by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Leveson Report released just at the end of November 2012 is, more or less, calling for government regulation and thus a form of censorship of the British press (and media), although it is not being directly marketed as such.
Lord Leveson is trying, as a judge, to make the law as to the regulation of the press (government censorship more like) in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, by his “recommendation”, but the making of laws is not down to judges but to the lawmakers in parliament.
It would appear, however, that, with the exception of Prime Minister Cameron a fair number of MPs want to have the press regulated by law (so that they can tell the press what and what they cannot do, write, etc.) and this is more likely a result of having found out by the press to be unethical in their expenses claims and such like.
Had it not been for the media uncovering that scandal they would still be abusing their positions and claiming expenses for something they are not entitled to claim.
When an ordinary person does that it is called fraud but when members of both houses do it it would appear that they think that that is find. One law for us and another entirely different one for them, it seems.
Thus, in order for them to be able to carry on as is, and it has nothing to do with the illegal activities that some journalists and editors engaged in (phone hacking and other such snooping is illegal, period, and needs no additional laws), they do their damnedest to stop us finding out. The illegal activities of those few journalists and editors are only being used as an excuse to muzzle the press and to curtail its activities in finding out wrongdoings by those that are supposed to be our servants.
Lord Justice Leveson also must remember that he cannot expect, as, apparently, he is to have said, that a new body be created to oversee the press backed by legislation. He is not, as I said before, a lawmaker; he is but a senior judge and no more. He is of the Judicial branch of government and it is his job to deal with and, to some degree, interpret the laws that are made by the Legislative branch of government. Judges may not make laws and neither insist that their recommendations become law.
However, it would appear that we have an issue here in the UK in the late autumn of 2012 where exactly this is being attempted and this is an attempt to usurp the powers invested in the Judicial branch of government. The legislative branch, the executive and We, the People, must not allow that to happen.
© 2012
