Time for Of-press?

The Leveson inquiry starts today and already many observers are asking if it can possibly do any good. Its remit is to look at not only phone-hacking but also press culture, practice and ethics. And it is about time we asked whether or not we have the press we want or the press we deserve - because we do indeed have, perhaps by default, a press whose values have been distorted or warped by its very worst members. (I'm one of the so-called 'core participants' and will be giving evidence some time in the next couple of weeks.)

Hugh Grant puts it particularly well when he says it's all a bit like going to buy a bottle of milk.

When an actor, tv presenter or so-called celeb does an interview to promote something they're doing, they're exchanging the interview for a bit of much-needed publicity. The newspaper gets an interview which will help sell the paper. It's a fair exchange.

Just like the fair exchange you make when you give money to the milkman for the milk.

But just embarking upon that deal does NOT give you the right to demand further pints of milk for free or indeed break into the milkman's house and raid his fridge.

You start to see his reasoning? I do.

Throughout my career, whenever certain members of the red-top press have sought to defend an invasion of my privacy here or an overzealous pursuit of me there, they have always said something like: 'you seek publicity when it suits you, you cannot complain...' Indeed, that very argument was used against me in a Press Complaints commission hearing some years ago - and was summarily dismissed.

What some papers would never acknowledge was that they wouldn't write about you (good or bad) or splash your picture all over their front page if they didn't think it would help them sell their newspaper.

In other words, their use of you was almost entirely for their commercial gain. I say almost entirely, because I also believe that, in some cases, their zeal to report on some victims was more than that - perhaps even malicious...

If you'd like to read what he thinks - and why - and what, hopefully Leveson might achieve, have a look at this piece in today's 'i' newspaper - My View, by Mary Ann Sieghart. She argues that Leveson must find a way of making things easier and cheaper for victims of bad press. Perhaps we don't want to go as far as having an Ofcom style quango for the press, but we do need something stronger than the present system.