Examination of Witness (Question Numbers
1100-1112)
BARBARA FOLLETT
MP
2 JUNE 2009
Q1100 Chairman: When you say yes,
do you mean that you think there should be a requirement for prior
notification?
Barbara Follett: I think it is
something that good practice should dictate. For example, as MPs
of whatever party, if we are going to mention each other in the
Chamber, politeness dictates that we say, "John, I am about
to stand up and say something."
Q1101 Chairman: Like the dreaded
call from The Daily Telegraph!
Barbara Follett: Yes. The Daily
Telegraph gave six hours' notice to me and perhaps slightly less
to others and more to others. I do think prior notification is
right because it is about the rigour of checking facts because
your facts could be wrong.
Q1102 Chairman: You will be aware
that there has been a formal request or campaign to this Committee,
particularly from Max Mosley and Schillings and others, that we
should look to make it a legal requirement that newspapers do
notify someone that they are about to splash them all over the
front page. Is that something you have sympathy with?
Barbara Follett: Not to put it
into statute but to put it into the Code. I think it would be
something worth considering.
Q1103 Paul Farrelly: Jack Straw has
issued a very sensible document looking at conditional fee agreements.
Has DCMS put a submission in?
Barbara Follett: Which document
was this?
Q1104 Paul Farrelly: On CFAs. He
said that had been a particular problem.
Barbara Follett: Yes, it has.
I know certainly my officials have had a great deal to do in talking
to them. He has a consultation which might have just closed or
is about to close on this and certainly my officials have been
working with his on that.
Q1105 Paul Farrelly: Have you put
a submission in on that?
Barbara Follett: I would have
to ask my officials.
Q1106 Paul Farrelly: Could you let
us know?
Barbara Follett: Yes.
Q1107 Paul Farrelly: Jack said that
another area of concern the Department is going to launch a consultation
into is single publication to try and make sure that the libel
laws here—
Barbara Follett: Libel tourism.
Q1108 Paul Farrelly: —march
with the times and the internet. What is your view on that?
Barbara Follett: I welcome the
consultation because there is a great deal of anger, particularly
in the United States, because the burden of proof rests differently
in our system to the United States' system. They feel quite strongly
about this. I am pleased the United States is about to pass a
law.
Q1109 Paul Farrelly: When I was a
journalist in the days before the internet you got a year of grace.
You published and then you waited for a year before the Russian
oligarch sued you and then you breathed a sigh of relief on day
366. With the Internet now you do not because every time it appears
it is a fresh publication. What is your view on making sure we
march with the times and do not, while we are trying to reform
parliament, keep with the Duke of Brunswick in making sure that
publication is on the day it is published, not every single time
it appears on the internet?
Barbara Follett: I am not quite
sure what you mean by that. Forgive me.
Q1110 Paul Farrelly: I may have published
something 15 years ago. Before the internet people would have
a year to sue me. These days what I have published 15 years ago
may be lurking online in some archive and then 15 years later
someone could dig it up and say, "I'm going to sue you".
Barbara Follett: I think there
has to be a statute of limitations somewhere on this, but I am
not, as you can tell, very well informed in this area.
Q1111 Chairman: Finally, Minister,
you have already indicated that you see part of the problems in
the press in terms of no longer spending so much time on fact
checking, et cetera, essentially stemming from the enormous financial
difficulties which are now affecting the media. That is the subject
of our next inquiry, particularly the effect on local newspapers
and radio and television. Do you see that as perhaps the biggest
challenge that is now affecting all of these different areas,
about the quality of the media, et cetera?
Barbara Follett: The very nature
of newspapers, the press, as we know them, is an enormous concern
to me and to my Secretary of State who recently held a meeting
about the local media because local media is essential. It is
the way people know about council meetings, court cases, road
closures, those small things which make up local life and they
are very much under threat. National newspapers too. I know of
some that are losing £50 million a year. That is not sustainable.
I do not know where the future lies. I am very interested in you
holding an inquiry on that. We are at a crossroads of enormous
change. I have five children. The two elder ones in their forties
read newspapers. The other three who are in their thirties do
not. As for my grandchildren, they say, "Oh, granny, you
can get that on the internet. Why are you bothering to buy it?"
Well, because I like holding it! That is not an explanation for
them. I want to retain what is best from our newspapers and at
their best they are wonderful. I want to make sure that that local
news as well is preserved. The business models, new ways, we need
them.
Q1112 Chairman: That is what our
next inquiry will seek to try to find out. May I thank you very
much.
Barbara Follett: Thank you all.
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