Friday, July 15, 2011

We don't need ethics... and that's gospel

By Andrew Alexander

Last updated at 9:41 PM on 12th July 2011
Another attempt: David Cameron is the latest politician to try and impose a code of ethics on journalists
Another attempt: David Cameron is the latest politician to try and impose a code of ethics on journalists
Every few years politicians succumb to the desire to impose codes of ethics on journalists. We have had three attempts in the past half century or so to achieve this by committee of inquiry without much result.
David Cameron wants us to try again. It will be like grappling with a blancmange. We already see that statute law — used properly — can be very effective.
Enoch Powell used to say politicians complaining about the Press was like sailors complaining about the sea. But the grumbles go on — and always will if there is a free Press.
It is hard to see why journalists need a code of ethics any more than cabinet makers, car mechanics or other trades.
If it’s a code of morals we need, perhaps we should turn to the Church, where I can see in my mind’s eye the Archbishop’s pen poised to supply a couple of hundred thousand words on the importance of honesty, accuracy, consistency etc. But he has his own Sunday titles. They are called the Gospels, together with the Epistles.
What would you think of a newspaper publisher that constantly brought out four Sunday titles which disagreed with each other? The four Gospels contradict each other in various places. Mark says one thing, Matthew another. Christ’s descent as supplied by our formidable Middle East correspondent Luke is different to that supplied by his rival, Matthew.
Leading Church scholars explain these conflicts in various ways, though never by saying they are all correct — which they obviously cannot be. They tell us also that various epistles attributed in the New Testament to one individual were actually written by another.
Clearly, there is not much for us humdrum journalists to learn here.
The trend on all sides is to say that we all need qualifications — which is the path to regulation.
Publishers might be required to employ only those with some letters after their name. That would be a disaster. In any case, the qualifications being flourished by universities are of no value in the real world.
When I was City Editor of the Daily Mail, there was supposed to be a code of ethics applying to the purchase of shares. All it told me was that those devising this code knew nothing about the workings of the stock market or financial journalism.
No doubt the proposed ethics committee will work on the familiar lines that it is totally in favour of a free Press, but it must not be allowed to degenerate into licence. 
However, as Enoch also said, a freedom which cannot be abused is not worth having.

Take your medicine now

There is one hard-and-fast rule that applies to international or indeed national financial crises. And, as philosophers note with as much interest as economists, it is hardly ever followed.
The rule is simple: crises tackled swiftly always prove less painful than those whose cure is constantly postponed. Not very different from the advice of doctors.
Those with long memories will recollect how Britain spent years taking painful measures to dodge the devaluation of the pound, only to find, when it came, that it was really quite easy.
Crisis: Italy is the latest country to send markets into a spin - but if it is tackled swiftly it could provide less painful
Crisis: Italy is the latest country to send markets into a spin - but if it is tackled swiftly it could provide less painful
In Europe, the new crisis victim is suddenly Italy. Spain was supposed to follow Portugal down the slippery slope, instead of which we have Italy sending the markets into a panic. Even Indonesia’s government bonds are a safer buy than these countries’ official securities.
The euro is now in the grip of a very disorderly crisis. Banks and big investors have been insuring themselves against heavy losses in the Club-Med countries’ bonds by buying credit default swaps (don’t ask). But admirable as being insured may be, you would get nervous about even the biggest insurers if, say, London burned down.
We have got so used to the euro in trouble that it is easy to forget that the Greek ‘rescue’ plan is now 18 months old and Athens is in an even more parlous state than when the ‘rescue’ started.
Things cannot go on like this indefinitely. The eurozone has become a debtors’ club. And even if it does contain strong nations such as Germany, the majority become weaker if half their time is spent propping up the failing brethren.
The banking fraternity — which, as we all know, is full of fearsomely clever folk — is trying to frighten the stronger nations into rescuing the weak. Look what the knock-on effect might be, they cry, if there was a default. Well, nobody can be quite sure what that might be — though, if it is truly painful, it does not say much for banks that have been accepting Greek/Irish/ Portuguese/Spanish/Italian government bonds as reliable securities.
The effect on the EU of the eurozone’s gradual disintegration will be painful. Various heads of government have found themselves bitterly at odds with their EU counterparts because of the problem.
Goodwill has evaporated and there is no reason to expect things to get any better. How interesting, philosophers might say, that a club formed to generate mutual support and friendship should end up the scene of so many feuds.
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