As the firestorm of the hacking scandal continues to rage through Britain and beyond, many members of the public are now asking: who can you trust in the media?
I would like to tackle this issue head-on since I have always been proud to be a journalist and while nothing can defend the appalling actions of those involved in the scandal, I would not wish for our whole profession to be tarred with the same brush.
The fact is – most journalists are decent, hard-working people with principles and moral purpose.
Further, it must never be forgotten that the hacking crimes themselves were brought to light not by the police, the politicians or judiciary but thanks to the dogged determination of reporters at The Guardian newspaper.
I myself took an ethical stance when I resigned from The Sun newspaper in March 2003 over their support for Blair’s Iraq war.
Explaining my actions in an article for The Guardian, I wrote at the time: “In the run up to the war I was increasingly uneasy at the gung-ho stance taken by the Sun for what I saw as an American-led war of retribution, whose moral basis was questionable at best. It was obvious to me and everyone I knew that this was pay-back time for the Americans and a nifty way to sew up the Middle East. But the Sun was locked in to supporting the Murdoch line and no one was going to challenge that.”
Back then, my actions caused shock among red-top colleagues and many sarcastically commended me for committing what they saw as ‘career suicide’ but in my mind I had no choice but to follow my principles.
In the years since then we have learned the truth – there were no WMD’s, Parliament and the people were lied to while whistleblowers like David Kelly were hounded to their deaths. Meanwhile, no amount of inquiries will ever bring back the war dead.
I have bumped into several ex-Sun colleagues since then who have all said the same thing: “Funny that – it turns out you were right about the war.”
I don’t find it funny. I don’t find it funny at all. I just wish more people had had the guts back then to stand up when we all knew the war was wrong and Murdoch was wrong for supporting it in his newspapers.
The trouble was – he was too powerful. All the executives at News International were too powerful and journalists, like so many politicians, felt helpless to object to the political line, even when so many of us knew that it was wrong.
Today, we’re looking at a whole new media and political landscape – one in which perhaps no person will ever be allowed to become as powerful as Murdoch again.
But this doesn’t let any of us off the hook.
As the public reassess their relationship with the media, we are all encumbered more than ever to examine our consciences and ask not just, are we abiding by the spirit of the Editor’s Code of Practice, but are we upholding the best moral and ethical principles we can as individuals?
Leaving The Sun was the best thing I ever did for several reasons – firstly, it gave me the courage to be bold where others were afraid. Secondly, it reaffirmed my belief in doing the right thing, whatever the consequences, and thirdly, it inspired me to start First Features in order to represent the public to the press in the best way possible.
One of the first paragraphs I ever wrote for my website, which can still be seen today on the About Us page reads: “In her time on Fleet Street, she [Katy] came to recognise that frequently, those with a good story failed to get the best deal. Handling interest from national publications is not the easiest thing. In a fiercely competitive market, many people without press know-how find their experience leaves them feeling used or misrepresented.”
I’d seen first-hand how members of the public weren’t always given the respect they deserved through their encounters with large media organizations and I was determined to offer them an alternative, a means of dealing with the media that afforded them sensitivity and dignity.
Stories were never commodities to me, to be bought or sold, but the precious and fragile truths of a person’s life. Every one that crossed my path had to be treated with the utmost care.
Today we run First Features Ltd according to our own strict moral standards, above and beyond those laid down in the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. That is how First Features has become a successful and trusted supplier of gold-standard stories to the press in the last six years.
Each week we turn down stories if we believe the aggregate result of telling that story would be harmful – and in the same vein, we turn down requests from the media if we believe the resultant publicity would be damaging.
Frequently we talk people out of trying to sell their stories by pointing out to them the likely consequences they may not have considered and in cases where we simply believe there is good to be gained from publicity, whatever the the gain to ourselves, we push like mad to get a person’s voice heard.
These past two weeks represent a true turning point in our political, economic and journalistic worlds and I welcome a new era in which each and every journalist is forced to consult their own conscience before blindly following an editor down an immoral, or criminal, path.
In doing so, I hope it will help to usher in an age where the question – who can you trust in the media? – can be confidently answered with the phrase, every one.
Katy Weitz, Founder of First Features Ltd
To contact First Features call 020 7703 8000 or email info@firstfeatures.co.uk
To read Katy’s article from The Guardian in 2003 visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/mar/31/mondaymediasection2
