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Thursday, November 29, 2012

How the press should be regulated - from a 13 1/2 year old

With just half an hour to go until we finally know what Lord Leveson is going to recommend, I thought you might be interested in my daughter's view on press regulation, elicited on the way to school this morning.

We were talking about the habit tabloids have of getting something wrong, humiliating someone, causing real distress,  in massive front page spreads and publishing the inevitable apologies in amongst the classified ads on page 39.

She suggested that, instead, newspaper editors should have to dress up and make a video apology on You Tube. I guess it's a bit like the 21st century stocks without the rotten fruit. Clearly, she's been watching too much Merlin, but there a certain making the punishment fit the crime thing going on.

Gregor McAbery on Twitter suggested that the victim should be allowed to choose the dressing up costume, which adds another delicious dimension. It makes you wish Kelvin McKenzie and Piers Morgan were still tabloid editors.

I did explain to her that I felt we needed to have consequences that really mattered to the newspapers - so if they were going to play fast and loose with the rules, they would lose the profit they made on that edition.


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