Sex, Lies and Democracy The Press and the Public

Do the Press have a case for asserting their right and moral obligation to call figures in the public eye to account? Or is it time for the government to abandon the Press Complaints Commission and introduce some legislation to deal with the problem? Is there really a problem?The question of the accountability and regulation of the Press has become a central theme of contemporary life and is the focus of this new book.

Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- PART! THE PRESS AND ITS DISCONTENTS -- CHAPTER 1 Tickle the public: consumerism rules -- /Hugh Stephenson -- CHAPTER 2 The 'tabloiding' of Britain: 'quality' newspapers in the 1990s -- /Michael Bromley -- CHAPTER 3 Demographics and values: what the British public reads and what it thinks about its newspapers -- /Robert M. Worcester -- CHAPTER4 An overview of the current debate on press regulation in France -- /Christophe Texier -- PART II PRESS REGULATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY -- CHAPTER 5 Managing the press in a medium-sized European Power -- /John Tulloch -- CHAPTER 6 Demanding accountability: the press, the Royal -- Commissions and the pressure for reform, 1945-77 -- /Tom O'Malley -- CHAPTER 7 Kith and sin: press accountability in the USA -- /Walter Jaehnig -- CHAPTERS Media quality control in the USA and Europe -- /Claude-Jean Bertrand -- PART III PEOPLE AND PROCESSES IN ACCOUNTABILITY -- CHAPTER9 Interpreting codes of conduct -- /Adrian Page -- CHAPTER 10 Teaching ethics to journalists in the United Kingdom -- /Barbara Thomas -- CHAPTER 11 'Watching the watchdogs'? The role of readers' letters in calling the press to account -- /Michael Bromley -- CHAPTER 12 Democracy under threat -- /Andrew Calcutt -- Appendix 1: The Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice, 1995 -- Appendix 2: The National Union of Journalists' Code of Conduct -- Index.

Stephenson, Hugh