The Hacked Off petition - please sign, and ignore the Lorraine Kellys

I do hope that the sensible among you will sign Hacked Off's petition.

It demands that Leveson's recommendations be implemented - that our media abide by principles enshrined in statute. For decades, newspapers have made up their self-regulation as they went along, with senior members of the press presiding over complaints: hence the hopelessness of the PCC. 

What did it ever do to unearth the scale of Hackgate?

Currently, most national newspapers are propagandising hard against Leveson. Spurious polls staged on leading questions deliver public opinion results to please media barons while compliant celebrity columnists, who should know better, parrot what their editors tell them to write and say.

Would Lorraine Kelly still be writing for the Sun if she did not say (in effect that) Leveson should be dumped? I think not.

If our supine and spineless PM has his way - ie the way of powerful media bosses, their arrogant fly-by-night editors and their bullied staff - nothing will change at all. If you think everything is just fine with how our newspapers are run right now, then ignore the petition. It's that easy.

The Leveson recommendations are crafted to preserve a free press and, if anything, to add muscle to investigative journalism. As important are the rights of individuals whose tragedies or misfortunes are turned into a commodity by powerful media organisations. 

It's incredible that we 'trust' journalists to regulate their own business.

Think Dowler. Think McCanns. These were not one-off errors but major symptoms of irregularity and arrogance.

To sign click here.