Press regulation is a controversial business. Where the regulator has close links to the press, those with a grievance against newspapers often complain that complaints systems are weighted against them. And where the regulator is tied to the government or to privacy campaigners, there's a threat to investigative journalism, open debate and the freedom of the press. So in most democratic countries, regulators sit somewhere between these two extremes.
The UK, however, has wound up in the truly bizarre position of having one regulator of each type: the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), whose client base includes the vast majority of publishers; and Impress, which is funded by privacy campaigners – and which, following its accreditation under a complex new system, may soon enjoy some big advantages over its press-led rival.
According to the champions of Impress, IPSO is a creature of the press barons: a figleaf, dedicated to defending newspapers against legitimate complaints. Yet IPSO chief executive Matt Tee certainly doesn't have the CV or manner of a panglossian defender of the UK's voracious, excitable press. In fact, our interview begins by exploring some of the growing problems affecting Britain's print media.
This affects the ability of the press to test and challenge government policies and positions, he believes: "If you don't have specialist correspondents on mass market papers, the questions journalists ask of those who should be held accountable are of a less good quality. Their interviewing will be less forensic". The problem is worst in the local press, he believes; at national level, the UK's thriving specialist and trade publishing sector helps to compensate for the mainstream press's declining topical expertise.
As newspapers field fewer specialist correspondents, Tee warns, they're less able to sift the truth from misleading information – and that's particularly dangerous in an era when "politicians just lie routinely", whilst unscrupulous writers fill social media with an avalanche of 'fake news' (see news).
Nor can national press regulators do much about fake news. "Globalisation poses significant regulatory issues," says Tee, pointing out that much fake news is distributed via global social media channels not traditional publishers. "Facebook doesn't agree that it's a publisher of news: it's a platform on which news is published," he notes; and even if it did concede that point, how would the world's many press regulators agree how to police a truly global communications platform?
In another critique of the press, Tee also believes that "the relationship between media and government is such that it encourages short-termism" – thanks in part to journalists' "very understandable desire to know whether something works the day after you've begun doing it." Some ministers have found a way to both please the media's appetite for instant results and instigate less popular, long-term policies built on firm evidence, he says; but it does take a particular kind of politician to do so.
On the whole, though, Tee is a champion of "journalism which holds government to account; which finds out things that government didn't want you to find out." The freedom of the press to probe, to examine, to challenge, to embarrass is, he points out, "an important part of democracy." And it's this freedom – its extent, and the constraints on it – that lie at the heart of the dispute which has landed the UK with two rival press regulators.
Back in 2007, two people working for now-defunct tabloid the News of the World (NoW) – the Sun's Sunday weekly – were convicted of illegally hacking into celebrities' voicemails in search of juicy stories. And by 2011, the police were discovering that this technique had been widespread across the paper. As the number of victims reached 4000, the NoW was axed and ultimately its editor – a former adviser to prime minister David Cameron – was imprisoned. With the financial backing of millionaire Max Mosley, the hacking victims and others badly treated by the press formed the pressure group Hacked Off to push for tighter regulation. And Cameron appointed Lord Justice Leveson to lead a judicial inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the UK press.
The solution was a 'Royal Charter', meaning that the Queen ¬– rather than Parliament – grants the Press Recognition Panel (PRP) its powers. This, says Tee, was "the least worst model the government could think of" – and having thought of it, ministers wanted to ensure that the press would sign up to a regulator granted the PRP stamp of approval. So they introduced two powerful levers. First, if any publisher overseen by a PRP-approved regulator lost a libel case, they would not routinely be required to pay either 'exemplary' damages – the fines imposed to punish and deter malicious behaviour – or their opponent's costs. And second, if any publisher not subscribing to the PRP-approved regulator fought a libel case in court, they could be required to pay both sides' costs – whether they won or lost the case.
So the newspapers founded their own regulator – IPSO – and hired Matt Tee as chief exec. A former maths teacher turned communications trainer turned government press officer, Tee had worked his way up to become the civil service's communications chief 2008-11: he understood the press, but couldn't be painted as its knee-jerk defender – and, as the publishers moved to defy the government's wishes and undermine its policy, his contacts and expertise in Whitehall must have made him an attractive hire.
For his part, Tee was impressed by the independence and authority of IPSO's chairman: retired judge Sir Alan Moses. And he thought IPSO a much more powerful and functional body than its predecessor, the much-mocked Press Complaints Commission. "The idea that you might have a stronger, more powerful press regulator, but that it wouldn't be recognised under the Charter, seemed to me the most effective way to go," he comments.
With the vast majority of publishers signed up to IPSO, it could have been game over. But Hacked Off wasn't ready to give up, and soon IPSO had a rival: funded by Max Mosley's charitable foundation, new regulator Impress applied for recognition from the PRP – and, in October, its application was approved.
Tee's much more concerned about the government bringing into force the 'cost-shifting' changes to libel rules – in which case, he says, "you might have someone bring a libel case, be shown to have lied, and at the end of the case have costs awarded against the publication". But ministers are first having a long think: the government has opened a consultation on the issue, and culture secretary Karen Bradley has acknowledged fears that ill-founded libel claims could drive small publishers out of business.
This was, of course, the point of cost-shifting: these powers were designed to force publishers to sign up to the approved regulator. But ministers had not anticipated, says Tee, that the vast majority of publishers would reject its solution and form a rival body. "They envisaged that there would be a single regulator, with most newspapers signed up, that would be recognised under the Royal Charter," he says.
Not surprisingly, Tee warns that if cost-shifting is introduced then the press might "stop publishing contentious and difficult content in the way they should." This "potential chilling effect is a serious issue," he argues.
To help our readers get the best out of Global Government Forum, we ask interviewees five standard questions – four seeking practical advice and opinions, and one to reveal something a little more personal. This is an edited version of Matt Tee's answers – click below to watch his full answers in a Global Government Forum video.
Can you name one lesson or idea from abroad that's helped you and your colleagues?
Are there any projects or innovations from this country that might be valuable to your peers overseas?
"One of the things that I would reflect on – it's true in press regulation, and it was certainly true when I was in the civil service – is that when we talk about colleagues doing similar jobs in other countries, we focus on the differences. We don't focus enough on what's similar about the challenges that we're facing. Looking for common experiences or challenges should lead us to a place where we're also focussing on common ways of meeting those challenges.
"I have two favourite books. In non-fiction, Good to Great by Jim Collins has some really great lessons about how companies move from being good to being real exemplars in their area. And in terms of fiction, I very much enjoyed Ken Follet's Century Trilogy, which basically chronicles the 20th Century.