Statutory Regulation - Essay

What are the arguments for and against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry? 

Statutory regulation has been argued for years now and i believe that it will continue to be argued for a long time to come, as even the people who are fighting for either side must have acknowledged that there are both advantages and disadvantages of both sides and clear points which are being made. 

Firstly we can see that there have been many instances of misconduct from the press and what they have done, which has invaded the privacy of the public regardless of whether or not they argue that it is in the public interest as they mainly target people who are of interest and have some sort of fame or status as this is the content which the public would be interested in and need to be aware of, however the methods which they use are not close to being ethically decent and sometimes may even be breaking the law. The press seem to be using the right of freedom of speech to allow them to do whatever they please, whether it means that they are gathering evidence against someone or simply attempting to gather a scoop for their paper. The papers are also extremely influential in the way that they can reach such a broad audience due to their large readership and use this to make the public form the same opinions, which they have on people. A clear example of misconduct and misuse of power is the case of Christopher jeffries.
The press have also had the opportunity to regulate themselves through things they have formed such as the PPC and this has clearly proved to be ineffective as they have not actually done anything to maintain control and simply pass the blame around. This reinforces the concept that it is like "giving children their own homework to mark" and states that they will do nothing to punish themselves or portray themselves negatively. They have been given the opportunity many times to fix their mistakes and have done nothing about it and it is time for the government to step in.

Arguably this goes against what we believe in as people and it statutory regulation could very easily put us on a slippery slope of the government having control over the press and putting us in a similar position to where other nations are in such as Russia or North Korea which are completely opposite and the government will not have anything negative said against them and there is nothing anyone can do about it as it is against the law, which puts the country in danger of being in the position where the government are able to do anything which they want as there is nothing to stop them or anywhere where people can express their views and criticise the government. The celebrities which are being criticised and looked into and ague that their privacy is at violation may need to understand that this is a one of the things that they should expect when they chose to become a celebrity and that they enjoy the media mentioning them when they are speaking positively and giving them publicity and this is one of the things they will have to accept if they want that. A memorable example of press invasion of privacy was when the News of The World hacked murdered school girls phone, opening voicemails giving her parents hope of her survival. As a result friend and relatives concluded wrong that she might have still been alive, creating false hope and further distraught. We can argue that this is what the press need to do to get information which otherwise would not be able to the public and it can lead to the prevention of potential terrorist attacks which put people in danger and that there would potentially be no news without it it.

In conclusion there are both advantages and disadvantages of statutory regulation being in place and it being in place would mean that the content and the methods which are being used would be regulated and more morally correct, however i think that it could put us in a position where we are always questioning where our news content is coming from and if we can trust it as the government may take control and leave us in a much worse position by them abusing their power.