23 December 2003 – At the close of 2003 the BBC’s Andrew Gilligan, whose journalism sparked off the Hutton enquiry, was named ‘Person of the Year’ in a UK Press Gazette poll.

And in his last interview as Director of the Press Complaints Commission Guy Black told the London Evening Standard that journalists should take pride in being the least trusted people in society.

What messages do these extraordinary facts send out to the public?

The Press Gazette justifies its choice by explaining that the fall out from Gilligan’s ‘sexing-up’ story – David Kelly’s suicide, the Hutton enquiry, a shake-up inside the BBC, changes in Government communications – has placed journalism methods under a scrutiny never known before – causing ‘journalists to think more carefully about their methods than many of them have ever done’.

That is welcome indeed. The imminent publication of the Hutton report should trigger many changes in the way the public receive information from the media. It hardly makes Gilligan a hero, but it should set the scene for some radical rethinking.

In the spirit of the times PressWise will be changing in 2004. We shall continue to provide support for members of the public with complaints about the media, but we shall be focussing on dialogue between the public and media practitioners to enhance the compact of trust that should exist between them.

Which bring us back to Guy Black, whose task for the last 7 years has been to sort out problems caused by dodgy journalism.

Public distrust of journalists, according to Black “means they’re part of a vibrant commercial industry that’s working in the public interest, ruffling feathers, scrutinising people, making a nuisance of themselves from time to time. Journalists who are nice to people are not working in the public interest.”

He seems to be missing part of the plot. Journalists need to be regarded as trustworthy by the public – otherwise they are not the watchdogs we need to keep the powerful on their toes. The public interest is best served when those with power – commercial and political – over the public are kept in check by media scrutiny. To be unpopular in those quarters should be the ambition of all good journalists; but to lose the trust of the public is evidence of failure.

Admitting their own fallibility, and developing more effective ways of keeping the public informed are both ways in which journalists can improve their standing in the eyes of the public. Discovering what the public want – not just what they will buy if it is ‘sexed up’ to titillate – is also part of the process.

During 2004 MediaWise will be seeking partners within the media and throughout the UK to generate a continuing dialogue about the role of journalism in a democracy.

To start with, in February we shall be publishing ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ a look at complaints procedures from the citizen’s point of view. We hope that this will open up debate about correcting journalistic errors and the way in which PCC, OfCom and the BBC handle complaints.

We are looking forward to a year of changes – for better, more ethical, journalism in the service of democracy.

Mike Jempson
Director

(Bulletin No 96)