Wow! eBook
There is No Such Thing As a Free Press…: And we need one more than ever
Author(s): Mick Hume (Author)
- Publisher: Societas
- Publication Date: 1 Sept. 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 195 pages
- ISBN-10: 9781845403508
- ISBN-13: 1845403509
Book Description
The aim of this book is to a launch a polemic for the freedom of the press against all of the attempts to police, defile and sanitise journalism today. Once the media reported the news. Now it makes it. The phone-hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry into the “culture, practice and ethics” of the media has put the UK press under scrutiny and on trial as never before. There Is No Such Thing as a Free Press questions many of today’s distorted but widely-held views of the media, and turns the assumptions underlying the current discussion on their head. The problem is not that the UK press has too much freedom to run wild, but too little liberty. The trouble is not that the UK press is too far out-of-control, but that it is far too conformist. The danger is not that press freedom is too open to abuse, but that the British media is not nearly open enough. Mick Hume draws on the lessons of history and cross-examines the evidence from the Leveson Inquiry to take on the army of conformists and regulators who would further tame press freedom.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘A sparky, sarky defence of press freedom for one and all, hacking away the moral high ground from under media-ocrities and other snobs who think that “popular” is a dirty word.’
— Julie Burchill,author and journalist
‘[This book] questions what we mean by ethical journalism, the public interest and a free press, with some splendidly non-conformist answers.’
— Simon Jenkins,the Guardian
‘The freedom of the press needs its defenders now more than ever. And Mick Hume provides it here with his characteristic wit and verve. A masterclass in the writing of polemic.’
— Daniel Finkelstein,The Times
‘Mick Hume’s book is a rousing defence of free speech, freedom of the Press and the inalienable right to publish and be damned. Every editor, every proprietor in Fleet Street should read it. So should Lord Justice Leveson before he completes his report on press ethics. No “buts”.’
— Trevor Kavanagh,Associate Editor,The Sun
‘Lays waste party lines and conventional codes of conduct in a blast of derision from far-left field.’
— Peter Preston ― The Observer
‘One of the most persuasive polemics I’ve read in ages.’
— James Delingpole ― Spectator
‘It’s very good, a timely defence of freedom of the press at the time of Leveson, but rightly critical too of [journalism’s] manifest failings; our narcissism and laziness and sense of self importance.’
— Rod Liddle ― Spectator
‘It’s polemic and not presented as anything else, but it is extremely well written… It’s deliberatley intended to start a discussion about the press – and is a brilliant antidote to over-indulgence in Leveson. You really should read it.’
— Sue Magee ― The Bookbag
‘Hume excoriates the “I’m in favour of press freedom…but” brigade, persuasively and with vigour. He records the centuries of struggle and sacrifice that went into winning freedom of expression, and condemns The Guardian liberati for lining up with the state-steamrollers… having direct experience of cack-handed, patronising, anti-tabloid prejudice of the Leveson circus, I am with Hume.’
— Paul Routledge ― Tribune Published On: 2012-11-02
‘The threat is more insidious: that the shadow of state intervention leaves us with a more conformist, tamer and sanitised press.’
‘Hume, a creature of the British political Left, makes a compelling case for upholding and strengthening the freedoms of the press.’
— Mark Day ― The Australian
About the Author
Mick Hume is a writer and a journalist. He is currently editor-at-large of the online magazine Spiked (www.spiked-online.com). Hume has been writing about issues to do with the media, freedom of expression and a free press for many years. His previous publications include Whose War Is It Anyway? The Dangers of the Journalism of Attachment (1997), and Televictims: Emotional Correctness in the media AD (After Diana) (1998).
