Journalism how the only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is integrity Thank you very much

h for the opportunity to speak here today. Its a great honour and I follow in the footsteps of some truly great journalists and broadcasters of recent times who have spoken here - and so I feel somewhat daunted. May I start by explaining the title of my talk because it does look a little pompous on the first and probably second - reading. While I was ASKED to talk about integrity and its importance to journalism I am genuinely pleased to do so - because I firmly believe that integrity is THE key quality that defines great independent journalists and is at the heart of the best journalistic organisations around the world. The title itself is a rather weak play on words. I was struck a couple of years ago by the bare-faced cheek of James Murdoch when in the midst of a frenzied attack on the BBC - he said at the Edinburgh TV Festival: the only reliable, durable, and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit. In place of profit I have put the word integrity because that is actually the only quality that can in the end deliver real journalism. And before I move away from James Murdoch its just worth remembering that with a prescient sense of irony, his overall speech was called The Absence of Trust something that parts of his organisation came to know a fair bit about. It s undoubtedly very timely to be talking about integrity and independent journalism in a year where the publics trust in journalists, in newspapers and in broadcasters has been rocked by an extraordinary series of events , scandals and revelations. So I would like to look at three organisations which in different ways - have had a difficult and testing year; News International, RT and the BBC and the possible lessons we can all learn from what has happened to each of them in the last 12 months. Firstly, News International and the hacking scandal in the UK. The behaviour of some journalists at the News of the World and some of the associated titles has dragged the reputation of journalists in the UK into the gutter. The wide-

scale hacking of individuals mobile phones and the damage inflicted on peoples lives all in the cause of selling more newspapers and titillating readers prying into private lives with absolutely no real public interest, is bad enough. Then there was the alleged bribing of police officers and other public servants to provide information or worse, to turn a blind eye to corruption or breaches of trust. All in all, it was a disastrous blow to the reputation of journalism as a whole; and one which forced the closure of a once proud newspaper The News of the World. It cost the jobs of scores of honest, decent journalists on that paper. It also led to the setting up of a judicial inquiry in the UK under Lord Justice Leveson which could potentially threaten some of the long-cherished and hard-won freedoms of British journalists. We await his report and his ultimate verdict. Meanwhile, the consequences of the lack of integrity of some of those News International journalists are very apparent and could be felt for many years to come. Im not sure that James Murdochs profit guaranteed the independence and quality of their journalism indeed it was a corporate drive to deliver profits and readers at any cost that resulted in the lack of scruples and the abandoning of values in his empire. Sadly, recent events at my previous employer, the BBC, have provided plenty of ammunition to those who would like to see its destruction and that of public service broadcasting. It was nearly a decade ago that the BBC had its last journalistic disaster the report on Iraq, the Blair government and weapons of mass destruction. This led to the Hutton Report, the resignations of a BBC Director General and Chairman and a long period of self-examination throughout the entire organisation. BBC journalism emerged stronger from this period; it became more independent and was betterconsidered. Indeed the audiences level of trust in BBC journalism had rarely been higher until now when the Jimmy Savile story has dealt the BBC and its journalism another bitter blow. It is not so much the appalling behaviour of Savile possibly on BBC premises three or four decades ago and the way the organisation reacted to events then. The full facts are yet to emerge but it looks terrible by any standards. However the real questions for modern-day journalists and senior news management at the BBC surround the failure of Newsnight to run its report on

Savile when by all accounts the programme had a series of victims who were prepared to speak and whose testimonies would corroborate each others stories. Newsnight and its team has a fine track record over many years of representing what is best about BBC journalism tough; fair; accurate; challenging the powerful and those in authority with courage and without fear. And the programme has had integrity at the heart of its coverage. That is why the current situation and allegations are so damaging to the BBC; they strike at the heart of the BBCs commitment to unbiased journalism. External critics are now queuing up to call into question the integrity of the decision-making around the pulling of the Savile report on the programme. When the inquiry, led by the excellent and independent journalist Nick Pollard, reaches its conclusions, I hope those involved will be vindicated. The people involved have the highest reputation as journalists and news executives. But it has been a highly unsavoury episode and one which has already inflicted heavy short-term damage on the reputation of Newsnight and of BBC journalism itself. One last observation on the BBC: during the fallout from the Hutton Inquiry and the rows with Alastair Campbell over weapons of mass destruction and Iraq the audience was largely with the BBC. Overall they thought the BBC had made a mistake but was largely correct over its coverage of WMDs and took TOO MUCH punishment that time. With the Jimmy Savile scandal the feeling is very different. The BBC of the 70s and 80s looks like it turned a blind eye to the most appalling criminal behaviour from one of its best-known presenters. And the modern day BBC looks like it dropped a report that was in the best tradition of robust, courageous journalism and for what reason? I can only hope there was a good one, but its audience is most certainly not with the BBC in this crisis. And now, after 20 years at the BBC, I find myself here in Ireland proud to lead the News and Current Affairs journalists at RT. Its a public service broadcaster like the BBC and which, like the BBC during Hutton, suffered a severe blow recently to its journalism and hard-won reputation. The facts and the fall-out from the Mission to Prey programme have been widely discussed in public here in Ireland and I dont propose to revisit them all here. I can

comment as someone who has arrived at RT in the last two months and can tell you what I have found. At RT we are rebuilding reputation, confidence and trust. One of the reasons the audience, and the staff in RT, all felt so let down was because RT has always aimed for - and almost always delivered the highest standards in its journalism. RT has a well-deserved international reputation for its impartial news coverage and for its hard-hitting current affairs output which still runs in peak audience slots on the main channel that has the largest audience in Ireland. Following the Mission to Prey programme, RT lost a long serving and highlyrespected Head of News. There have been inquiries; new journalism guidelines and training. And at the same time, RT has had to save millions of Euros and at the same time see a raft of experienced and good people take voluntary or early retirement. But I am hugely optimistic for the future of RT News and Current Affairs. At RT, I have found some of the best and the most committed journalists I have ever come across. They care passionately about what they do: providing strong, impartial, accurate and popular news programmes to our Irish audience. Many people within still feel angry and hurt by last years events and that is because they care about RT; about our core journalistic values; our responsibility to licence fee payers; our reputation and the integrity of what we do. I was heartened when I arrived to see that a huge majority of Irish viewers and listeners still regard RT as trustworthy, independent and accurate. It still maintains levels of trust that many other media organisations envy. But everyone at RT like all the best broadcasters and journalists, knows that our reputation is hard-won and easily lost and every day we have to justify that trust and live up to it. Integrity may be the central guarantor of independent, high quality journalism but on a practical level - its not the only guarantor.

RT like all modern news organisations also faces the challenges of a 21st media landscape that must deliver high-quality journalism in a more exciting but increasingly competitive and complicated environment with the pressures of 24 hour news. There is new, intense competition from local and global players; there are incredible opportunities which bring with them massive costs and challenges as new technology and platforms emerge. And there is the new kid on the block - social media - to use; to compete with and which questions within seconds everything we do. Its become a busy, crowded marketplace. And RT is certainly feeling the commercial uncertainties of hard economic times. Unlike TV3 and the newspapers here in Ireland, we have a partial shield, with a good proportion of our income funded by the licence fee. That helps us hugely when it comes to ensuring quality journalism whose cornerstone is integrity and which I believe - will shine through an increasingly crowded market place. However we have to acknowledge, our journalism costs money to deliver. One particular pressure in recent times here in Ireland which has hit RTs commercial income and those of other Irish content producers is the arrival of Sky on the playing field a huge international 800 pound gorilla is now pounding about a relatively small marketplace. Sky TV is sucking money out of the Irish TV market and out of Ireland - and we are all feeling its effect as it returns to the country little or no investment in return by way of Irish content or quality journalism. And so as I return to the companies of the Murdochs, we end where we began. The questions we have to ask of ourselves is What kind of journalism do we want as an audience one with integrity as its ultimate objective or one which says PROFIT is its ultimate guarantor? To finish when I asked a little bit about who exactly my audience would be today I was told that amongst those listening there would be many journalism students and to consider what my message would be to them. My answer would be that its not easy to get into journalism particularly in these current hard-times. Its a competitive, hard world and one where funding is increasingly hard to come by. I have also spoken about a number of

failures in recent journalism and the battle for its reputation and indeed for its future. However, I would say one final thing be brave and do it. I absolutely believe that journalism at its best is something to fight for, to commit to and one of which to be proud. At its best - its goal is to tell the truth, to challenge the powerful, to be fearless in the face of controversy and intimidation and to tell the real story, despite the pressures of vested interests. Its why we do this job and I am proud to be one of the people who put that commitment at the heart of what we offer to our audiences each and every day. If you have the drive to do it and most importantly the integrity to do it at its best....have no doubts and I welcome the next generation of journalists to our difficult, challenging, but ultimately hugely-satisfying world where integrity still comes before profit.