The Press MUST be free to serve the public interest over wealthy man’s capacity to buy silence
Gag to worse
THE Press must be free to serve the public interest.
Yesterday, it was revealed that the Daily Telegraph has been stopped from revealing the name of a prominent businessman who — on at least five occasions — has used non-disclosure agreements and hush money to silence allegations against him.
Is it in the public interest for a loaded businessman to be able to silence the Press by spending half a million quid on legal proceedings?
Or for the public to know what he’s been accused of, and paid handsome sums to keep it quiet?
Ask yourself this: if a member of your family was applying for a job working for him, wouldn’t you want to know?
The #MeToo scandal showed just how far powerful figures will go to keep their victims schtum. But it’s not just Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood.
Over the past year, we’ve seen the High Court impose serious reporting restrictions on police arrests and a bid by Press-hating tycoon Max Mosley to wipe his fascist past out of history citing the ‘right to be forgotten’.
It will be you, the public, who lose out if the rich and powerful stop us doing our job.
End game
GIVE us a date, Prime Minister.
No, not for your departure. But for the end of the transition period.
We are wary of it lasting a day beyond 2020.
Dragging us into another EU budget cycle wouldn’t just mean chipping in another few billion for bureaucrats to squander — it also risks the UK being roped in to the whole six-year cycle.
If the PM has any hope of getting a deal through Parliament, the transition must have a legally-binding end date.
Anything less would be the definition of a bad deal — and no deal is better than a bad deal.
Total Berc
DOES John Bercow have no shame?
With every day he sits in the Speaker’s chair he discredits Parliament.
His refusal to take allegations of bullying and harassment seriously is an embarrassment at the heart of our democracy.
Parliament has a ready-made replacement for this rhino-hided oaf in Lindsay Hoyle — respected across the House.
Bercow must go. Now.
Turkey tyrant
TURKISH supremo Recep Erdogan can spare us the holier than thou act on human rights.
What happened to Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of the Saudis is disgraceful. But Erdogan’s record of political purges and locking up journalists is not far off.
He has more in common with the regime in Riyadh than he’d like to think.