https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19FYYhkFva/
By HILARY GAVIN
I DON’T know about you but I love great telly, with brilliant acting to boot, so I was truly delighted to find myself enthralled by the ITV series The Hack at the weekend.
Of course, I rate both Scotsmen David Tennant and Robert Carlyle among my favourite actors of all time – but especially Robert, who I consider to be a truly exceptionally gifted TV and movie star.
Saying that, David and Robert were both sensational in their roles as the Guardian newpaper’s investigative freelance journalist Nick Davies and the Met DCS Dave Cook respectively in the ITV detective thriller based on the real-life News of The World phone hacking scandal.
Of course, you don’t need me to fill you all in on the background to this scandal, the demise of newspaper baron Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World red-top and the subsequent Leveson Inquiry which garnered so much national newsprint.
However, I couldn’t let this ITV series pass by without sharing my thoughts on it with my Facebook pals on social media as a former News International employee – so here’s the message I posted online on FB and LinkedIn…
My social media post:
“AS YOU probably guessed it – I watched the whole series of The Hack on ITV yesterday. Brilliant, if uncomfortable viewing for me…but I found the Guardian journalist Nick Davies’s final courtroom summatiion of his investigation into the News of the World hacking scandal compulsive.
To my mind Nick Davies is right – responsible journalism shouldn’t be about theft (stealing people’s lives covertly) – but about talking to people and taking them with us through stories that are in the PUBLIC INTEREST and need exposure to prevent corruption.
Of course, I’ll write about this issue in more depth when I’m ready to do so on my WordPress blog. In the meantime, I should tell you that my attention was diverted elsewhere when the Hacking and Leveson Inquiry was taking place.
At that time, I fretted about the loss of good old-fashioned local journalism, the rise of spin and the switch from locally-managed newspapers to PLC regionalised offices. In my view, journalism and global consumerism don’t mix.
My other major worry was the rise of harmful social media which was, in effect, publishing and broadcasting by laypeople who were ignorant of our long-established publishing laws and responsible crime and court reporting.
Media law protects everyone in our society – but especially the young, old and vulnerable. Yes, sometimes those of us versed in media law get things wrong – as Nick Davies did – we’re only human after all, but publishing laws are, on the whole, thoughtful and KIND, so I would implore anyone thinking of considering a career in responsible journalism to invest in them.”
By Hilary Gavin
Freelance Journalist & Writer
T/A Business ‘n’ Commas
(Sole trader)
6 Southover Way
Hunston
CHICHESTER
West Sussex
PO20 1NY
Tel: 07940 444664
Email: grumpywoman@hilarygavin.blog
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