tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/alan-rusbridger-8919/articlesAlan Rusbridger – The Conversation2020-09-24T14:10:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1468682020-09-24T14:10:48Z2020-09-24T14:10:48ZHarold Evans was a titan among the greats of British journalism<p>Among the select band of truly great editors who have led British newspapers with sovereign authority, Harold Evans – <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54275941">who has passed away, aged 92</a> – stood out as a titan. The working-class boy who left his local state school at the age of 16 to learn his trade on the Ashton-under-Lyne Weekly Reporter first occupied an editor’s chair as an undergraduate at Durham University. </p>
<p>While studying politics, Evans edited <a href="https://www.palatinate.org.uk/">Palatinate</a>, the independent student newspaper, at a time before television challenged the authority of printed news. Subsequent experience on the Manchester Evening News and <a href="https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/opinion/letters/18140645.harold-evans---man-put-fuel-northern-echos-rocket/">Northern Echo</a> gave him a taste of the power and responsibility exercised by newspapers in an era when British national dailies achieved their peak circulations. </p>
<p>The achievements that earned him national attention came during his editorship of The Sunday Times between 1967 and 1980. His determination to investigate, expose and explain <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/sep/01/thalidomide-scandal-timeline">the Thalidomide scandal</a> set a courageous example of a newspaper speaking truth to power in the public interest and in the teeth of ferocious opposition. For this achievement, Evans deserves as much credit as a less well-known but equally brave predecessor.</p>
<p><a href="https://kar.kent.ac.uk/57595/">Arthur Mann</a>, who was editor of the Yorkshire Post between 1919 and 1940, had the courage to oppose appeasement consistently and boldly despite leading a newspaper owned and financed by Conservative interests. For this, Mann was heartily despised by then prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, who made no secret of his contempt. Despite huge pressure from his proprietors, Mann maintained intelligent <a href="http://communicationethics.net/sub-journals/abstract.php?id=00108">opposition to appeasement</a> throughout Chamberlain’s premiership.</p>
<h2>Things they don’t want you to read</h2>
<p>Evans faced at least as much pressure when he took on the legal and political power of The Distillers Company, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54275941">makers of thalidomide in the UK</a> and his newspaper’s most lucrative advertiser. Standing by the work of the Insight investigative team he had founded – and showing no sign of faltering despite colossal financial and reputational risks – Evans fought for his story all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. When, in 1979, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/27/archives/european-court-rules-britain-violated-press-freedom-editor-halls.html">the court ruled</a> that the Sunday Times could publish without restraint, the British government was obliged to change the law of contempt of court.</p>
<p>That victory was celebrated as a triumph of truth established through investigative reporting. It was also evidence of Evans’ strength as an inspiring leader. Dennis Griffiths, the leading historian of Fleet Street, <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Century-Journalism-1900-2000-Dennis-Griffiths/9780957223202">recognises</a> that among Evans’ great skills was his ability to bring together excellent reporters and coordinate their efforts to superb effect. </p>
<p>He led his team’s efforts to <a href="https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1974LONDON04783_b.html">expose sanctions-busting</a> by supporters of the apartheid regime in Rhodesia. Evans also <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/top-scoops-british-journalism-all-time-philby-i-spied-russia-1933-sunday-times-1967/">indentified Kim Philby</a> as a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring, which passed information to the Soviet Union during the second world war and at the beginning of the cold war. </p>
<p>In a campaign to <a href="https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/opinion/leader/4650878.righting-wrongs/">prove the innocence of Timothy Evans</a> (1924-1950, no relation), wrongfully convicted and hanged for the murder of his wife and infant daughter, Harold Evans demanded an official inquiry while editor of the Northern Echo. At the Sunday Times, his persistent focus on this egregious miscarriage of justice helped to bring about abolition of the death penalty. </p>
<h2>Giant of the craft</h2>
<p>Evans deserves our respect because he never wavered from the view that a newspaper is much more than a commercial product designed to generate profits by selling a commodity called news. He treated the newspapers he led as flawed but valuable agents of democracy, using them to achieve the outcomes the leading media academic <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/582">Professor Michael Schudson</a>, in his widely respected 2008 study: Why Democracies Need an Unlovable Press, calls “things news can do for democracy”.</p>
<p>Throughout his career, Evans proved through his deeds that painstaking, accurate reporting can expose wrongdoing and help to correct the balance of power between citizens and those who govern in their name.</p>
<p>There have been few like him. For this author, Mann came closest, followed by <a href="https://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/bio.php">WT Stead</a> who, as editor of the Pall Mall Gazette in July 1885, published “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon” a pungent expose of child prostitution in London and the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13507486.2010.497306">first true example of investigative journalism</a>. Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail showed courage by <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/paul-dacre-says-there-was-deathly-silence-on-daily-mail-back-bench-as-they-laid-out-stephen-lawrence-murderers-splash-just-before-deadline/">identifying in 1997</a> the men he believed to be guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence.</p>
<p>However, one other British editor, <a href="https://www.arusbridger.com/">Alan Rusbridger</a>, who was editor-in-chief of The Guardian between 1995 and 2015, deserves mention. Rusbridger displayed real courage and skill when in August 2013 he published information <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-24466802">leaked to the Guardian by Edward Snowden</a>, the American whistleblower who copied highly classified information from the National Security Agency. </p>
<p>It is telling that Rusbridger <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/24/harold-evans-journalism-news-editor-death-facts">paid tribute to Evans</a>, writing that he “invariably turned to Harry for advice”, because Evans had “been there, done it” and “got the campaign medals”.</p>
<p>True greats recognise their peers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-conversation-with-journalist-author-and-thalidomide-campaigner-harold-evans-48322">In Conversation with journalist, author and thalidomide campaigner, Harold Evans</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146868/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Luckhurst has received research funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a member of the Society of Editors and the Free Speech Union. His current work in progress, is a book for Bloomsbury Academic under the provisional title Reporting the Second World War: Newspapers and the Public in Wartime Britain.</span></em></p>Evans is admired for his fearless leadership and tireless campaigning journalism.Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/789962017-06-14T20:09:01Z2017-06-14T20:09:01ZExplainer: what is public interest journalism?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173038/original/file-20170609-1721-32qk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public interest reporting is often equated with watchdog or investigative reporting. But it can include other factual stories that serve the public interest.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Public interest journalism could be considered the antithesis of media’s darker side, which includes fake news, propaganda, censorship and voyeurism.</p>
<p>The outcomes of public interest reporting can expose corruption, launch royal commissions, remove improper politicians from office, and jail wrongdoers.</p>
<p>Think of recent stories like ABC <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/07/25/4504895.htm">Four Corners’</a> exposure of the treatment of young people at Don Dale Detention Centre; The Sydney Morning Herald’s revelatory stories on now-convicted MP <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/eddie-obeid-forced-to-surrender-passport-by-supreme-court-20150205-136ocj.html">Eddie Obeid</a>; or <a href="http://www.theherald.com.au/shine-the-light">The Newcastle Herald’s</a> exposure of child sex abuse by priests. All of these led to public hearings. Then there was last week’s collaboration between <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/10/03/4547521.htm">Fairfax Media and the ABC</a>, revealing the extent of Chinese money and influence in Australian politics. </p>
<p>For these reasons, this form of reporting headlines the Senate select committee’s <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Future_of_Public_Interest_Journalism/PublicInterestJournalism">Future of Public Interest Journalism</a> inquiry. The closing date for public submissions is June 15.</p>
<p>Yet, public interest journalism is not universally defined. One common understanding among media practitioners and academics is that it refers to a journalist pursuing information that the public has a right to know. </p>
<p>Often implied in this definition is that, if it were not for the reporter, undisclosed information affecting the public that governments, companies and other powerful interests hold would remain hidden.</p>
<p>In this way, public interest reporting is often equated with watchdog or investigative reporting. But it can include other factual stories that serve the public interest, whether by providing a platform for debate or informing the electorate.</p>
<p>This is not stories that are simply “interesting to the public” (read here: stories about the Kardashians) – that is, entertaining, but with no civic value. These profit-oriented stories have filled certain tabloids and glossy magazines for years. Today they serve as clickbait to attract eyeballs and advertisers in the digital space, and are often found under traditional media banners.</p>
<p>The former editor of Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Alan Rusbridger, uses the analogy of a public figure such as a cricketer to make the point that not all revelations or “truths” are worth pursuing, and particularly not in the name of the “public interest”. Rusbridger suggests the “quality” of the target and its relationship to the public interest differentiate a story from mere smear or exposure journalism. He <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=kszXiZewk24C&pg=PA21&dq=love+romp+in+a+hotel+room&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI7rWBmbzUAhVGNJQKHVPTC-EQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=love%20romp&f=false">says</a>:</p>
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<p>What’s the public interest in a cricketer having a love romp in a hotel room … But if elected representatives are arguing a case in Parliament but not revealing that they are being paid to do so, then that strikes at the heart of democracy. That’s public interest; this is an easy distinction.</p>
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<p>From this example, it is clear that context matters. As author of <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=LZUEEq213NwC&pg=PA34&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=public%20interest&f=false">Understanding Journalism</a>, Lynette Sheridan Burns reminds us that other social concerns might need to be weighed up alongside public interest storytelling. These might include an individual’s right to privacy, legal considerations, and the potential for other harms such as national security risks.</p>
<p>Through the <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/media-and-politics-wayne-errington/1112256322?ean=9780195558340#productInfoTabs">liberal democratic lens</a> of understanding the role of news media, diverse and plural voices are generally seen as enriching public discourse. This provides a range of perspectives to contest ideas and inform citizens. Ultimately, it informs their electoral choices. </p>
<p>Herein lies a key motivation for calling the 2017 inquiry hearings. With thousands of editorial <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s4001324.htm">jobs cut</a> in the past five years at Australia’s major news media outlets – Fairfax Media, ABC, News Corp, Channel Ten – and the closure of many regional bureaus and mastheads, there is real concern about the state of public interest journalism. </p>
<p>Put simply, are there enough trained journalists to provide independent journalism that matters? Are Australia’s regions as well served with diverse and independent reporting as the major cities? These questions speak to the first and fourth of the inquiry’s six <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Future_of_Public_Interest_Journalism/PublicInterestJournalism/Terms_of_Reference">terms of reference</a>. </p>
<p>The other questions for the committee broadly relate to the viral spread of misinformation, and to safeguards against market power in the media landscape in the name of public interest journalism. </p>
<p>Interestingly, rather than directly tackle what the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-media-at-a-crossroads-amid-threats-to-diversity-and-survival-77314">government’s proposed removal</a> of media competition safeguards might mean for Australian audiences’ interests, the committee is directed to examine the market impacts of new players. That is, what impact social media and search engines have on the “Australian media landscape”. </p>
<p>The complete absence of “audience” and an emphasis on “markets” in the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Future_of_Public_Interest_Journalism/PublicInterestJournalism/Terms_of_Reference">terms of reference</a> could be seen as a win for the persistent lobbying of Australia’s most powerful commercial media companies. </p>
<p>In a rare display of <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/malcolm-turnbull-to-meet-australian-media-bosses-about-media-law-reform-in-canberra/news-story/d6f4eed4b9582c47e7f253eabab635df">unified power</a>, 25 heads of Australia’s major commercial media outlets met the prime minister in Canberra last month to urge the parliament to pass media reforms. To improve their commercial viability, media companies are seeking to scrap the 75% reach provision (preventing 100% market share) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-media-at-a-crossroads-amid-threats-to-diversity-and-survival-77314">two-out-of-three</a> ownership rule.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding new international entrants into Australian markets such as Buzzfeed, The Guardian and Daily Mail, such law changes, I have previously <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-media-at-a-crossroads-amid-threats-to-diversity-and-survival-77314">argued</a>, would likely result in concentrating proprietorial power of the biggest media operators in Australia’s most dominant news media markets: radio, television and print. </p>
<p>The committee’s inquiries into “fake news, propaganda, and public disinformation” are important issues to consider, but we should remember that these concerns have existed alongside public interest journalism for more than a century. </p>
<p>From the sensationalist, fear-mongering “yellow journalism” of the penny press in the late 1800s, to the media propaganda arising out of the world wars of the 20th century, there is nothing new about fake news and disinformation. What is unprecedented, however, is its speed and global spread in the digital sphere. </p>
<p>Inaccurate reporting, whether deliberately fake or just sloppy, has consequences for news media’s capacity to serve a well-informed citizenry that underpins a healthy democracy. For example, a recent <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/">US Pew Research study</a> found 88% of Americans believe fake news confuses the public about basic facts.</p>
<p>These are problems for all to tackle – search engines, internet service providers, commercial media outlets, public broadcasters and social media. As is occurring <a href="http://gijn.org/2017/05/08/a-global-guide-to-initiatives-tackling-fake-news/">overseas</a>, this might involve media outlets and others working together to provide news literacy tools to help the public recognise fact from fiction. Any successful approach must address sources, messengers and audiences of fake news, not just target Facebook and Google. </p>
<p>When the committee reports in December, let’s hope it offers ways to strengthen public interest journalism by placing Australian audiences’ interests ahead of all others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson was previously a journalist at the ABC and Fairfax Media.</span></em></p>Public interest journalism exposes corruption and wrongdoers, and holds the powerful to account. But it is increasingly under threat, and we need to find ways to protect it.Andrea Carson, Lecturer, Media and Politics, School of Social and Political Sciences; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/385632015-03-09T18:52:46Z2015-03-09T18:52:46ZGuardian fortunes appear revived as leadership contest enters home straight<p>For a terrible moment last week, it seemed that the biggest talking point in the world of newspapers was going to be the frankly <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/sir-elton-john-shaves-off-evening-standard-owners-eyebrows-and-beard-for-comic-relief-10079450.html">bizarre spectacle</a> of Elton John shaving off Evgeny Lebedev‘s beard. </p>
<p>Lebedev is owner of The Independent and London Evening Standard, lest we forget, and even though the event was for Comic Relief, this did little to alleviate feelings of astonishment that a) anyone would own up to thinking of such a ruse and b) who on earth, outside of those au fait with the toxic world of media ownership, would find the process remotely interesting enough to donate any money? Now, if Justin Bieber were to give Rupert Murdoch a pedicure …</p>
<p>So it was very welcome news that Katharine Viner had been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/05/katharine-viner-wins-staff-ballot-for-guardian-editor%2520">overwhelmingly successful</a> in a ballot to determine who might succeed Alan Rusbridger as editor-in-chief of the Guardian. Indeed, 53% of the 964 staff at the Guardian and Observer eligible to vote chose Viner, currently heading up the US Guardian, over three other candidates. </p>
<p>She is not a certainty for the job – the only thing actually guaranteed is that Viner’s name will be on a shortlist of three people from which the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian group, will choose Rusbridger’s heir later this month. Nonetheless, it’s a great democratic gesture to allow journalists and editors such a voice. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://mediamanagersclub.org/guardian-and-observer-journalists-get-vote-next-editor-chief">Brian Williams</a>, father of the chapel of the National Union of Journalists, said: “Ultimately if you are going to be an effective editor here, of all places, you need the backing of the majority of journalists. Without any shareholders the staff are probably the biggest stakeholder in the organisation.”</p>
<p>And Viner is very much a Guardian woman, as her <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%25C2%25A0http:/gonuj.org/public/ballot/candidates/katharine_viner.html%2520">candidate statement</a> demonstrates. She has worked for the paper for 18 years, editing a variety of “flagship sections” and before her move to New York she was instrumental in launching the highly successful <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/insideguardian/2013/may/26/welcome-to-guardian-australia%2520">Guardian Australia</a> enterprise. As editor-in-chief at the Guardian US, she has been very impressive. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/guardian-website-moves-to-new-global-domain">Guardian’s own figures</a>, US traffic is up nearly 55% year-on-year. Hugely significant when one considers that now represents a third of the Guardian’s total digital audience.</p>
<p>Viner writes of being “liberated” by digital while keeping mindful of the need to safeguard the future of print – something that needs urgent attention. The <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sun-sales-are-unharmed-first-month-without-topless-photos-page-three%2520">latest ABC figures</a> show that Guardian sales fell by 10.34% year-on-year in February to 176,124 sales a day on average, which leaves it some distance behind its quality rivals, the Times and the Telegraph. </p>
<p>It could even be that in the near future the print version of the Guardian ceases to be. In 2012, Adam Freeman, then its commercial chief <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9614953/Guardian-seriously-discussing-end-to-print-edition.html">was quoted</a> as saying the paper was on a “mission” to be able to stand alone as a digital-only publication, and was mixing its stable of traditional journalists with enthusiastic citizens who would work for free.</p>
<p>Well, that may become a reality sooner rather than later if one considers the most recent Guardian News and Media full year trading update. Jasper Jackson in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/09/guardian-observer-publisher-guardian-news-media">Media Guardian</a> reported: “A 20% increase in digital sales over the year has more than compensated for declines in print circulation and advertising.”</p>
<p>Print aside, much seems in fine fettle – as the <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-claims-more-us-uk-unique-browsers-gmg-reports-20-cent-rise-digital-revenue-%25C2%25A380m">Press Gazette</a> points out, GMG has a cash and investment fund of more than £800m, its Australian unique browser audience has grown by 60% year-on-year and overall its digital revenue is up by 20% to more than £80m. </p>
<p>Throw into the mix the global significance of the NSA revelations recognised by the <a href="http://www.gmgannualreview2014.com/uploads/overview_press_release.pdf%2520">2014 Pulitzer prize</a>, the 2014 Newspaper of the Year accolade at the UK Press awards and the launch of Guardian Labs, its branded content and innovation agency, and you appear to have the makings of a healthy beast. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/mar/09/guardian-observer-publisher-guardian-news-media">Alan Rusbridger</a> further global expansion is on the horizon. He said: “Thanks to our balance sheet transformation, we can look forward to a period of targeted investment in the world-class journalism, digital excellence and increasingly international readership that is now the hallmark of the Guardian.”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74211/original/image-20150309-13550-paqbel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74211/original/image-20150309-13550-paqbel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74211/original/image-20150309-13550-paqbel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74211/original/image-20150309-13550-paqbel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74211/original/image-20150309-13550-paqbel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74211/original/image-20150309-13550-paqbel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74211/original/image-20150309-13550-paqbel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Alan Rusbridger is going out with a bang.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Rusbridger#mediaviewer/File:Alan_Rusbridger_by_Alessio_Jacona_-_International_Journalism_Festival_2014.jpg">Jaqen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>As Rusbridger moves into the end phase of his role as editor of the Guardian he aims to leave his mark with a major reporting and coverage initiative dedicated to, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/06/climate-change-guardian-threat-to-earth-alan-rusbridger">in his words</a>, “events that have yet to materialise [which] may dwarf anything journalists have had to cover over the past troubled century”.</p>
<p>Referring to climate change and what governments can do to fight inexorable impending disaster, the Guardian’s new campaign will attempt to halt the progress of states and corporations involved in the plundering of planetary resources.</p>
<p>This is quite a task to undertake; not least because some of the companies and corporations that will no doubt be offended by the Guardian’s rigorous new approach will be those advertisers upon which all media operations depend.</p>
<p>But let’s not be churlish, and let’s hope that the integrity of Rusbridger’s crusade is maintained whoever takes over at the top. Katharine Viner clearly has the support of her colleagues, a commitment to journalism and vision for the future. </p>
<p>As she sums up in her candidate statement: “We should focus everything on why we are determined to sustain the Guardian: to report, inform, debate, entertain and reflect our values on a global scale.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
For a terrible moment last week, it seemed that the biggest talking point in the world of newspapers was going to be the frankly bizarre spectacle of Elton John shaving off Evgeny Lebedev‘s beard. Lebedev…John Jewell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/353832014-12-11T06:42:32Z2014-12-11T06:42:32ZAlan Rusbridger leaves big shoes to fill at The Guardian<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66965/original/image-20141211-6045-th74eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More time for piano playing, then.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Andy Rain</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alan Rusbridger, who has <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30420374">announced</a> that he is leaving the editorship of The Guardian after 20 years in 2015, will be remembered as one of that great newspaper’s greatest editors.</p>
<p>Always ahead of the game in keeping The Guardian vital and relevant, Rusbridger abandoned the broadsheet print format in 2005, adopting instead Berliner (smaller than broadsheet, larger than tabloid). At the same time, the title introduced new fonts and other design features, and the G2 tabloid supplement.</p>
<p>As the print edition of The Guardian, like other newspapers, lost circulation (though not by nearly as much as some), Rusbridger led a pioneering approach to digitalisation, or “digital first”, aiming to double its online user base. In March this year The Guardian <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/apr/17/guardian-website-100-million-users-abc">passed</a> the 100 million unique monthly visitor milestone.</p>
<p>A large part of the digital success of The Guardian can be attributed to its encouragement of user-generated content, through features such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/commentisfree">Comment is Free</a>.</p>
<p>The Guardian had one of the first news websites of any media company, and today remains a leader in the design and user-friendliness of its online content. It has long been one of the most successful online titles in the world, capitalising on a strong international reputation.</p>
<p>The Guardian launched an Australian online edition in 2013, and quickly rose to become a <a href="http://mumbrella.com.au/news-com-au-reclaims-top-spot-nine-news-site-rolled-ninemsn-figures-267277">significant player</a> in the Australian media market, as it had already done in the US. In Australia, as in the UK and elsewhere, its free access model presents a direct alternative to the paywalls of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and many other media companies.</p>
<p>Even more impressive than his ability to lead The Guardian through digital transition with a skill and foresight equalled by very few of his competitors has been Rusbridger’s success in maintaining the company’s reputation for journalism of the highest quality. While excelling in lifestyle and culture coverage, the Guardian has had the most impact with its investigative work, breaking stories such as the Edward Snowden leaks, the WikiLeaks data dumps of 2010 and News International’s phone-hacking activities.</p>
<p>While most of the British media chose to downplay or ignore the story of how News International editors and journalists in London systematically violated ethical and legal obligations in pursuit of eye-grabbing headlines – as in the Milly Dowler case, coverage of which closed News of The World and scuppered a planned multibillion-pound takeover of Sky in the UK – the Guardian beavered away on the story, month after month and year after year, until it could be ignored no longer.</p>
<p>As editor during this period, Rusbridger can justifiably be described as the person who, more than anyone else alive, brought the more feral outposts of the Murdoch empire to heel. Investigative journalist Nick Davies did the hard yards in unravelling the scandal, but the editor was a key figure in providing the right work environment.</p>
<p>Murdoch won’t be sorry to see Rusbridger go, then, while Australian media companies remain nervous about the entrance of a dedicated Guardian edition to the news market down under. Rusbridger and the title he led have been key to the maintenance of a certain standard of journalistic independence and ethical integrity, not merely in the UK but all over the world.</p>
<p>He’ll be missed at The Grauniad, as we used to call it for its typos and misspellings, and he’s certainly a hard act to follow.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Alan Rusbridger, who has announced that he is leaving the editorship of The Guardian after 20 years in 2015, will be remembered as one of that great newspaper’s greatest editors. Always ahead of the game…Brian McNair, Professor of Journalism, Media and Communication, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/229702014-02-10T14:38:22Z2014-02-10T14:38:22ZWhy journalists should rally in defence of the D-notice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41159/original/hh6d47dq-1392032203.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Until Ed, spooks and hacks have always rubbed along well.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of Edward Snowden affair, the government is holding a <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/content/da-notice-committee-which-advises-editors-national-security-risks-could-be-scrapped-wake">review</a> of the operations of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee (DPBAC) and what is generally known as the “<a href="http://www.dnotice.org.uk/">D-Notice</a>” system.</p>
<p>This is a very agreeable early-warning system whereby any journalist covering a defence, security, or intelligence story can reliably check on the risks of putting lives at risk, or clumsily blundering into any operation that could save the country from terrorist attack or even the investigation of global organised crime, something in which spooks are now very much involved.</p>
<p>The D-Notice is a very modern system. Risk areas can be checked online in terms of standing <a href="http://www.dnotice.org.uk/index.htm">Defence Advisory Notices</a>. If you want advice 24 hours a day, you can ring the DPBAC secretary or deputies. Anything you say and any advice you get will be confidential, so there is no risk of your exclusive stories being spilled or spoiled by spin-doctors and media rivals.</p>
<p>The current secretary, Air Vice-Marshall Andrew Vallance and his predecessor Rear Admiral Nicholas Wilkinson, have always impressed me. They have gone out of their way to visit media publishers to brief, explain, and indeed educate. They have visited universities to talk to journalism students.</p>
<p>Andrew Vallance presented a multimedia lecture to 120 undergraduate and postgraduates at <a href="http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/journalism/">Goldsmiths just before Christmas</a> that drew overwhelming appreciation and interest from tomorrow’s journalists. Vallance is totally clued up on social media, new digital platforms of communication and briefed with impartiality and understanding about the tensions and conflicting needs of the media in a democratic state that also has to be protected through arms and intelligence. </p>
<p>The committee that advises Vallance and his two deputies has a <a href="http://www.dnotice.org.uk/committee.htm">majority of media representatives</a> from print, broadcasting, online and publishing. The culture encourages dialogue and understanding, tolerates disagreement and debate and is infinitely better than any alternative.</p>
<p>Speculation that it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/02/d-notice-mod-very-british-secrets">should be scrapped</a> and replaced with direct MOD press office and government directed media relations is rife. This would be another disaster to add to the accelerated decline of media freedom in recent times. DPBAC is probably the last state and media liaison body constituted by agreement, effective in operation – and bereft of pomposity and the discombobulated arrogance of government by propaganda.</p>
<h2>Press freedom under attack</h2>
<p>When controlling the message, manipulating the news agenda, burying bad news and massaging the Fleet Street diaspora and 24-hour rolling news tower of Babel does not work, we risk a descent into authoritarianism; persecuting and jailing sources, arresting journalists at dawn and questioning them under caution in some kind of stop-and-search for hacks.</p>
<p>Perhaps there is a new rule emerging for the Monopoly board of risks in British journalism. Legislature, executive, academia and judiciary appear to be licking their lips at the prospect of hacks doing porridge after failing to land on the brown of Whitechapel or blue of Mayfair. Oh what it is to ask the wrong question and write the wrong answer: do not pass, go directly to jail.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41160/original/64vw3nvv-1392032257.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41160/original/64vw3nvv-1392032257.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41160/original/64vw3nvv-1392032257.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41160/original/64vw3nvv-1392032257.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41160/original/64vw3nvv-1392032257.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41160/original/64vw3nvv-1392032257.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41160/original/64vw3nvv-1392032257.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41160/original/64vw3nvv-1392032257.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alan Rusbridger feared The Guardian’s stories would be suppressed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source"> PA Wire</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Back in the 1970s, the left-wing chattering comrades in the “alternative press” talked of D-Notices as though they were secret umbrella dart guns, with radioactive Polonium-210 tipped pellets fired by Cold War spooks in bowler hats and gas masks. The reality was always more prosaic. DPBAC is a peculiarly British method of discussion, mediation, conciliation and confidential consultation.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/content/guardian-g8-spying-revelations-were-breach-da-notice-guidance-doesnt-explain-lack-follow">report in the Press Gazette</a>, the system’s potential demise arises from a Guardian story about how British security services spied on foreign powers when the UK hosted a G20 summit in 2009. Despite signing up to the Defence Advisory Notice system, the Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/03/guardian-not-intimidated-nsa-leaks-alan-rusbridger-surveillance">decided not use it</a>. Subsequently he did. At the beginning, Rusbridger and his experienced and veteran specialists on security matters feared prior-restraint injunction. What subsequently happened in The Guardian’s basement with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/31/footage-released-guardian-editors-snowden-hard-drives-gchq">electric saws and hard disks</a> and the paper’s “courier” David Miranda being detained at Heathrow Airport and having all his personal electronic equipment confiscated, suggests they may have had good reason.</p>
<p>But intelligence and policing have a much more limited portfolio of technologies, techniques and devices than is generally imagined. Exposing without any checking on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/16/gchq-intercepted-communications-g20-summits">various of these techniques</a> has pushed the boundaries.</p>
<h2>Spooks and hacks</h2>
<p>The history of the D-Notice system since 1912 has been punctuated with all kinds of national security and so-called media irresponsibility crises. It would not be needed if that were not the norm. As <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZIB8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA441&lpg=PA441&dq=John+Wilson,+the+former+controller+of+BBC+editorial+policy+civilised+bureaucracy&source=bl&ots=RDvuFGbXUG&sig=A1DM4-yPCqmhxdd94bt_aJu9ans&hl=en&sa=X&ei=grH4UtS5MKOs7QbfqoDABQ&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=John%20Wilson%2C%20the%20former%20controller%20of%20BBC%20editorial%20policy%20civilised%20bureaucracy&f=false">John Wilson, the former controller of BBC editorial policy</a>, said in 1993: “Civilised bureaucracy rubbing up against decent journalism … an honourable way of tackling a problem that has no truly satisfactory solution.”</p>
<p>But I am convinced it has saved lives and media freedom. Going over to a freeze in government national security/media relations would be as disastrous as the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/nov/20/police-crime-reporters-leveson-inquiry">current froideur between the police and media</a> generated by the Leveson and Filkin reports. </p>
<p>I have been used to the sublime and ridiculous in my near 40 years of journalism, but I am so sorry to say to the very distinguished Dame Elizabeth Filkin, that her <a href="http://content.met.police.uk/News/Elizabeth-Filkin-report-published/1400005701012/1257246745756">report’s exhortations</a> on the risks of police officers and journalists talking to each other privately, confidentially and unofficially were absurd: “Late-night carousing, long sessions, yet another bottle of wine at lunch – these are all long-standing media tactics to get you to spill the beans. Avoid.” </p>
<p>Any contact I may have had with Britain’s intelligence and defence services I would deny and you can consider any effusions on this matter as complete fiction. But Daniel Craig and Angelina Jolie they are certainly not. Serious and dedicated to preserving everything good about the British way of liberty, democracy, culture and fairness for the greatest number has been my perception of what motivates those with whom I may or may not have had contact.</p>
<p>If their operations are out of proportion and diminish the rights they are employed to protect that is where I and my fellow journalists come in. The poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller once said: “It is wise to disclose what cannot be concealed.” When we are denied the chance to meet, discuss and negotiate on our own terms, the result is caricature, ignorance, and a level of misunderstanding that will generate negligence on a grand scale; then lives will not be saved and media freedom will be lost.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Crook is a member of the Professional Practices Board of the Chartered Institute
of Journalists.</span></em></p>In the wake of Edward Snowden affair, the government is holding a review of the operations of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee (DPBAC) and what is generally known as the “D-Notice…Tim Crook, Reader in Media and Communication (Goldsmiths), Visiting Professor of Broadcast Journalism (Birmingham City University), Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.