Claire Fox: “You get more interesting journalism if you listen to people you think you don’t agree with – but within reason.”Malta should do away with libel laws and extremist arguments should be held in the public sphere in order to intellectually set fire to them, free speech advocate Claire Fox believes.
Ms Fox is the founder and director of the UK think tank the Institute of Ideas as well as a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze and will be addressing a debate next week in Malta entitled ‘Debating the principles of a free press: is the media too free or not enough?’
“It’s very important to allow the press to have absolute freedom – of course broadly within the law – because they do an invaluable job of asking the questions that nobody wants them to ask,” she explains.
“People will tell you that you need to stop the media from lying, which is why you have libel laws.
“But I would actually remove libel laws.
“These things are better resolved in the public sphere through argument and discussion rather than through regulation and law courts, which is the idea behind our Battle of Ideas festival.”
Libel laws in the UK, Ms Fox continues, have produced a tame media that hesitates before conducting an investigation – a media that is nervous about raising questions about somebody.
These things are better resolved in the public sphere through argument and discussion
“You get a media which is effectively quite anodyne and intimidated by power and that, to me, is much more frightening.”
If a newspaper constantly told lies and constantly ruined people’s lives, then a social discussion should be held whereby the newspaper could be discredited by being denounced as non-reliable and scurrilous, she argues.
“I do believe, maybe idealistically, that the truth will out.
“Plenty of horrible things have been said about me in newspapers and that’s life in a way, you have to put up with it and rebuild your reputation through the means you can do so, which is why there should be more opportunities for public debate and discussion.”
The fact that some newspapers in Malta are owned by political parties is not something Ms Fox would advocate, dubbing the situation as “restrictive practice”.
Objectivity in news items is hugely important, she adds – a journalist must pour in as much factual veracity as he or she can.
News articles should reflect the genuine arguments going on in society, Ms Fox says.
“You get more interesting journalism if you listen to people you think you don’t agree with – but within reason.
“I don’t think you’re obliged to always have the most extreme side of the argument though, or that would make nonsense out of it.”
• The debate will be held at the University of Malta’s Valletta campus on November 6 at 7pm.