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Live blog: The 2012 Society of Editors’ conference

10.38. SoE president Jonathan Grun thanks everyone for attending and draws the conference to a close.

10.35. Mark told how Newsnight used to have a ‘bang’ versus ‘hassle’ rule when considering investigations. “How big an impact is this going to make, and how much time am I going to have to spend clearing it up afterwards.” This, he said, went some way to explaining what might have happened when Newsnight decided not to run the initial Jimmy Savile story.

10.26. Brian refuses to be drawn on a question about phone hacking at his sister paper, the News of the World, “a newsroom I’ve never even walked into”. But he did say: “We have lost trust as an industry and there’s no doubt that phone hacking has a lot to do with that.” He added: “What’s under threat is public interest journalism; that’s why we need to find our confidence and get that trust back, or people who should be exposed for what they are doing are not.”

10.18. Brian: “We all know what investigative journalism is – it’s bloody good, old fashioned journalism, it involves checks, going out to see for yourself rather than relying on someone else’s word for it. That’s why it’s expensive and that’s why we have to fight for it.”

10.11.  Ruth: Told how Channel 4’s compliance procedures were “extremely vigorous”, as opposed to the BBC’s. Brian: “When considering a story that has been contributed you cannot assume that someone else has made the necessary checks.”

10.06. Question from the floor on the debacle surrounding the London Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s Newsnight debacle. How much will this damage the industry? Mark said you need “good, digging journalists” but you also need strong editorial control, and this was obviously not in place in this case.

10.01. Brian said that no investigation commences at The Sun these days without it fully complying with the law, the PCC’s Code of Conduct and News International’s own policies. “We need to make sure this does not inhibit our work,” he argued.

9.57. Ruth on funding investigations: She referred to an independent bond, such as the top slicing of the licence fee, and how this could be used to allow investigative journalists to go about their work.

9.52.  Brian said fears that the cost in time and legal costs mean that the choice to undertake investigations are being based not on the public interest of a story, but on the increasing burden of standing up for it afterwards. On Leveson: “If the state is given the power to oversee or limit our work, it could bring about a new ice age and kill off what we all entered journalism to do.” If only the public knew what this could mean, Brian argued, they’d be on our side.

9.52. Brian: “Reporters need to know they will be supported by the authorities as well as their employers” when they are covering difficult, investigative stories in good faith.

9.44. Brian: “Investigative journalism can be a murky business. We all know that the MPs’ expenses scandal was the result of paying for stolen documents.”

9.41. Brian: told of The Sun’s recent exposé of a Nazi cop who’d sent 15,700 to die in World War Two. The paper’s popularity due to celebrity coverage helps fund such investigations, he argued.

9.37. The panellists that are here: Mark Watts, editor, Exaro News; Brian Flynn, investigations editor, The Sun; and Ruth O’Reilly, editor, The Detail.

Tuesday, 9.35. Delegates finish their working breakfast as this morning’s 20:20 Vision session starts. ‘Keeping the investigative end up’ is chaired by Noel Thompson, a presenter on BBC Northern Ireland. Iain Overton, editor of the London Bureau for Investigative Journalism, had been due on the panel, but he pulled out of the conference and resigned yesterday in the wake of his flawed Newsnight tweet.

17.15.  The conference has closed for the day.  Check back at 9.30am for tomorrow’s morning session.

17.10.  Whittingdale concludes with a word of both warning and encouragement:  “There have been appalling failures  in both the broadcasters and the newspapers, but the fundamentals of your profession have not changed….this is a time when you have to demonstrate your adherence to standards. ”

17.08.  “State regulation is no guarantee of accuracy,” says Whittingdale in a swipe at the BBC.  He calls for a “complete overhaul” of the management structure.   

17.05. Who would sit on the board of the statutory regulator, asks Whittingdale?  The information commissioner?  The chairman of the Press Association? The chair of the Arts Council?  The president of the NUJ?

17.00.  Whittingdale discusses some of the practical difficulties with statutory oversight, for instance, defining what a newspaper is.  “The Congleton Chronicle, Private Eye and the Huffington Post would all be outside the system,” he says.  There are also difficulties in principle.  “It is an extraordinarily dangerous precedent.”

16.56.  The problem for those advocating statutory oversight, says John Whittingdale, is that they don’t trust the newspapers to stick to a contractual system. 

16.52.  “At the end of the day, the issue of whether there should be statutory regulation of the press is one that Parliament must take.   The one thing we are all agreed about is that there needs to be new regulator of the press.  I am encouraged that all the major groups have signed up to the new body being put forward by Lord Hunt…the argument has come down to whether it needs to be supported by statute.”

16.49. “This was not just a failure of self-regulation but a failure of law,” says John Whittingdale.  Leveson’s remit, in Part Two, of his inquiry, was specifically to look into this.  “It is a matter of great concern to me that it appears that it appears that Part Two of Leveson may never happen.”

16.46. Whittingdale reminds delegates that three years ago his committee called for a beefed-up version of the PCC.  “It is a matter of regret to us that those recommendations weren’t taken up and business continued as usual,” he tells the conference.

16.42.  Tory MP John Whittingdale, chairman of the House of Commons culture, media and sports committee, takes the stage for the day’s keynote address.   

16.32.  Former Mirror group political editor David Seymour suggests we should have a new Leveson Inquiry into press officers.  “This barrier to what we do is destroying democracy,” he said.

16.20.  From the floor, Steve Lowe of Iliffe News and Media cites the case of Luton Borough Council’s initial refusal to answer questions about how much it paid an outside contractor who organised a festival which went “disastrously wrong.”  He said public authorities were becoming less open as a result of FoI, not more.

16.11.  Finally we hear from the information commissioner Chris Graham, who started out as a journalist in Belfast. He said the problem was not the freedom of information act, but news management. He said his office was seeking to develop ‘best practice’ among public authorities and tackling those that “take an age” to respond to FoI requests.  He also said he would to resist the idea of charges for FoI requests.

16.09.  “We have got to be open, transparent and on the record” says Andy Trotter.  “Most chief constables around the country will meet with journalists on a regular basis.”

16.05. Andy Trotter, chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers communications advisory group responds on behalf of the police.  He claims the police are “much more open” than in the past when journalists were “kept away” from incidents, citing the hunt for April Jones as an example.  “But we’re not going to go back to discussions down the pub.  It’s on the record from a named source.”

15.54. Mike on the practice of pre-prepared answers to questions or ‘journalism by email:’ “Where is the secondary question?  This is being lost to us.”

15.50. Mike Gilson takes the stage. He says that the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont now employs 161 press officers.  “We are pretty much a shut down society.”  A good deal of interaction between journalists and authorities is now channeled down the FoI route, he says.

15.44.   Anthony turns his attentions to the police.     He tells the tale of a routine local newspaper inquiry about a mugging which took the police four days to respond to, by which time the story had missed the deadline.  He says many fire officers have also been banned from speaking to journalists directly.

15.40.  Anthony Longden kicks off with a litany of stories about official secrecy:  “A significant number of local authorities actually prevent journalists speaking to councillors. Journalists are also asked what angle they are going to take before answering questions. ” 

15.30.   We’re now into a session on secrecy v freedom of information and what constitutes the public interest. Wendy Austin of BBC Northern Ireland in the chair.  Contributors include former Newsquest managing editor Anthony Longden, Belfast Telegraph editor Mike Gilson, and Information Commissioner Chris Graham.

15.14.  Jim ends the session with a big prediction: “The day of the tablet is rapidly coming. By 2018 everyone will have one.

15.08. Jim Chisholm, praising Damian Bates’ P&J, said: “Three quarters of the decline in newspaper circulations are self-inflicted” because of lack of interest and investment. “We spend so little on circulation and then wonder why it’s declining.”

15.05. Bates: “We have a bustling, profitable, successful” business based on dead trees, and said it was with more local and less national news.

15.02. Damian Bates: “Are our newspapers really done for? Not if you look at the Aberdeen Press and Journal.” Damian said a well-funded relaunch as a compact was working, with an underlying base sale up year-on-year and period on period.”

14.59. Jim Chisholm asks Carla whether the HuffPo is “too American?” She replies: “People across the world visit the US site,” and not to capitalise on the brand would have been a waste.

14.57. Buzasi: “We’ve taken all the best bits of the US model but now deliver it for a UK audience.” She said the same principles applied to the Post’s European expansion – the original model, plus expertise of local marketplaces. “Listening to our users is crucially important to everything we do… (mixed with) editor’s instinct.”

14.54. Carla Buzasi on the Huffington Post: “It’s been a phenomenal success in the US.” She convinced them to launch Huffington Post UK – “more or less the same but with a Union Jack and a picture of David Cameron one the front”.

14.49. What about profitability, asked Chisholm? Hatfield: “The Independent still loses money, but it loses less money. i makes a positive contribution to The Independent as a whole.”

14.44. Hatfield: “Our strongest days are when we splash on what everyone else splashes on. We deliberately don’t seek to have the quirky splash.”

14.42. Hatfield: “The idea is to target our rivals’ readers – and target those who are lost to the marketplace. This is something different. Unashamedly serious. Unashamedly the same as what’s in the Independent – just subbed down to be shorter. 64 pages for 20p.”

14.39. Stefano Hatfield on the success of the i: “I don’t know why you’re asking me about the future. I’m the idiot who’s launched three newspapers in the last eight years. Diet coke didn’t kill off coke, and the i won’t kill off the Independent.”

14.36. Chisholm: Would local TV survive purely on advertising? Hyndman: “I don’t have the answer to that,” although she pointed to research saying it was possible in places like London and Manchester.

14.33. Marilyn Hyndman, programme director, Northern Visions, which was recently awarded the Local Digital TV licence for Belfast. “It doesn’t need to be London-centric anymore,” said Marilyn, who feels local TV can share programming with anyone, anywhere, from Birmingham to Scotland.

14.27. Chisholm: “What’s the ratio of MEN’s readers in print and online?” Irvine: “Far more online than in print.”

14.25. Rob Irvine: “The future for us is multi media. We should think in terms of where readers want to meet us. Our focus is to be the master publisher.”

14.20. Mike Wolsley, editorial director of Complete Newspaper Solutions: creates and promotes the outsourcing of newspaper production. “CNS builds pages, sub copy, create templates for Belfast Telegraph – saving them money to reinvest in editorial.” Technology means that for remote subbing “distance doesn’t matter”.

14.15. Long, praiseworthy introduction to the panellists from Jim. Nearly done.

14.09. Delegates return. Newspaper analyst Jim Chisholm is about to chair ‘Adapt or die. Whatever next?’, with editor panellists including Rob Irvine of the Manchester Evening News, Carla Buzasi of Huffington Post, Stefano Hatfield of i and Damian Bates of the Aberdeen Press and Journal. The subject: ‘From micro TV to hyper local – what’s new in the news emporium?’

12.17.  The conference has now adjourned for lunch.  Proceedings resume at 2.15pm.

12.03.  Regional newspapers are read by 33m people a week, says Rufus Olins, while more people in the UK use regional newspaper websites than are on Facebook .  “We have to stop talking the industry down.”

12.02.  Full story now up on the journalism training survey results.

11.58.  Rufus Olins, chief executive of Newsworks, is highlighting the good work done by journalists.  He cites the Manchester Evening News’ campaign against child poverty and the Coventry Telegraph’s recent campaign to secure life saving operations for two patients as good examples.

11.33.  Joanne Butcher says there must be more emphasis on ethics in journalism training.  She also says it’s a scandal that some students are on courses that will not equip them for career in media.

 11.30.  Onto a short session on journalism training.  The results of the SoE training survey show editors think there are too many courses while trainees are confused about the number of accreditation bodies.   Steve Lowe of Iliffe News and Media questions whether NCTJ training has caught up with the new era of newsrooms without sub-editors.    NCTJ chief executive Joanne Butcher says students are now taught editing as well as reporting skills as part of the Journalism Diploma.

10.55. the last comment came from Lord Black: “Statute simply isn’t achievable, which is why we have to show how self-regulation can work.”

10.52. Hewlett: “If the PCC had struck a different pose over phone-hacking” could Leveson have been avoided? Black: “History could have looked different.”

10.49. Blackhurst: “We could be deluged in two weeks time (by Leveson)…”

10.46. On the Internet: Horgan said the Twittersphere was “unregulatable except by civil and criminal law”.

10.43. From the floor, ex-Mirror exec David Seymour said the press was “its own worst enemy” because it “didn’t see the train coming” and was “arrogant and insensitive” in the way it dealt with complaints.

10.35. Horgan: “The problem in unfixable… And we shouldn’t try to fix the unfixable. But we can make the system better.”

10.31. Lord Black: “A new form of self-regulation should be a supporter of good journalism and the scourge of bad journalism.”

10.29. Media lawyer David Price QC is against state regulation: “Irresponsibility is an integral part of press freedom… There will be some abuse but that is the necessary price of freedom.”

10.25. Hagerty added: “I don’t believe we should have any statutory regulation at all.”

10.23. Veteran editor Bill Hagerty: “The PCC was doing a reasonable job,” and although the media was wrong in its sensational coverage of celebrities this did not mean statutory regulation was right. “It would take the edge off journalism.” It would result in a press “in fear”. “It’s like an industry running scared and it terrifies me.”

10.18. Philippa Kennedy, Ombudsman at The Sun: “They (Hugh Grant and co) don’t understand that most journalists, most of the time, try to get things right.”

10.15. Phil Harding, former Controller of Editorial Policy at the BBC, warned newspaper editors about overkill on the current BBC crisis: “Be careful what you wish for. It’s not going to do the press any good to get their own back on this one.”

10.11. Lord Black, executive director of the Telegraph Group: “Licensing of newspapers would be abhorrent.”

10.07. Preston added that the way politicians were lining up to make editorial judgements on the current BBC crisis showed how they could “constantly interfere” if state regulation was introduced for newspapers.

10.03. Former Guardian editor Peter Preston said “it’s very dangerous to let politicians into this area (of regulation) at all”.

10.01.  Blackhurst added that if self-regulation was to continue “we have to move on from existing and former editors… sitting in judgement… We’ve lost that argument.”

9.55. Chris Blackhurst, editor of The Independent: “Some statutory regulation will be inevitable” and he worries about this because there are so many politicians “with axes to grind”.

9.51. Professor John Horgan, the Press Ombudsman, Republic of Ireland, explained how a Privacy Bill and effective state regulation was resisted earlier this year in the Republic. His view is that the “best way to proceed” is for the civil courts to work with the ombudsman, and public opinion in Ireland is that the Press Council is doing “a reasonable job”.

9.44. “The BBC must remain entirely independent”, added Lord Inglewood.

9.41. Lord Inglewood, chairman of the House of Lords Communications Committee, warns that “the sticky fingers” of both the government and politicians should “not have anything at all to do with any state regulation of newspapers.”

9.32. The first session, ‘The World after Leveson’, eventually gets under way after a delayed arrival by panel chairman Steve Hewlett, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show. Steve had been understandably busy on multiple news shows all morning…

9.29.  The session on the Leveson Inquiry begins.  “We had been hoping to have Leveson here himself,” says SoE director Bob Satchwell. 

9.15.  Outgoing Society of Editors president and head of BBC newsgathering Fran Unsworth opens the conference – by video message.  She’s unable to attend in person because of the crisis at the corporation.  Fran stayed behind in London last night to lead her team covering the story, and has this morning been named as the Beeb’s acting head of news.  Incoming president Jonathan Grun, who is here in person, stood in with a short opening address in which he spoke of “difficult times for journalism.”

9.00. Welcome to our 2011 Society of Editors’ conference live blog. Here we’ll be providing up-to-the-minute coverage of the year’s biggest industry gathering, being held at the Europa Hotel, Belfast.

Last night the conference opened with the annual Society of Editors’ Lecture, this year delivered by the former Conservative cabinet minister and current Press Complaints Commission chairman, Lord Hunt.

Today the focus of debate will be on the Leveson Inquiry and relationships between the press, politicians, the police and the public.   There will also be a session entitled ‘Adapt or Die’ looking at the future of the news industry.

Regional press figures taking part in the debates include Manchester Evening News editor-in-chief Rob Irvine, Press and Journal editor Damian Bates, and Belfast Telegraph editor Mike Gilson.

The live blog is brought to you by HoldtheFrontPage publisher Paul Linford, and HTFP blogger and former Birmingham Mail and Teesside Gazette editor Steve Dyson.

We’ll be covering all the speeches and developments as they happen so check back here for regular updates.

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  • November 12, 2012 at 10:15 am
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    We don’t want any state regulation of the press / media whatsoever. Journalists must be completely free to expose wrongdoing in public life.

    There are legal remedies if people feel they have been defamed.

    How can you possibly regulate the press in any way when people who post on Twitter / Facebook etc can say what they like, and in most cases, get away with it?

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