[A-List] UK state: collateral damage

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Here is today's editorial from the Independent, commenting on tv celebrity
Matthew Kelly's exoneration as a means to question trial-by-media and the
lapse of formerly strict contempt of court laws. We still do not know the
identity of those *suspects* who happen to be prominent politicians,
including an ex Labour Cabinet minister with a high profile. Mobilising
opinion against the police is a highly unusual thing to do for establishment
outlets like this, and stands in stark contrast to former Independent
columnist David Aaronovitch's counsel to trust the police, published a month
ago in the Guardian (and featured here). But, aside from the genuinely
serious issue of contempt of court and the disgusting nature of tabloid
press naming and shaming (resulting in the inevitable lynching of innocent
individuals), we cannot ignore the potential political consequences of this
particular story, and the motives and methods of some of its key players. Of
potential significance in all this is the presence on the International
Advisory Board of Independent News Media (the publisher of the Independent)
of one Peter Mandelson. See

http://www.independentnewsmedia.com/corp.htm


We should not tolerate the injustice of trial by media
The Independent
26 February 2003

Matthew Kelly is hardly the first celebrity to have seen his reputation
damaged by the excesses of the tabloid press and its equivalents in the
broadcast media, but his case still raises some important, if familiar,
questions about the reporting of serious allegations of sexual abuse.

In fact, Mr Kelly, released without charge on Monday, may count himself
lucky, insofar as his employers, Granada TV, have indicated that he can keep
his job. That is an outcome that many of his peers, their careers shredded
after similar allegations, might envy. Mr Kelly seems to enjoy appearing in
panto as much as his high profile TV work; others, equally innocent, cannot
even get that. Tried by the media, they are sentenced never to appear on TV
or stage again.

In some instances, the blame for this state of affairs may lie with the
police. The fashion for high-profile arrests has gone too far. They are far
too theatrical and have more to do with the unhealthy appetites of the media
than with justice. They are not even in the interests of the police, for
when proceedings come to nought, it makes the authorities look that much
more foolish. It would not take very much determination by chief constables
to end this practice.

A more difficult task is persuading the editors of tabloid newspapers, and
even such programmes as ITV's News at Ten , to curb their taste for the
salacious and the sensational. Nothing combines those qualities in a story
more than a celebrity linked to paedophilia. Day after day, every possible
aspect of a celebrity's private life is turned over in the name of a
speculative story. Yet not so long ago the law of contempt of court was much
more rigorously adhered to, especially when criminal charges might be
imminent. It is a pity that this law has fallen into partial disuse.

The present situation is, at best, a mess, and at worst it tacitly endorses
the practice of trial by media. It is an obvious area for Sir Christopher
Meyer, the new chairman of the press complaints commission, to make his
presence felt when he takes up his duties in a few weeks' time.