It all sounds like “apple pie and ice cream” but should we trust Leveson? Let's look at the evidence and report back in an honest and ethical way in the public interest.
Many believe this investigation is necessary, given the news organizations and media's long history of intrusive, sensationalist and illegal practices, such as the phone-tapping scandal.
Private investigator detects corruption
Private Eye's Mr Hislop has some pithy words for the investigation…
I don't think legislation is necessary. Most of the violent crimes highlighted in this study that have been the subject of much publicity are already illegal.
Contempt of court is illegal, wiretapping is illegal, it's illegal for police officers to accept money. There are no rules for all of this, there are laws in place already.
Those laws have not been strictly enforced because of police failure, because of police involvement with News International, and also because, frankly, our politicians have been very involved with the executives of News International in ways that I don't think are wise.
Mr Hislop added that he hopes Judge Leveson will call Prime Minister David Cameron and his predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to give evidence, but we feel this is unlikely.
So if there are already laws in place governing the press, media, police, ministers etc, why do we need Leveson?
The investigation begins with the arrival of the Media Standards Trust, which claims to be a registered, independent charity whose mission is to promote high standards in the news media on behalf of the public: “We are a 'thinking and doing tank'. We promote quality, transparency and accountability in news. We are committed to press freedom and are not affiliated with any political party or any particular media company.”
In reality, the MST is far from independent and is funded by a shadowy network of vested interests including Esmee Fairbairn, Gatsby, Joseph Rowntree, Elanda, MacArthur, Knight, Nuffield, Pearson, Cohen, Storey and Scott. Digging deeper, the threads are Sainsbury, Rothschild and the Guardian Media Group. Digging even deeper still, there is David Halpern’s Institute of Government, whose board is headed by “stars”: Lord Sainsbury, Sir Roy Anderson, Sir Brian Bender, Jocelyne Bourgon, Sir Andrew Cahn, Lord Currie of Marylebone, Sir Christopher Foster, Lord Heseltine… And the Cabinet Behaviour Change Unit… The list goes on and on.
The MST's board is also interesting. Its chairman, Sir David Bell (chairman of the Financial Times Group), and deputy chairman Julia Middleton are both senior figures in the political charity Common Purpose. Fellow members of the board include Amelia Fawcett, chair of the Guardian Media Group, Anthony Saltz of NM Rothschild, Charles Manby of Goldman Sachs, Will Davies-Said of Oxford Business School, Robert Peston (Lord Robert Worcester Mori) of the BBC, journalists and judges.
The combination of vested interests in big banking and the media is notable. And then there's Common Purpose.
From the beginning, the MST has repeatedly attacked and criticised the Independent Press Complaints Commission, as if it saw itself as a cuckoo in the nest of press and media regulation, and the incumbent IPCC needed to be removed.
In August 2011, the UK column exposed how MST had set up a website called “Hacked Off” and taken every opportunity to exaggerate the phone hacking scandal, using people associated with MST to do so.
Hacking websites registered before the hacking scandal broke
The Guardian broke the news that Milly Dowler's voicemail had been hacked on 4 July 2011. MST quickly took action and launched “hackinginquiry.org” on 5 July 2011. Amazingly, the domain name “hackinginquiry.org” was registered on 15 June, just over two weeks before the hacking scandal surfaced. Clairvoyant or with a foot in both camps? The real answer is probably the intelligence and influence gleaned through Common Purpose's extensive internal “alumni” network loyal to the cause of the new Common Purpose “leadership” and CEO mentor Julia Middleton.
Julia Middleton
On July 7, 2011, Middleton posted an interesting article on his blog. In the article, titled “Should We Encourage Courage in Leaders?”, Middleton argues:
I went to the House of Lords last night as a trustee of the Media Standards Trust to help launch Hacked Off, a campaign calling for a proper investigation into hacking. This conference was set up some time ago so you might say it's no longer necessary after yesterday's announcement but of course that's not true. The aim is not to have an investigation, the aim is to have a proper investigation with the right brief and the right timeframe. We cannot wait two years.
There were some incredible people there who stood out above the rest in courage. And that is real courage. Life can be very tough if you're not liked by the media. But there were people looking around nervously as we celebrated Kris Bryant, Max Moseley, John Prescott, Norman Fowler and so many others. Hugh Grant was there, jumping in. I hope he stays brave. I hope we all do.
Not only has Middleton called for an investigation, not just a proper inquiry, but he has also spoken passionately about his own role and importance in upholding media standards, and his support for individuals who many believe received the media response they deserved for their sordid behaviour.
Leveson's David Bell attacks the IPCC
Meanwhile, David Bell, president of MST and leading Common Purpose advocate, has also joined the action, saying:
Our investigation reveals that the current system of media self-regulation is not living up to public expectations. The system is fundamentally flawed and in urgent need of reform. We believe that the Press Complaints Commission is constitutionally and structurally unable to address these threats, particularly in the context of a rapidly changing new media environment.
Was Mr Bell targeting the Independent Press Complaints Commission because Johnston Press (the Sheffield Star), a corporate sponsor of Common Purpose, upheld a complaint against the company when, on 5 November 2008, it published libelous and defamatory comments about a whistleblower who exposed Common Purpose's links to child abuse and paedophilia, and to insider dealing and fraud within the leadership of Sheffield City Council?
How odd that Bell was a willing choice for the Leveson Committee. Public concerns raised to the Leveson Inquiry's lawyers about Bell's relationship with Common Purpose and the company's record of data protection breaches, member confidentiality, insider trading at Cabinet Office level to win contracts, insider trading to obtain public funds, failure to obtain CRB checks, blatant hostility to public scrutiny through Freedom of Information and promoting secret meetings with private and public figures were all summarily dismissed.
Leveson denies common purpose concerns
In an unsigned letter from Mr S. Hyles dated 13th September 2011, Mr Leveson's lawyers simply ignore the concerns raised by members of the public and offer an arrogant and dismissive response.
The individual assessors were selected by the Secretaries of State sponsoring the inquiry, in consultation with Judge Leveson to provide him with expert assistance on the various areas central to the inquiry, and because they would be expected to approach their work impartially. Given the circumstances in which the inquiry was launched and its subject matter, Judge Leveson and the assessors clearly wished to disclose any conflicts of interest whether or not they were legally required to do so.
The investigative website, levesoninquiry.org, contains a declaration by the assessors in which Sir David Bell states that he is chairman of Common Purpose, and that Common Purpose has had several interactions with the Information Commissioner's Office over the past few years in relation to comments made on the web.
Contrast Leveson's callous attitude to issues of honesty and integrity with the rest of Julia Middleton's blog.
This is about people in organizations losing sight of their purpose, acting outside the law, doing things that others shouldn't, and refusing to accept responsibility for what's going on around them as leaders. If we avoid this and don't help brave people stay brave, we're in trouble.
But it wasn't just the public who was uneasy about Bell's position on the inquiry committee. Associated Newspapers also expressed their concerns about Bell. Martin Moore of the MST was quick to defend him, saying that “the specific attack on Sir David Bell by Associated is completely unfounded.” How wonderful! He would then go on to praise Bell's work for political charities like Common Purpose as a plus point.
In addition to his connections through Common Purpose and MST donors, Bell served in more than 20 board positions and had close ties to the Rothschild Group through his partnership with diversity recruiting service Rare, where he served as chairman of the group's advisory board in 2009.
Bell “resigned” from the MST while still benefiting from the Leveson Inquiry, but remains entangled in personal and business interests that make Leveson's transparency and honesty entirely unclear.
Investigative journalists die early
If the UK column is correct in its assertion that the Leveson inquiry will ultimately result in Bell’s Media Standards Trust being replaced by the Independent Press Complaints Commission, then we are in a dire situation, because MST is common purpose, and it is a distorted political idea of common purpose that is seeping into our public and private sectors at an accelerating rate.
Common Purpose's control of the press and media, backed by continuing high-level collaboration with Prime Minister Cameron and the Cabinet Office, means the end of a free, open and accurate press and media reporting in the UK. Add in the dangerous catalyst of behaviour change from Common Purpose and the Government's Applied Behavioural Psychology department and we become a Soviet state. It is merely coincidental that Common Purpose and Common Cause have their roots in Gramscian Marxism, which is itself closely linked to the Alinsky ideology embedded in Conservative and Labour policy.
Journalists and media workers need to wake up immediately.
