More on Reporter Going to Jail...
Roy Greenslade, being a proper journalist (unlike yours truly) bothered to phone the regulator to get their side of the story. According to Roy, the regulator claims that the information is restricted to protect those being investigated. Yeah ok, but in normal criminal matters it is possible to report that an investigation is being made. It is also legititmate to report on aspects of the investigation providing such reporting does not prejudice the outcome of a trial.
It is not as if the reporter in question has published the "restricted information" itself. Why should pension companies enjoy greater protection than a private individual faced with an investigation into something he or she may or may not have done. Are pension companies really worthy of more legal protection than say, John Leslie?
If the Pensions Act test is merely that information it deems to be restricted (who arbitrates on what is restricted?) may not be used or referred to then this really is little more than the state deciding what we can and cannot know.
Labels: Incisive Media, press freedom, roy greenslade
More PG Tips
Poor old Dominic Ponsford, Editor of Press Gazette, is getting a bit of pasting on his own blog from readers cross that they haven't been properly informed or that the cost of the new monthly edition is too much.
You can tell from Ponsfords reponses that he is pretty hacked off with the whole thing. First Roy Greenslade wails that its The Guardian what did em in, and then his own readers start bellyaching.
Well heres the truth. If journalists want independent commentary on their profession they had better pay for it, or advertise in it. The reason PG is in the mess its in, is because its readers won't pay and its advertisers have vamoosed.
Although its coverage of b2b is sparse at least it has a go every now and then. Remember that b2b employs around 10000 journalists - thats a lot more than the national press- so why PG doesn't pay more attention to it is a mystery to me.
If you want PG to continue, pay for it, or advertise in it, don't whinge about it. If you don't care and are happy to get your coverage from free blogs like this one, or Roy Greenslade or Stephen Glover then fine. If journalism.co.uk does it for you - then fine.
This blog and the media commentators are useful, intelligent, insightful, occasionally brilliant. (Ok I know I am getting carried away here) but none of us are a substitute for proper reporting. All of the media commentators, me included, come with an agenda. In my own case, I write for no one. I have no masters. I don't have to please my readers or represent their interests. What you say is what you get. Opinonated comment on the business media world we live in. If you don't like it I don't care and I don't need to. I am not your champion. PG can be. If you let it.
Wilmington, the owners of PG may have made a bit of shambles of the relaunch messaging and a twelve month sub for £115 seems very expensive, (in fact it is bonkers - the publisher has made a mistake in my view) but don't kill em for trying.
Labels: dominic ponsford, Press gazette, roy greenslade, stephen glover
