Jason Arday: Poll finds Britain backs ‘much tougher’ press regulation

An exclusive poll carried out for Good Law Project following Professor Jason Arday’s death shows that more than half of British people back “much tougher” regulation of the press.

Jason died by suicide last month, after a racist campaign led by the Times and the Telegraph which saw 249 articles published by 15 national outlets over 22 days. Newspapers attacked his work and his integrity, even though universities and journals had found there was no evidence he had done anything wrong. An article published by the Times just hours after his death carried the headline “Jason Arday may want to get himself a nice pair of orange trousers.”

A poll carried out last week by Deltapoll shows that 54% of British people think that the press needs “much tougher independent regulation” – more than twice as many as the 24% who think stronger regulation is not required.

Complaints about newspapers have been covered by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) since 2014. Despite its name, IPSO is funded by the media organisations it aims to control. Membership is entirely voluntary, with no sanctions against papers such as the Guardian, the Financial Times and the Independent who choose to run their own complaints procedures.

According to Good Law Project’s executive director, Jo Maugham, Jason’s tragic death exposes the “deadly power of a press pack that is completely out of control”.

“It’s only if we understand the media to be a noble estate, performing an important public function carefully and responsibly, that we balk at the idea of regulation,” Maugham said. “But the reality is that it is a money-making industry which causes immense human suffering in chasing clicks. Understood in that way, the case for it to be properly regulated is, I think, unanswerable. And it seems that the public agrees.”

More than 140,000 people have called on the government to launch a public inquiry into the media storm that hounded Jason to his death. And results from Deltapoll show wider backing across the country.

Forty-seven per cent of UK adults say there should be a public inquiry – two-thirds more than those who disagree.

The press wield great power, and like all power it can be used to defend democracy or it can be used to destroy lives. People shouldn’t have to face harassment because of the colour of their skin. It’s time for the government to tame the wild excesses of a rogue media and make sure that newspapers stop making money from misery and uphold the truth.