Ivan Lewis’s journalism register ‘totalitarian’

Talking Point: the only code of conduct UK journalists need is ‘don’t break the law’

Ivan Lewis

SHADOW culture secretary Ivan Lewis's proposal that journalists guilty of "gross malpractice" be "struck off" has, unsurprisingly, been condemned by journalists as totalitarian and insane. Unworkable and totalitarian

Conference season is barely half-way through, but already we have a strong contender for the most thunderously idiotic and ill-thought-through proposal of the year, blogged Tom Chivers for the Daily Telegraph. Lewis may be right to say that there have been "utterly appalling examples of malpractice within our trade" such as the phone hacking scandal, but "the idea of a journalists register is preposterous" not to mention having "a faint whiff of totalitarianism". The best way to punish untrustworthy journalists, and their employers, is to make sure everybody knows who they are, Chivers adds. "Will anybody trust Hari's writing now that they know where he gets his quotes from?" Journalists are not doctors

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