27/09/11
Shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis MP is facing strong criticism after suggesting that journalists found guilty of malpractice should be ‘struck off’. The remarks stirred up a fierce backlash from hacks and bloggers across the UK, and within hours of his speech at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool Lewis was forced to backpedal.
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| The man himself: Ivan Lewis MP |
Conservative commentators and press freedom groups were united in their response to a proposal that has been viewed by many as draconian. In her blog for the News Statesman, Helen Lewis Hasteley condemned the idea as deeply ‘illiberal’ and highlighted several flaws in the plan. Sky News political editor Adam Boulton tweeted that, as Andrew Marr once noted, journalism isn’t a formal profession but rather a trade. Journalism is not comparable with Law or Medicine, both professions with strong regulatory bodies.
If journalists are to be ‘stuck off’ then such a body would surely have to be created, and there would also surely have to be some kind of list or register from which they could be struck off. It doesn’t take an encyclopaedic knowledge of American Cold War history to realise that compiling lists of journalists or free-speakers starts democracy on a dark path. Although he has subsequently attempted to downplay the remarks, I think this attempt by Ivan Lewis to boldly seize the moment in the face of Murdoch's Evil Empire was tragically misjudged.
