Douglas Carswell's Blog

A register of approved journalists? Don't be daft

Shadow Culture Minister, Ivan Lewis, appears to be suggesting that journalists found "guilty of committing gross mispractice would be struck off a register", preventing them from working in news again.

Perhaps the regulator overseeing it all could be called the Independent Press Standards Agency, or IPSA for short?

The idea of an official register of journalists has to be about the most asinine policy proposal of this year's conference season so far.  Either this is not a serious proposal or else Mr Lewis cannot be taken seriously.

The idea of a formal register of journalists – at the precise moment at which the internet is blurring the boundaries between journalism and other occupations – is ridiculous. 

Even if Mr Lewis were to get established media players to agree to abide by it, and only employ approved journalists, has he not heard of blogging? Perhaps Mr Lewis thinks those who write for blogs will have to be accredited too?   

A few years ago, only an elite few ever published anything. Today everyone with a blog or a twitter publishes things almost daily.  It seems that politicians in search of headlines are the last people to grasp how the world is changing.

One does not need to be on a register to write an article saying that Mr Lewis' idea is daft.  Yet I suspect there will long be a need for articles pointing the daftness of politicians' ideas.

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