Giggs exposed, but media have taken eye off ball

Published: 26th May, 2011
EDITOR'S COMMENT

THE powerful and the rich have the same need and right for justice as the poor and the weak. Justice is indivisible.

The right to privacy is many sided but it hardly seems important that the sexual peccadillos of a few “top” people need to be known by the public.

Down the ages, leaders and monarchs have led double lives – if it had become open knowledge it would not have made any difference to history.

There is a smell of hypocrisy by the clamour of the big beasts in the media against the Human Rights Act and for a breach of the privacy laws handed down by the judges.

The British media has far too often failed to publish far more important matters of public interest involving secret gatherings of the powerful.

If the media had exposed the secret “appeasement” meetings of powerful members of the Establishment in the 1930s – known to newspaper proprietors at the time – Churchill would have come to power earlier and Britain would have been better prepared for the war against Hitler.

If the media establishment had exposed the fake evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction alleged to be possessed by Iraq – cooked up by spin doctors, Tony Blair and senior members of the intelligence – the Iraq War may not have happened and tens of thousands of lives would have been saved.

Now, the media are using the shield of Twitter to breach Law Lord judgements on privacy.  

But how important is it that the sexual behaviour of Ryan Giggs be made public? It is a matter for the individuals concerned, no one else.

People follow the mores laid down by popular culture. 

Since Murdoch launched the Sun’s Page 3 culture, society has become sexualised. People follow the trend. And Twitter takes over.

But this creates the worst of all possible worlds – Twitter links and mob justice. With this goes due process and real justice.   

The rich and the powerful have a right to their private lives. But where their actions impinge on the lives of millions they should be exposed.

The media’s failure on the fiasco of Iraq was only recognised recently.  

It could have been made public at the time.

Here, however, the media was silent.

When newspapers, TV and the big bloggers start treating the politically powerful with less respect their arguments on privacy may have a different ring about them.