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28-05-2012 16:25 Journalist control politician control jouranlist control politican control .... Dub Soundtrack

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MediaWhiteWash.wmv - Video

* Former PM say media so powerful he could not confront it

* Blair says offending media was dangerous for politicians

* Blair heckled over Iraq war at Leveson inquiry (Recasts with Murdoch, adds heckler)

LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) - British leaders are forced to court powerful press barons such as Rupert Murdoch or risk savage media attacks which render them unable to govern effectively, former Prime Minister Tony Blair told an inquiry on Monday.

Interrupted by a heckler who accused him of being a war criminal for supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Blair paused briefly before continuing to justify his ties to Murdoch with whom he said he developed a close friendship.

Blair cast himself as a politician facing the choice between being torn apart by what he once described as the media's "feral beasts" and getting his policies implemented.

But Blair, whose reputation for obsessive media management brought him so close to Murdoch that the tycoon could joke about flirting, said he became increasingly concerned about the unhealthy relationship between the media and politicians.

"With any of these big media groups, you fall out with them and you watch out, because it is literally relentless and unremitting once that happens," Blair, looking tanned and smart in a navy suit and white shirt, told the Leveson inquiry.

"My view is that that is what creates this situation in which these media people get a power in the system that is unhealthy and which I felt, throughout my time, uncomfortable with. I took the strategic decision to manage this and not confront it but the power of it is indisputable."

Blair is the most senior politician to date to appear before Leveson, an inquiry that has tarnished the British elite by showing the collusion between senior politicians, media tycoons and police.

Original post:
UPDATE 2-Blair says feared fight with Britain's media barons

Government plans for a press council are actually plans to restrict press freedom

Malaysian government plans for a media council to enforce by law journalists compliance with a code of ethics are expected to move ahead with a second round of discussions between editors and journalists and the Attorney-General and his team.

The governments moves are described as part of reforms in the name of press freedom, following on from the prime ministers announcement in September to end annual newspaper licenses. In April, amendments to the Printing Press and Publications Act replaced annual licenses with one-off licences good until cancelled, and slightly curbed the home ministers powers over the press, opening his decisions to challenge in court.

However, these reforms do not move Malaysia forward towards greater press freedom but merely return to the regime of control that existed before 1988, and before Operation Lallang, when the Mahathir government locked up dissidents and critics and closed The Star, Watan and Sin Chew Jit Poh. They were allowed to re-open six months later, under stringent conditions.)

The April amendments to the press and publication act merely restored the status quo ante. The difference is that editors agreed to submit to self-regulation in return for withdrawal of annual publishing licenses and the government has expanded the scope of self-regulation to include broadcasters and online media.

A new regime of media control is thus taking shape and journalists are being co-opted into this process by being part of the governments consultations. Todays discussions will probably be about the mechanisms of the new regime: how to control, who to control, and how to punish.

Although the government views this favorably as self-regulation, control of the media lies at the heart of the governments as yet unseen proposals by which editors and journalists will be drawn into the process.

It is common knowledge that:

*Newspaper editors in September agreed to set up a press council based on the voluntary UK Press Complaints Council (now disbanded);

See the original post here:
Opinion: Malaysian Press Council an Ominous Move

By Kate Holton and Matt Falloon

LONDON (Reuters) - British leaders are forced to court powerful press barons such as Rupert Murdoch or risk savage media attacks which render them unable to govern effectively, former Prime Minister Tony Blair told an inquiry on Monday.

Interrupted by a heckler who accused him of being a war criminal for supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Blair paused briefly before continuing to justify his ties to Murdoch with whom he said he developed a close friendship.

Blair cast himself as a politician facing the choice between being torn apart by what he once described as the media's "feral beasts" and getting his policies implemented.

But Blair, whose reputation for obsessive media management brought him so close to Murdoch that the tycoon could joke about flirting, said he became increasingly concerned about the unhealthy relationship between the media and politicians.

"With any of these big media groups, you fall out with them and you watch out, because it is literally relentless and unremitting once that happens," Blair, looking tanned and smart in a navy suit and white shirt, told the Leveson inquiry.

"My view is that that is what creates this situation in which these media people get a power in the system that is unhealthy and which I felt, throughout my time, uncomfortable with. I took the strategic decision to manage this and not confront it but the power of it is indisputable."

Blair is the most senior politician to date to appear before Leveson, an inquiry that has tarnished the British elite by showing the collusion between senior politicians, media tycoons and police.

"If you fall out with the controlling element of the Daily Mail, you are then going to be subject to a huge and sustained attack," said Blair, who governed Britain from 1997 to 2007 after rebranding the Labour Party.

"Managing these forces was a major part of what you had to do and was difficult," said Blair.

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Blair says feared fight with Britain's media barons

It doesn't seem as if Tony Blair's media instincts have changed much since he was British prime minister.

There he was, in a courtroom in central London today, testifying in the ongoing British judicial inquiry into media ethics after the uncovering of phone hacking at Murdoch's News of the World, when an antiwar protestor barged into the room from a supposedly secure hallway and screamed that Blair should be arrested for war crimes.

"J.P. Morgan paid him off for the Iraq War!" shouted David Lawley-Wakelin, a filmmaker, who has heckled Blair in the past on the same topic. "The man is a war criminal!"

As the judge stood up in alarm and four security guards wrestled Lawley-Wakelin to the ground -- he delivered that last line from the floor -- Blair sat with his jaw on his left knuckle and did not flinch. He did not move an inch.

When the judge, Lord Justice Brian Leveson, apologized to Blair and told him he did not have to respond, Blair knew better. He knew the media would focus on that moment rather than on his other four hours of testimony.

In his experience, he said, "if you had 1,000 people in an event and somebody got up and shouted something, then it's as if the other 999 needn't have bothered showing up."

And so he denied the allegations.

But looking at those other four hours of testimony, it might be noticed that Blair argued he had essentially done the same thing when in power, from 1997 to 2007: Since he believed he could not "confront" the media, he did his best to try to "manage" it.

That puts some distance between him and current Prime Minister David Cameron, whose culture secretary Jeremy Hunt will appear in the same courtroom on Thursday to testify following an accusation that he essentially stacked the deck during a controversial bid for more media control by Rupert Murdoch and his son, James.

Blair argued today that his relationship with Murdoch was entirely professional when he was in office. Now, that is debatable. Blair's former press officer Lance Price once described Murdoch as the "24th member of cabinet." After Blair left office, he became godfather to Murdoch's child. Blair admitted he spoke with Murdoch three times in the two weeks leading to the Iraq War. And Blair himself admitted he was too close to Murdoch.

Originally posted here:
Ex PM Tony Blair Testifies in Media Inquiry, Protestor Arrested