ABSTRACT
Regulation is an inevitable part of ensuring standards in everyday modern life. Without regulation of the society with which we come into contact on a regular basis, life would become more dangerous and more uncomfortable. Regulation and its associated agents of enforcement ensure that our after-work pint is a full measure of un-watered beer, our purchase of petrol to take us home is of specific quality and a full litre and that the food we eat when we get home is relatively safe and free from excessive quantities of dangerous bacteria. Many people over the years have condemned the ethical standards of newspaper journalism in the UK, claiming that newspapers are intrusive and often inaccurate, or worse. Only recently, the then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, called for statutory regulation of the press:
He urged a ‘stronger regime’ of press regulation and said: ‘My own view is that the code of conduct operated through the Press Complaints Commission ought to be put on a statutory basis. We ought to move towards a regulated regime for the media, where the media regulates it, not the state, but the decisions are actually enforced.’
