Marsh: The inside story on the 'sexed-up' dossier

Kevin Marsh who was editor of  the Today programme when it broadcast the Andrew Gilligan report on the "sexed-up dossier" on Iraq is publishing a book in September giving his view of the affair: ‘Stumbling Over Truth: The inside story of the 'sexed-up' dossier, Hutton and the BBC.’

The book will be the subject of a special Media Society, Westminster University and Biteback  debate on Monday, September 24, chaired by Steve Hewlett, which will explore the long term effects of Hutton on the BBC on the 10th anniversary of the ‘dodgy dossier’

As well as Marsh, speakers will include Peter Oborne, the Daily Telegraph's political commentator; Lance Price, former spin doctor to Tony Blair; Professor Steven Barnett, of Westminster University; and Professor Jean Seaton, of Westminster University, the official historian The BBC.

The debate starts at 18:00 for 18:30 at the University of Westminster, Regent Street W1. The event is free but you should register. Please contact Sam at sam_keegan@hotmail.com

UK riots: Should journalists just be bystanders?

An article in the latest issue of Press Gazette asks what's journalism's job in the aftermath of last months riots?

The question is posed by Kevin Marsh, the former editor of the Today programme and of the BBC College of Journalism. He writes: "Is it good enough for us to say it's not our job to help solve problems? That all we do is report, call to account, point out the problems and opine?

"Can we imagine a world where journalists aren't just bystanders? Where it's our responsibility, as it is of other citizens , to help society go well?"

He notes that in the late 1990s a group of American academics and journalists got together to promote "public journalism" - the idea that journalists, as citizens, had an interest in solving, not just describing the problems of their communities.

Advocates of public journalism claimed that the "routine negativity" of American journalism made it easy for journalists only to highlight what was wrong rather than help solve problems.

Marsh adds: "We've already seen pointless negativity around the August theft festival" and "the John Humphrys' pseudo-grillings, asking questions no politician could answer."

He writes: "Journalism that limits itself to reporting vacuous empty political point-scoring, or that endlessly recycles familiar prejudices and easy answers may do exactly what the public journalism advocates argue. Make it harder to think our way through.

"But what if the press and broadcasters - especially local and regional media - saw their role as helping to find the answers? What if we realised that whining on the margins wasn't good enough any more?

"Maybe that would change the way we looked at and reported the deep-seated problems that affect us all.

"And maybe we journalists would find we were relevant, respected and trusted once more."

Press Gazette magazine is only available on subscription. Details here.

UK Riots: Where's the journalism on the causes?

Adam Boulton: 'It's journalist against journalist'

Sky News' political editor Adam Boulton pays tribute to Andy Coulson on his blog, describing him as "one of the most straight-dealing, effective and constructive Downing Street communications chiefs I have dealt with" and says he was instrumental in setting up the historic General Election Leaders' debates.

But he also makes a much wider point about politicians and the press: "Two important sectors of our society now feel under a great deal of pressure, beset by plunging fortunes and public esteem: newspapers and politicians. As they go down they are turning in on each other with increasing viciousness - politician against journalist, politician against polititian, journalist against journalist.

"Dog eat dog."

Kevin Marsh, executive editor of the BBC College of Journalism, has posted: "Is this a good moment to recall the 305 named journalists found dealing illegally in private information back in 2006?"

This is a reference to Information Commissioner Richard Thomas' report 'What Price Privacy?'- the outcome of an investigation called 'Motorman' into the illegal trade in data.

According to the report, published back in May 2006, documents seized during Motorman and other investigations helped the ICO show how the trade worked - including the data obtained illegally obtained that ended up in journalists' hands.

Peter Preston in the Observer notes: "The information commissioner found more than 30 newspapers and magazines guilty, with the Mail and Mirror, not the News of the World, top of the shop; hacking, often by the same private eyes, fell into a separate category only because a separate law proscribed it.

"So should Scotland Yard have pursued the 58 reporters in the Daily Mail newsroom who hired a blagging eye? Or the 45 reporters at the Mirror (then edited by Piers Morgan)? Or the four Observer staffers who set dozens of inquiries running? You can understand, perhaps, why there wasn't a massive rush for justice. You can also see why a new CPS trawl over all the evidence the Yard kept back is necessary."

Richard Ingrams has some words of comfort for Andy Coulson in his Independent on Sunday column: "In a world where nothing succeeds like failure, Andy Coulson has no reason to fear for his future. He should take heart from the example of his labour predecessor Alastair Campbell, who ended up resigning but who is now riding high, publishing books and even appearing regularly on the BBC, an institution which during his career at Downing Street he did more to damage than anyone else in our time."

Marsh: 'Don't leave the public out of libel reform'

The BBC's Kevin Marsh has urged that the public should not be forgotten in the debate about the reform of the libel laws.

He said the problem about reforming the libel laws is that "not all journalism is honest, well sourced and fair minded or in the public interest?".

Marsh, executive editor of the BBC College of Journalism, claimed: "We journalists deceive ourselves about why we're loathed by the very public in whose interest we profess to report."

Speaking at at the debate 'Libel Reform: In the Public's Interest' at Gray's Inn, Marsh said too many journalists "make up too much, too often". He said dozens of journalists were "mired in churnalism, regurgitating unchecked copy" and thousands of people have had their lives trashed by gossip re-cycled as news.

Marsh, a former editor of the Today programme, said people talk about the "chilling" impact of the libel laws on the press , but the Express and Star newspapers which committed 106 libels against the McCanns could have "done with some chilling".

He argued that reversing the burden of proof would be "a charter for reputational muggings". Marsh suggested there should be a defence of "honest journalism" and that there should be a simplification and speeding up of remedies in libel cases.

Razi Mireskandari, of Simons Muirhead & Burton, told the debate, held in association with the Media Standards Trust and INFORRM, that the biggest problem facing defamation was the excessive fees with publishers facing bills of over £1 million if cases went to trial.

He suggested the success fees for Conditional Fee Arrangements should be cut from 100% to 25 % and that should be recovered from damages.

Sir Charles Gray, the barrister and former High Court Judge, said he had been told that a newspaper was being sued by a footballer who had retained three silks on CFAs and the legal bill was running at £100,000 a week.

Was John Humphrys talking tosh about newspapers? His former editor thinks so

John Humphrys in his Sun article last Friday, supporting paywalls and the need to pay for good journalism, stressed: "And let's be clear: We have the best papers in the world. Full stop. I want to keep it that way."
His former editor on Today, Kevin Marsh, now executive editor of the BBC College of Journalism, disputes the claim calling it "utter tosh."
Without naming Humphrys, Marsh writing on the BBC College of Journalism site states: "Of all the arguments in favour of newspaper paywalls, one is utter tosh. It is that we - the readers - must pay online to preserve what one tabloid editor [Paul Dacre] once called "the best newspapers in the world".  It's a description that's reared its head again this week.
"Now, as a general rule it's always a good idea to reach for your revolver when you hear anyone say any country has the best TV/health service/newspapers/football teams ... anything "in the world".
"Not because we/they don't, necessarily. But because life's more complicated than that. But one thing we absolutely, certainly, assuredly don't have here in the UK is the best newspapers in the world. Full stop.
"If we did, a quarter of those who used to buy them wouldn't have stopped doing so over the past 20 years - a desertion that long predates the web, incidentally. If we did, our press wouldn't be one of the least trusted institutions in the land and our newspaper journalists the least trusted in the world."
And that's just the start...

'My shame at being duped over Iraq war'

Journalist David Rose has told how he still feels "shamed and disgusted" at the way he was duped by those who wanted to go to war in Iraq.

Speaking in a debate at the Frontline Club, Rose who reported for the Observer and Vanity Fair in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq said he had interviewed people who had purported to be defectors from the Saddam regime who had told "a pack of lies".

He said that intelligence services knew that some of the sources were fabricating information about Iraq but they were still used to back claims that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Rose added: "I don't think people quite realise how cynical the process of manipulation by those who wanted this war was. I still feel shamed and disgusted at being duped to that extent."

The Independent's Iraq correspondent Patrick Cockburn  said the opposition to Saddam knew there was no chance of a coup inside the country to overthrow him and knew they had to keep prodding the US to get rid of him.

Cockburn claimed that "if you know which US and British correspondents to go to you can have a good idea of what's happend in Iraq since the invasion". But he said coverage in the run-up to the war was "notoriously bad". Cockburn criticised as "appalling" the many "experts" and "talking heads" who are used by the media to comment on Iraq.

Former Radio 4 Today programme editor Kevin Marsh, now editor of the BBC College of Journalism, claimed: "Some parts of the media may have some accounting to do but the media as a whole has together done a far better job than any of the official inquiries into the Iraq war have done."

He did add, however, "I think the way in which the Lobby was orchestrated by Alastair Campbell was not the Lobby's finest hour."

Cockburn stressed the importance of having experienced reporters on the ground. "Good reporting comes from people who've been there a long time." But he admitted it had become far more dangerous for journalists to operate on their own in war zones. 

Rose pointed out that the media industry was in danger of collapsing as the old business models failed and editorial budgets came under pressure.

"The first place that feels the pinch is covering foreign conflicts - not Cheryl Cole," he said.

Pic: (Left to Right) Patrick Cockburn, Kevin Marsh and David Rose.

#newsrw: 'Stay outside the multi-media bubble'

Kevin Marsh, head of the BBC College of Journalism, warned delegates at the news:rewired conference today to stay outside the multi-media bubble.
He told the conference at  City University, London, that "any skills are a means to an end. Don't think they are an end in themselves. We are spending too much time talking about the applications rather than what they can do. Stay outside the bubble."
Marsh said journalist had to have a mindset that they would need to change things in their career "but you don't have to hoover up every skill on offer" or "follow every change in the wind".
He said the traditional journalism skills of making contact and digging out stories from documents were still required.
Marsh also argued that "big journalism" was not about to disappear and be replaced by multi-media journalists.
He did, however, praise the rise of blogging, claiming: "Blogging has done more to change the way journalism works than anything else."
#newsrw
Pic: Jon Slattery