Dia Internacional da Liberdade de Imprensa 2013USP São Paulo : 15 de maio de 2013Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of

Expression in All MediaMark Hillary

This talk…

• Recent events in the UK… press scandals and inquiries• What is the press today? Can the press be regulated or controlled and what does this mean for the freedom of the press?• Digital journalism

What is the press for?

“…Now the girl let the fat man touch herVodka fumes and the feel of a vultureThe driver waited in the embassy carThe fat man's trap was set for captureSo the girl let the thin man touch herMixing questions, drunken laughterThe ministry car was waiting thereA minister knows his own affairThe people must have something good to read on a Sunday…”

The Clash ‘The Leader’

To inform, entertain, expose, educate?

UK Parliament

• In 2009 The Daily Telegraph published uncensored details of the expense claim of every British Member of Parliament – going back years• The claims detailed abuse and fraud alongside legal – but extravagant – claims• Several MPs were forced to repay money and some went to jail• The Telegraph paid £110,000 (R$300k) for the information, other publications turned it down, yet the source has never been revealed

News International

• News International journalists in the UK were accused of illegally hacking into the voicemail of celebrities and politicians from 2005 to 2007• By 2011 it became clear that journalists had been accessing the voicemail of dead soldiers, murder victims, and victims of terrorist attacks• Not only did the public feel outraged, advertisers shunned the NI title ‘News of the World’ – a Sunday newspaper that had been published since 1843. Rupert Murdoch closed the newspaper in 2011

Leveson

• In 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron asked Lord Justice Leveson to explore the culture, ethics, and practice of the British press – as a reaction to the News International scandal• Leveson published his inquiry report in November 2012• The most important recommendation was the creation of an independent body to oversee the press – to replace the ‘toothless’ Press Complaints Commission

What’s wrong with Leveson?

• Nude photos of Prince Harry were viewed 25m times before any UK newspaper printed them• In over 1m words, Leveson mentions the Internet only a few hundred times• A million words talking of how the press used to be, not how it is

Why does it matter?

• Regulation still matters while there are professional journalists• It provides a set of guidelines for reporters and editors – reporters are protected by professional guidelines and ethical standards• But there are examples like the UK parliamentary expenses scandal where the information was clearly stolen – was it unethical to pay for stolen information even if the public supported the end result?

What is the press?

• The Huffington Post has more readers than the BBC, The New York Times, Fox, NBC, Reuters…• It’s a blog

What is the press?

• Over 1m readers check TMZ every day for celebrity news and gossip• It’s better and faster than any traditional media source• Mail Online had 50.1m unique readers in Oct 2012, the most popular news site in the world

What is a journalist?

• Anyone can publish globally.. 24/7 and even from a phone without visiting an office or checking with an editor• Video, photos, blogs, tweets… all forms of publishing can be shared, copied, distributed and if a story is of enough interest it will attract the attention of the ‘majors’• This is Citizen Journalism

What is a journalist?

• Occupy Movement• Egypt Revolution• Hurricane Sandy• Plane crash in the Hudson river

• People have phones, cameras, video, Internet, in their pocket… citizens broke all these stories first

Can it be controlled?

• Short answer is no• Brands can adopt ethical standards and codes of practice and employ professional journalists – readers still value brands• But anyone can start a blog… how popular does it have to be before it is considered a part of ‘the media’ – our most popular news sources are already blogs and social media not the traditional media

Think of it like this

• You create a news site focused on stories about Brazil… an online Veja• You write the stories outside Brazil (in Portuguese) and host the server outside Brazil – is it a Brazilian magazine?• The readers are all in Brazil, but the writers and content are all based outside Brazil… the laws of Brazil have no relevance to this journal, or do they?

Is this positive?

• The positive aspect of the Internet and the democratisation of publishing is that it is almost impossible for a government to now suppress access to information• Censorship in the traditional sense is impossible – see Wikileaks for proof• But… what do we lose?

Is this positive?

• Professional writers can cut through the noise and focus on what matters• Ethics and accuracy still matter to brands• Traditional print journals still don’t know how to survive in this world… some are entirely free and some are insisting on paywalls – nobody agrees on the right approach to online publishing of news• It is harder to launch a career in journalism as the industry itself struggles to understand the future – nobody starts on a local paper today

The topic is not really freedom… it is now survival

“…Could it be an infringement Of the freedom of the press To print pictures of women in states of undress…” Billy Bragg: ‘It says here’

Mark Hillarytwitter.com/markhillary

j.mp/markhillarymail@markhillary.com