Are you reading this column in an ethical vacuum? Or on virtuous paper? Lord Justice Leveson’s description of the internet as an “ethical vacuum” is one of the few missteps in his report on what we still Gutenberg-ishly call “the press”. For the internet is not an ethical vacuum; it is an ethical battlefield. Across its vast virtual steppes there now rages one of the great power struggles of our time. The fate of authoritarian regimes such as China, and hence the future of freedom, will depend on the outcome.Against that backdrop, Britain’s little local battle over those bundles of folded paper that dwindling ranks of ageing persons buy from a quaint venue called a newsagent may appear like an episode of Dad’s Army. But to see it this way (it’s all on the internet anyway”) is quite wrong. It also gives tabloids like the Sun a hypocritical excuse for continuing with their bad old ways. As Leveson notes, the Sun justified its publication of photos of Prince Harry’s naked cavorting in Las Vegas with the headline “HEIR IT IS! Pic of naked Harry you’ve already seen on the internet” – and then “WE FIGHT FOR PRESS FREEDOM”. Were there a Nobel prize for humbug, it would be the Sun wot won it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/internet-freedom-leveson-ethical-online
A global battle for internet freedom puts Leveson in perspective: There’s no reason ethical standards have to slip online. The real challenge for journalism is how to make the internet pay by Timothy Garton Ash
Are you reading this column in an ethical vacuum? Or on virtuous paper? Lord Justice Leveson’s description of the internet as an “ethical vacuum” is one of the few missteps in his report on what we still Gutenberg-ishly call “the press”. For the internet is not an ethical vacuum; it is an ethical battlefield. Across its vast virtual steppes there now rages one of the great power struggles of our time. The fate of authoritarian regimes such as China, and hence the future of freedom, will depend on the outcome.