Lord C-J Debates freedom of speech in Turkey

I recently attended a major conference on the Rule of Law in Istanbul alongside a number of other senior British Parliamentarians and representatives and a very broad cross section of NGO's, judges and others concerned with human and civil rights from a wide variety of jurisdictions. The Rule of Law and Freedom of Expression are crucial issues in Turkey today and are under threat. Here is what I said.

Rule of Law2

 

 

Media and Internet in a Democratic State

Freedom of the media is a vital pillar of the rule of law and its protection is related strongly to the independence of the judiciary as we heard this morning. It  is also a very topical subject on which to end this superb symposium and very closely related to the health of  democracies both old and new.

 

The 20th century philosopher Alexander Meiklejohn put it well when he that stated democracy cannot not be true to its essential ideal if those in power are able to manipulate the electorate by withholding information and stifling criticism.

 

Today’s panel session is very timely. Back in 1993 May 3rd was designated by UNESCO as World Press Freedom day.

 

It is a day to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

 

In this month of May in particular therefore we should remember that it is often journalists who pay the price for protecting freedom of expression

 

In the words of the former SundayTimes editor Harold Evans “The price of truth has gone up grievously,” commenting on the terrible annual roll call of journalists who die whilst carrying out their profession.

 

At the beginning of every year, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) publishes a report on the journalists killed in this previous year. 105 journalists and news media personnel were killed during 2013.

 

In that context we should remember Hrant Dink the editor of Agos who was killed in Istanbul 7 years ago.

 

Although there are some broad principles enunciated in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights( ICCPR)  article 10 of the ECHR  and the American First Amendment, in my own country Britain much of the development of traditional freedoms are judge made and depend on the decisions of the courts made at different times in response to different events.

 

It has often taken stubborn and courageous individuals to taken action to defend these principles and to have secured freedom of speech and of the press.

 

John Milton the famous poet, author of Paradise Lost and religious puritan, in Areopagitica, a famous defence of free speech and against the licensing of publication and censorship and was published in 1644 without a license, made an impassioned plea for freedom of expression stating:

 

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties."

 

In my former political party the Liberal Party, the predecessor to the Liberal Democrats, a copy of Areopagitica was ceremonially handed to each incoming President to remind us all of the importance of free speech.

 

Milton was however unsuccessful in persuading Oliver Cromwell’s government to abolish licensing and censorship.

 

Some say in fact that our current freedoms in Britain arose by accident when the Licensing of the Press Act 1662, which was time limited to two years, was by an oversight not renewed by Parliament in 1679.

 

This led temporarily to what has been called “an explosion of news print”.

 

The Act was in fact renewed a few years later but the benefits of a free press had clearly been shown and in 1695 the Licensing Act was repealed- the last time as our media have recently been reminding us-Britain had statutory regulation of the press.

 

It was to transform Britain into a nation of news lovers and the liberty of the press rapidly became a cornerstone of British democracy.

 

As if to remind us in the British Parliament of the importance of the freedom of the press there is currently  an exhibition taking place in Parliament featuring portraits and caricatures of one of the most famous defenders of press freedom in Britain, John Wilkes.

 

John Wilkes was a member of the British parliament who turned to journalism. In 1762 he launched a newspaper, the 'North Briton', aimed at countering the policy of the government headed by the Scottish Earl of Bute to make peace with France.

 

Through his writing he successfully forced The Prime Minister's resignation but he went too far and criticized the Monarch, King George III directly. The result was the issuing of a warrant seeking his arrest for the publication of what was called a seditious libel.

 

Wilkes successfully claimed privilege as an MP to secure his release but soon was expelled from the House of Commons and was forced to go into exile, remaining abroad for the next five years.

 

During this period he once again faced charges for seditious libel; he was sentenced to 22 months in prison. But by this time he was a national celebrity. He successfully re-entered politics even becoming Lord Mayor of the city of London !

 

Yet whilst we can celebrate the historic breakthroughs of the past very few countries including the UK nowadays are immune from criticism.

 

The annual index of media freedom, Freedom of Press, is published by the US-based Freedom House, an NGO established in 1941 that has been ranking countries worldwide since 1980 in relation to democracy, human rights and press freedom

 

Britain in the 2014 index has slipped down their global rankings  as a result of the UK government's actions in relation to the  Guardian newspaper over its reporting of whistleblower Edward Snowden's surveillance disclosures, with threats of legal action, the destruction of computer hard drives and the nine-hour detention of David Miranda, the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, at Heathrow en route from Berlin to his home in Rio de Janeiro.

 

Generally however Freedom House say that said press freedom worldwide has fallen to its lowest level for over a decade. It partly blames regressive steps in countries such as Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as the actions taken against journalists reporting on national security issues in both the US and UK.

 

Sadly a large essaywritingstar.com change occurred in Turkey’s ranking, whose classification has moved from Partly Free to Not Free. This reinforces the Pen International Report on restrictions on freedom of expression following the Gezi Park protests.

 

It seems that constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press and expression are only partially upheld in practice, undermined by restrictive provisions in the criminal code and the Anti-Terrorism Act.

 

 

According to the committee to Protect Journalists Turkey remains the world’s leading jailer of journalists in 2013, with 40 behind bars as of December 1,

 

The fall in the rankings was of course before the recent blocking of YouTube and Twitter, the law increasing the powers of the National Intelligence Agency- the MIT law- and new internet censorship measures.

 

According to Reporters Without Borders, more than a third of the world's people live in countries where there is no press freedom. These are countries where there is no system of democracy or where there are serious deficiencies in the democratic process.

 

A free press is a real problem a for most non-democratic systems of government since, in the modern age, strict control of access to information is critical to the existence of most non-democratic governments and their associated control systems and security apparatus.

 

Turkey IS a democracy but brave contemporary Turkish newspaper editors and journalists such Ahmet Şıkhave (who has won the 2014 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize) have had to play an important role in protecting the principles of press freedom.

 

It may appear that there is a press freedom gold standard in some countries but the truth is that even in mature democracies there is a constant struggle between different actors in public life, between the media and politicians and officials and business too, who often may wish for commercial and reputational reasons to conceal their activities. All this means that inevitably there is an element of subjectivity in what is accepted as necessary freedom of expression at any one time.

 

John Locke the famous late 17th Century British philosopher expressed the principle of valid limitations to free speech when he made the distinction between the concepts  Liberty on the one hand and Licence on the other, essentially the abuse of liberty to harm others.

 

John Stuart Mill the influential 19th British philosopher in “On Liberty” published in 1859 also acknowledged the need for limits on free speech in certain circumstances.

 

But for Mill, the only instance in which speech can be justifiably suppressed is in order to prevent harm from a clear and direct threat. Neither economic or moral implications, nor the speakers own well-being would justify suppression of free speech.

 

As he said.

 

"the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."

 

More pithy was US Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes  who made the  memorable observation that freedom of speech should not include the freedom to shout ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theatre.

 

Of course nowadays we have much stronger regard for certain rights such as the right of privacy, and governments assert national security when they can so there is a continuous debate about what limits can legitimately be placed on freedom of expression which go beyond those stated by Mill.

 

Article 19 of the  ICCPR for example states that

 

"everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice".

 

But it goes on to say that the exercise of these rights carries "special duties and responsibilities" and may "therefore be subject to certain restrictions" when necessary "for respect of the rights or reputation of others" or "for the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals".

 

Views of the proper extent of these restrictions differ between governments, people, parties and institutions.

 

Most recently in theUK there has been vigorous debate over the whole question of publishing sensitive national security information in the Edward Snowdon case.

 

Snowden, who worked for both the CIA and the NSA, leaked tens of thousands of secret documents to the Guardian and the Washington Post. Indeed his revelations about the scope of surveillance sparked a worldwide debate about the balance between national security and privacy

 

For some governments the leaks we're seen as putting lives at risk or potentially seriously damaging their ability to monitor terrorists.

 

For a newspaper such as the Guardian or campaigners like Julian Assange whose WikiLeaks whistleblower website published a large set of classified documents leaked by Private Bradley Manning, however, this was justified on public interest grounds as exposing state sponsored misbehaviour or worse.

 

We need to acknowledge of course the need to be vigilant not just about government repression of the media but the other sides of the coin, press standards.

 

The tabloid media in the UK has recently had to look at itself in the mirror and tighten up its standards and complaints procedures considerably since the so called “phone hacking scandal” where former News of the World journalists have been charged and in some cases convicted of intercepting private  phone messages and the ensuing public enquiry  by The distinguished Judge, Sir Brian Leveson Leveson   into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press.

 

In a culture where any form of government regulation has been fiercely resisted for three hundred years even his limited proposals for regulation have however  been strongly resisted by many in the media.

 

There are other aspects necessary for a free press too. The House of Lords Communications Committee on which I sit has in the past two years carried our Reports on the Future of Investigative Journalism and on Media Plurality.

 

The health of investigative journalism is vital to a strong democracy.

 

But is threatened by the economics of the digital age where newspaper have less resources to investigate and where definitions of what forms of journalistic behaviour is in the public interest are sometimes not clear and can lead to prosecution.

 

Media plurality is also vital for democratic life.  We need to have a proper diversity of opinion across the political spectrum.

 

There need to be regulatory mechanisms to ensure that this mix of opinion is preserved. This is not the same as regulating content however or ensuring that there is competition in the media although economic concentration can sometimes lead to the same outcome.

 

The internet of course has brought new challenges and arguments about the proper boundary between liberty and licence. Most citizens would agree with the need to protect children from abusive and pornographic online content and the banning of racist material.

 

How far can libel laws be invoked to gag criticism?  Should the rules applicable to the internet be different from those offline? Does the online blogger have the same responsibilities to prevent harm?

 

The debate whether the internet is somehow special still continues but all democratic countries are agreed on condemning internet censorship except for very specific reasons of the kind I have mentioned above. Indeed in the US the U.S. Supreme Court Reno v. ACLU in 1996 established the boundaries of permissible interference very clearly. But it cannot and should not in my view be a lawless zone where anything goes.

 

So to conclude there is no absolute equilibrium in the protection for freedom of expression. Legislation over matters such as libel, privacy or national security may change over the years.

 

The hall mark of autocratic societies is lack of a free media. Strong democracies however depend on a broad consensus of what the core rights of expression are. There may be arguments at the margin especially in the face of new media and new threats but we all have a responsibility for ensuring that in democratic countries in particular  the core principles are well understand and we ensure they are vigorously defended.

 


Angela Merkel Comes to Town

Very well received speech by the German Chancellor when she spoke to both Houses of Parliament. Some important messages about changes that could and couldn't be made to EU treaties. Even saw some Tory MP's clapping! Very witty intro from Speaker Bercow too.

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/addresses-to-parliament/Angela-Merkel-address-20130227.pdf


Lord C-J criticizes new lobbying bill

Just before the Commons left for the recess the Government published its long awaited bill to regulate lobbying. Sadly it is is deficient in many respects. I criticised it in the pages of PR Week and recently took part in a seminar on transparency in lobbying run by the Committee on Standards in Public Life. See my speech below.

www.prweek.com/uk/news/1192515/Lord-Clement-Jones-predicts-unholy-row-lobbying-legislation/

Lord Clement-Jones predicts 'unholy row' over lobbying legislation

Daniel Farey-Jones, prweek.com, Wednesday, 24 July 2013, 9:00am

Liberal Democrat peer and CIPR fellow Lord Clement-Jones has predicted an 'unholy row' over the Government's 'ludicrous and wrong' lobbying bill.

Westminster: The Members’ Lobby (Credit: Getty Images)

Clement-Jones, a partner at a law firm that operates a small lobbying practice, att-acked the ‘weak’ bill’s narrow focus on third-party lobbyists’ interaction with ministers and permanent secretaries.

‘It’s ludicrous to limit it to ministers and permanent secretaries,’ he said. ‘I could mount a perfectly respectable campaign without going anywhere near a minister – what about a special adviser, or mid-tier civil servants or somebody who runs a government agency?

‘There’s going to be an unholy row when it comes into Parliament,’ he added. ‘In many ways it would be better not to have a bill than have one at all if it’s going to be weak as this.’

Clement-Jones, who was chair of the government relations practice at healthymanviagra.com DLA Piper from 1999 to 2010, said that the bill left unanswered questions over whether legal firms would have to sign up.

‘We have to have a statutory register otherwise the usual code of conduct that is applied by the solicitors’ regulatory authority, which is that you don’t reveal your clients, is not overridden.’

His comments come as political and constitutional ref-orm minister Chloe Smith insisted the register would cover law firms and management consultancies, but only at the registrar’s discretion.

The commons committee charged with overseeing pol-itical reform has also hit out at the bill, saying the Government had ‘shown a lack of res-pect for Parliament’ in its rush to publish the draft bill.

The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee pledged to focus on influencing MPs’ responses to the lobbying bill after it was denied scrutiny of draft legislation.

 

Speech to Committee on Standards in Public Life on September the 19th 

It seems rather strange for me to be starting the batting today but I suppose that the reason doing so is because I have worked on both sides of the street both having been lobbied and having run a government relations operation.

I've been as a Liberal Democrat working peer in the House of Lords since 1998 and during the 80s and 90s I was a lobbyist and lawyer for business and then in a law firm and the chairman of their global government relations practice.

An important experience for me was the lobbying individual MPs in the course trying to get Sunday Trading Reform. This was an example of where an individual MP with a free vote has a considerable influence as opposed to the normal circumstance where it is the Government which is looking to make a decision

I must say that I agree with 99.9% of the Political and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s recent report, which came out on 5 September, in its critique of the new Bill.

I won't repeat the contents of that but suffice it to say that as regards the definition of a consultant lobbyist, the scope of the officials involved and and the de minis provisions which exclude certain firms the Bill seems to me to be misguided.

In terms of scope of officials involved  we need to look at how lobbying works in the UK. In a hierarchical society we may well need to go to the top.

In the UK lobbyists often make the case to junior officials first and work their way up through the food chain. We should include in the definition of lobbyists therefore those who lobby not just senior civil servants but mid level officials. Special advisers should be specifically included too.

Generally I believe that the enforcement of the various professional codes of conduct is far more important than registration and the declaration of clients.

I should declare a slight conflict here because of the unique position of solicitors who are governed by a strict code of conduct imposed by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.  This provides that solicitors cannot disclose clients identity without their consent.

They never know whether a client will give permission in the future.So a statutory override through legislation is required by solicitors to be able to sign up to codes such as that of the APPC which require disclosure of clients.

Generally I believe that the lobbied are more important than the lobbyist. It is far more important that there is transparency by public officials and by members of the legislature including the Lords than lobbyists  declaring who they act for.

The key is who among decision-makers and opinion formers should declare and what they should declare i.e. what ever codes say there should be a further transparency for members of the Executive such as ministers, civil servants and special advisers.

Surely now it is feasible for them to make a regular declarations. Quarterly is not enough especially now with the new Gov.uk website which could aggregate the information.

It is very important that declarations by members of the executive should give detail as to the nature of the meetings. For instance if civil servants meet the CEO of a holding company it will not be always clear which particular aspect of the business has been discussed

For the legislature there are slightly different considerations and it is important that on non constituency matters MPs should declare who they have been lobbied by. Likewise in the Lords peers should declare who they have been lobbied by for the purposes of influencing legislation.

I don't believe that this should be as frequently as for the Executive but six monthly would certainly be in order.

So a set of flawed proposals which don’t address the real issues. If the Bill had undergone pre-legislative scrutiny- essential in circumstances where constitutional issues are involved-I really do believe we would have had a much better debate about what really does constitute a proper level of transparency.