Leveson report: Prising politicians away from the press

It shouldn’t come as a shock that Lord Justice Leveson thinks the relationship between politicians and the press is ‘too close’. And he doesn’t think it’s a good thing, stating simply: ‘I do not believe this has been in the public interest.’ (Though he does say: ‘I am, of course, conscious of the limited extent to which the Liberal Democrat party (and its predecessors) have, in practice, fitted within that description.’) Leveson puts three specific allegations at the door of politicians:

1. They ‘have spent a surprisingly large amount of time, attention and resource on this relationship in comparison to, and at the expense of, other legitimate claims in relation to their conduct of public affairs.’
2. ‘in conducting their relationship with the press, politicians have not always maintained, with adequate rigour, appropriate boundaries between the conduct of public affairs and their private or personal interests.’
3. ‘politicians have failed to conduct their relationship with the press with sufficient transparency and accountability from the point of view of the public.’

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