"More than 50 victims of phone hacking, including a number of top celebrities, have written to David Cameron expressing fury at suggestions that the coalition government could reject tough new laws that would see the press policed by an independent regulator.
In a move designed to send the issue to the top of the agenda at the Tory conference, they warn the prime minister that trust in the media cannot be restored if the press is allowed to continue with a system of self-regulation."
It seems to me that the recent revelations and allegations about sexual crimes undertaken by the late Sir Jimmy Savile add another dimension. The ITV programme Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile investigated what lay behid the rumours of several decades, that the star of Jim'll Fixit It was a sexual predator on teenage girls.
As the Independent articles says, within BBC television it was widely known that Savile abused teenage girls, just as people in Westminster knew about MPs' expenses and many journalists knew about phone hacking. Details about the latter two were revealed by members of a free press in such a way that it has been possible to do something about this miscreant behaviour. The case of Savile is different. It is only now that he is dead that the stories are being told in detail and openly discussed. It is too late to prevent him and punish him for committing these assaults.
I have been fully behind the Leveson Inquiry and I look forward to reading its conclusions and recommendations. I don't want politicians to interfere with the process in train, so Cameron must remain silent until the process is completed, in my view. But equally I don't want Leveson to inadvertently create a situation in which the likes of Savile, who held such power over people in institutions such as the BBC for whatever reason, get away scot-free because the Press/Media are too frit or hamstrung to investigate whatever is properly in the public interest.
Once again we have to accept that, as a society, we have failed these teenage girls, now middle-aged adults, at the very time they needed our belief and assistance. It seems that Savile banked on our not believing anyone who spoke out against him on these issues, and sadly it seems his gamble paid off.
In a move designed to send the issue to the top of the agenda at the Tory conference, they warn the prime minister that trust in the media cannot be restored if the press is allowed to continue with a system of self-regulation."
It seems to me that the recent revelations and allegations about sexual crimes undertaken by the late Sir Jimmy Savile add another dimension. The ITV programme Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile investigated what lay behid the rumours of several decades, that the star of Jim'll Fixit It was a sexual predator on teenage girls.
As the Independent articles says, within BBC television it was widely known that Savile abused teenage girls, just as people in Westminster knew about MPs' expenses and many journalists knew about phone hacking. Details about the latter two were revealed by members of a free press in such a way that it has been possible to do something about this miscreant behaviour. The case of Savile is different. It is only now that he is dead that the stories are being told in detail and openly discussed. It is too late to prevent him and punish him for committing these assaults.
I have been fully behind the Leveson Inquiry and I look forward to reading its conclusions and recommendations. I don't want politicians to interfere with the process in train, so Cameron must remain silent until the process is completed, in my view. But equally I don't want Leveson to inadvertently create a situation in which the likes of Savile, who held such power over people in institutions such as the BBC for whatever reason, get away scot-free because the Press/Media are too frit or hamstrung to investigate whatever is properly in the public interest.
Once again we have to accept that, as a society, we have failed these teenage girls, now middle-aged adults, at the very time they needed our belief and assistance. It seems that Savile banked on our not believing anyone who spoke out against him on these issues, and sadly it seems his gamble paid off.
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