The Dark Side of the UK, and the Free Press

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February 1, 2008 · Filed Under England

The Times in England was one of the papers to have written an article stating that Italy is in a bit of a mess at the moment.

In some ways, this article was a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black, as the old saying goes. Indeed, if you take a look at The Policeman’s Blog, you may discover that life for some in the UK is certainly not a bed of roses.

For an insight into all that is not too wonderful back in the land of my fathers, I suggest reading these two recent posts over at the aforementioned blog:

A Rare Insight

Let’s have an Enquiry

Niether post paints a particularly pretty picture of the state of the UK now does it?

I found the ‘A Rare Insight’ post quite worrying, and it also shows that Italy is not the only country where the establishment has become rather out of touch with the lives of its populace. Actually, one of my past posts covers similar issues. You can read it here.

These articles are also a good example of how blogs can be more informative than the traditional press, which seems to be rather out of touch, and, it has to be said, is restricted to what it can say by certain vested interests. Although you may like to note that the writer of the Policeman’s Blog, who was a UK copper, is now policing in Canada. He left the UK for fear of losing his job - as a result of telling the hard edged truth.

Even if the cost of telling it like it is can be high, many blogs have, in general, become the true voice of the people, and are one of the few forms of truly independant press which exist today. At least for the moment.

One of the dangers of commercialising a blog is that the ‘editorial freedom’ can become limited. As an example of this, I was considering becoming an affiliate of Ebay, but then I noticed that Ebay does not want to be affiliated with sites of a political nature. This effectively counted Blog from Italy out.

I won’t be becoming an Ebay affiliate, because I want to continue to talk about issues that relate to politics and politicians.

One day it may happen that the rustle of cash leads to some form of compromise on my part with regard to what I waffle on about. I do hope this day is a long way off, or it never comes.

To end, a question: Do you, dear readers, think that blogs are gaining more respect than traditional news sources?

Answers on a comment please.

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Tags: blog, bloggers, Blogging, England, freedom, interest, Italy, life, news, People, police, politicians, Politics, press, press freedom, UK

Comments

4 Responses to “The Dark Side of the UK, and the Free Press”

valerio mariani on February 2nd, 2008 11:03 pm

Hi Alex,

first of all, I’m sorry for my english but, anyway, I know you’ll understand me. Ok, blogging is a kind of FREE journalism, I agree, and it’s really difficult to find a real free journalist in some part of this world but… but, remember, blogging is not real journalism, it’s about telling stories but who can swear that these stories are real truth? In case of professional journalism there is a lot of people that have to assure that a single news is correct and a journalist could be in trouble if he lies. I mean: as you know I’m a journalist and you don’t know how many mail and comments I receive, now that it’s born the bloggers party :), if I make a little mistake in my article. Who cares if a blogger write something wrong and, remember too, journalism is a real occupation, to blogging it’s a hobby. So, let’s respect the freedom of bloggers and the professionalism of journalists and use both with mind.
AlexR on February 3rd, 2008 12:03 am

Hi Valerio,

Good to see that you managed to visit my blog! Great to have a ‘real’ journalist visiting too!

Your written English is better than my written Italian - there is no need to apologise.

“blogging is not real journalism, it’s about telling stories but who can swear that these stories are real truth? In case of professional journalism there is a lot of people that have to assure that a single news is correct and a journalist could be in trouble if he lies”

I think you are right…to an extent. It is very true that bloggers can invent what they write and, unlike a journalist, nobody is going to stop the ‘article’ going to press, and, like some journalists, people can generally comment on the work of a blogger and if they think the story is a lie, then they will say so - either as a comment or on their own blogs.

Actually, people do care if bloggers write rubbish - the readers of a blog that invents things will just disappear - a type of www regulation, if you like.

I know that in Italy many journalists went on strike, while Berlusco was in power, if I remember well, because journalistic freedom was being restricted by editors and the owners of publications. This, generally, cannot happen to bloggers - Beppe Grillo is an example of this.

I really do respect the professionalism of journalists, but journalists are paid by others, and if they say something honest, but not nice about their employers, or friends of their employers, then problems can start.

This is not such a problem for bloggers, not yet, anyway. But, if a blogger says something bad about a person, then that person take the blogger to court for defamation of character.

So, bloggers are not journalists, but they should not be underestimated either.

However, having said all of the above, there is one major difference between bloggers and journalists - journalists write well - but many bloggers do not. Blogging journalists are an exception!

Hope to see you on the blog again - and to hear what you think of it.

All the best,

Alex
valerio mariani on February 3rd, 2008 7:39 pm

Hi Alex,

just an upgrade of my opinion. We have to distinguish: who is a journalist? A journalist is NOT a columnist. There’s just one columnist for thousand of journalists. A journalist have to tell us just a news and not an opinion, which it is the columnist’s job. More, a blogger write (almost) everytime an opinion but without a columnist skill.

Therefore, respect for the opinions of everybody, bloggers, journalists and columnists but I want to say to readers: use your brain and learn the difference between opinions and news.

Concerning freedom, I agree with you: journalists are “slaves” of publishers and, more, of politicians and advertisers and bloggers are free, but, belive me, not all of the journalists are constrained to write what someone else wants, most of them work on complete freedom.
AlexR on February 3rd, 2008 10:35 pm

Hi Valerio,

You make a good point, a journalist is not a columnist, this is very true.

And I do agree that ‘real’ journalists must just give us the facts and thus let us develop our own opinions.

You are also right to say that many a blogger is more of a columnist than a journalist - a very good point. It is also correct to say that the average blogger’s ability to write is nowhere near that of a columnist.

However, despite the fact that bloggers do not always write well, they often write enough, and many blog readers do not tend to mind too much about the writing skill (I try to write well, and I find poor writing a little annoying), but, the average person does not have the writing skills of a professional writer, mainly because many are not.

“Therefore, respect for the opinions of everybody, bloggers, journalists and columnists but I want to say to readers: use your brain and learn the difference between opinions and news.”

Again a good point, but I believe that many bloggers are able to tell the difference between opinions and news.

“Concerning freedom, I agree with you: journalists are “slaves” of publishers and, more, of politicians and advertisers and bloggers are free, but, belive me, not all of the journalists are constrained to write what someone else wants, most of them work on complete freedom.”

I don’t think journalists are slaves - I believe that most want to ‘tell it how it is’ and do not want to worry about over-zealous editors. And, some journalists do manage to bring the attention of the world to situations that need to be acted upon - and this is what journalistic freedom is all about.

Finally, I think it might be true to say that bloggers come in many different ‘flavours’ - some are wannabe journalists, others are more like columnists. Some bloggers write well, and others do not write so well.

In the end though, I think it is the readers decide what they like or dislike, and then one can just say blogging is a little like someone expressing an opinion at the pub and then participating in the conversation which starts. So, I suppose you could say that blogging is conversation, whereas journalism is a bit more like making a speech, or something like that.

Please feel free to disagree with me!

Regards,

Alex