope you will join us. At the moment we have two aims. To see a Code of Conduct that is done in a way that it is maintained well with safeguards in light of the Leveson Inquiry, and to work at persuading the public to question the choices they making in purchasing any aspect of the media and that it has moral implications.