By Madelyn Rowley

If there is one place that the combatting of press wrongdoing should start, it is the classroom.

This is the belief and intention of the Press Justice Project, who have taken to universities all over the United Kingdom for the past several weeks to address lecture rooms full of students. Most are studying journalism, but some of their courses stretch to law and criminology. The common thread between these students is that they are each exposed daily to the pervasion and detriment of misleading, abusive and downright incorrect news. Yet one day, many of them will be journalists themselves — and some may even work in the most powerful newsrooms in the country.

This nonstop bombardment can most effectively be countered with the spread of awareness, education and public conversation. In a collection of recent trips, the PJP have visited The University of Surrey, The University of Worcester, The University of Sheffield and The University of Strathclyde. In these settings, they present up to two hours’ worth of content on the failings and opportunities of UK press regulation, the Leveson Inquiries and real-life ethical dilemmas within newsrooms. 

"The Press Justice Project is proud to be engaging with aspiring journalists across the country and educating the next generation of reporters on the importance of newsroom ethics.  In the absence of any independent regulatory oversight for the UK's largest and most powerful newsrooms, our work has never been more important,” said Nathan Sparkes, the Secretary to the PJP’s Board of Trustees.

The first section of the presentation addresses the Leveson Inquiry, a lengthy and well-known judicial investigation into British press standards that held its public hearings from 2011 to 2012. It also addresses Leveson Part Two, a follow-up to the first inquiry designed to continue the investigation into corruption and press illegality. Within this segment, the lecture presents Leveson’s solution to concerns about press accountability: independently audited self-regulation, a system whereby news outlets are incentivized to work under independent press regulators. 

This new way forward acts as a segue into the second discussion, which presents an objective evaluation of three methods of press regulation. The first is state regulation, wherein Parliament creates legislation that dictates the terms of press regulation; the second is pure self-regulation, wherein the press is able to control its own regulatory affairs without any oversight or minimum standards; the third is incentivized independent regulation, wherein news outlets are motivated to join a regulator which must meet standards of independence and effectiveness; itself periodically reviewed by a new independent body. Strikingly, when classrooms are asked to raise their hands in support for one of these three methods of regulation, it is always met with near unanimous backing for the third — a view shared by the public in opinion polls. 

The next section of the presentation confronts students with the impacts of low standards in the press. They watch clips from the recently released Hacked Off documentary “Britain’s Press: Power Without Responsibility?” wherein climate expert Pallavi Sethi from the LSE Grantham Research Institute describes the impact that misleading headlines have had on the UK climate crisis in recent years.

“Climate choices require information that is reliable, that is accurate, and that is evidence-based,” Sethi says to interviewer Florence Wildblood. “Misinformation about such important topics can really…polarize the public — we're seeing the climate crisis become part of the culture war here in the UK. [Misinformation] can impact public understanding, policy decisions and social cohesion.”

Alongside the climate crisis, the lecture then addresses how social causes like feminism and religious tolerance are damaged by misleading headlines. It then addresses intrusion into grief, leaving students shocked as they watch interviews from people who have experienced egregious press intrusion after a bereavement.  The students are challenged to consider what responsibilities the press have in reporting on these stories.

In the last segment of the presentation, students are asked to put their own ethics to the test when faced with real-life moral dilemmas about the contrast between the public’s right to information with the public’s right to privacy. Each scenario is based on famous and complex scandals in British newsrooms, with the students challenged to make editorial decisions over whether stories should be published, how they should be covered, and most importantly, what factors they must take into account. 

Alongside the team of presenters from the PJP, guests are also on occasion brought on with valuable insight for the cause. In one lecture at the University of Surrey, the PJP Team was joined via Zoom call with Christopher Jefferies. 

In 2011, the innocent Mr. Jefferies was arrested and accused of murder, and the press subjected him to such a string of falsified abuse that they were forced to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds in subsequent defamation damages. Over a decade later, he stands as a Trustee of the PJP to tell his story — a living display of the dangers of a press that is still permitted to control its own regulatory affairs.

Through both lecturing and guest appearances, the PJP have sought to tackle this complex but vitally important area in an informative and engaging way. The presentation is essentially objective on approaches to regulation — leaving students to make up their own minds — but is confrontational and uncompromising in discussing the impacts of low standards.

"Both the students and I really enjoyed it and found it incredibly engaging and thought provoking,” said Dr Dimitris Akrivos, the Criminology Programme Director at The University of Surrey. 

"The students got a lot out of it and the discussion we had following the lecture was great and pivoted on many of the examples,” added Dr Fiona McKay, a Lecturer in Journalism, Media and Communication at the University of Strathclyde.

The Press Justice Project team is currently available for presentations and guest lectures at universities and colleges throughout the United Kingdom, free of charge. If interested, please contact us at info@pressjusticeproject.org for more information.