ABSTRACT
Media activism faces a particular challenge as no meaningful campaign for media reform is likely to be supported by the media itself or, indeed, by any people in positions of power. Hacked Off began in 2011 as a campaign that was initially part of the Media Standards Trust that first called for a public inquiry into press practices. Freedom without accountability is simply the freedom of the powerful over the powerless which, arguably, is precisely what the press was trying to preserve: freedom to run roughshod over people's lives causing harm and distress for the sake of increased newspaper sales. Media reformers hit back, arguing that freedom works both ways and that freedom of the press had to be balanced by freedom of the public to assess and challenge the nature of that communication: freedom shared not power abused. The media reform movement has suggested to new players on the news scene that it can be done differently.
