Falklands : Falklands: Society of Editors Transcripts (Pt 1)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 19.11.2011 (Article Archived on 10.12.2011)
Before introducing our keynote speaker I am very grateful for the opportunity that Robin (Esser) has given me to just very briefly to draw your attention to
INTRODUCTION TO THE RT HON KENNETH CLARKE’S KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY LORD BLACK OF BRENTWOOD
Transcribed by J. Brock (FINN)
Before introducing our keynote speaker I am very grateful for the opportunity that Robin (Esser) has given me to just very briefly to draw your attention to an important report that has just been published today which focuses on press freedom issues on shores of countries where challenges to press freedom are even more intense and often literally a matter of life and death. It’s a report which has been published by the Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust, the successor body to the old CPU (Commonwealth Press Union) which over the past year has undertaken a project to look at the key laws that constrain a free and independent media in a number of representative Commonwealth countries from the UK to Uganda.
The result of this is a draft report which has a number of recommendations about the protection of content, of self regulation, the repeal of the laws on defamation, opposition to the licensing of journalists or publications and the importance of effective freedom of information laws.
And one of the most crucial messages of this report is the UK’s leadership role in this area and the chilling effect internationally that any moves to crack down on press freedom here or initiatives which weaken the principles of self regulation are magnified many times over in countries where governments need little excuse to seek to extinguish investigative journalists.
I commend this report to you and copies will be available to you at the end; and I hope it might also find its way into the red box reading of our keynote speaker as so many of these issues land in his In-Trey.
The Secretary for Justice, the Rt Honourable Kenneth Clarke needs really no introduction to anyone here. He’s been a towering figure in British politics for a generation, holding two of the great offices of State – Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Ex-Chequer – a position from which he formed the golden economic legacy which was then handed to an incoming Labour Government.
After the last election he became Secretary of State for Justice; a job which is absolutely vital to this industry, whether it be on issues of freedom of information, court reporting, data protection, privacy, the human rights act and the issue of super-injunctions which has come out of that and now also – we were hearing earlier – the implementation of the Bribery Act. The Secretary of State is dealing with issues which are central to debates we are having today and the freedoms which everyone in this room cherishes.
Secretary of State we warmly welcome you here, we thank you for joining us at such a critical time. We greatly look forward to your remarks.
(100X Transcription Service)
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