Oct 18, 2007

The Media, Mr. Greenslade & the Questions

 It is probably safe to say that many of you have come to this page out of curiosity or because of media coverage of the landmark UK privacy case in which I have been involved these past 2 ˝ years. Most recently some of you may have followed along on a blog site of Roy Greenslade, the UK Guardian commentator, media expert and educator who has reported at various times and places regarding this privacy case.

These include:
A Trivial Case that Could Hobble the Press, (The Evening Standard Aug 30-06)
Confusion as Lords Reject Authors Rights to Appeal, (The Guardian Mar 30-07)
“It’s my story – I should be able to tell it”  (The Guardian April 9-07)





UK PRIVACY CASE HOMEPAGE
On Oct 5, the headline of Mr Greenslade’s Guardian blog was: “ Press Freedom the Loser as McKennitt wins.”

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2007/10/press_freedom_the_loser_as_mck.html

As of Oct 13, 2007, the blog still remained on the Guardian web site although it is no longer possible to add your comment to this story on the Guardian site.

Naturally, as a freedom of expression supporter myself, not only as an artist but as a member of a society which has and continues to benefit from ‘press freedom’, I was interested to drill down into why he felt press freedom was the loser as well as why he had taken the approach he had in covering this case.

It was impossible for me to speak to this side of things while the legal process was still in motion. Only as of Oct 5, 2007 (when the whole matter was settled with Ms Ash), have I been in a position to set the record straight regarding a number of factual errors and misrepresentations propagated in the media, and in particular by Mr. Greenslade, and also to share with the public what I feel are the broader issues at stake. I took the opportunity of Mr Greenslade’s blog to do both, perhaps at a little expense of my dignity.

At some point I would welcome the opportunity to engage Mr. Greenslade in a public forum (and you can check back here from time to time to see how we are making out on that front) In doing so, I hope to lend my voice to a wider discussion of how privacy, the cult of celebrity and the media intersect. Of particular concern to me is the matter of media accountability  - a media which is often corporately owned and commercially driven and whose influence undeniably affects our collective cultures, societies and democracies.  I must also state that I am aware that this has indeed been a concern of Mr Greenslade’s in the past, so we begin on a nice point of consensus.

If you would like to contribute any comments we invite you to visit the Greenslade blog/media accountability/cult of celebrity/ section of the QR message board which has been set up to address this subject . There is also within our website a section entitled UK Privacy Case which houses more information and background links regarding the case which sparked this discussion. Naturally we would be interested to learn of other events of organisations championing the same issue.

Thank you for your interest and support.

Loreena