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The Leveson Inquiry: How to have a free press

As I have a little bit of a background in law and media, I thought I would give my view on how we can have a free and regulated press.

The main arguments surrounding the regulation of the press debate seems to be that any regulation would resulted in the loss of a free press and any lack of regulation would result in things like the News of the World scandal happening again.

Journalists claim that only self regulation through the PCC can lead to a free press. The public see the PCC as a joke and failure. Both are true and the solution relatively simple.

Let me start with giving some example rules that the press could follow:

Privacy

Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.

Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. Account will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information.

It is unacceptable to photograph individuals in private places without their consent.

Harrassment

Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.

They must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on their property when asked to leave and must not follow them. If requested, they must identify themselves and whom they represent.

Editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-compliant material from other sources.

Clandestine devices and subterfuge

The press must not seek to obtain or publish material acquired by using hidden cameras or clandestine listening devices; or by intercepting private or mobile telephone calls, messages or emails; or by the unauthorised removal of documents or photographs; or by accessing digitally-held private information without consent.

Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means.

These rules seem pretty clear cut and fair to me. They are also taken from the Code of Conduct written by editors and journalists and enforced by the PCC. So if these rules exist, why has everything gone wrong?

Because the PCC is both judge, jury and executioner. Whenever one body has the responsibility to write rules and enforce rules, corruption exists. It is the same reason why our unwritten constitution separates the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Imagine the chaos of going back to the medieval period where the King wrote the rules and enforced the rules. How many miscarridges of justice have been enshrined in history?

So, the solution? Keep the rules and keep the PCC but have a separate body that is responsible for the enforcement. You can never enforce rules against yourself. I know how difficult it is just to keep to my own no chocolate rule.

I told you it was simple.

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Economist or Soothsayer

So, I am a normal pleb, just trying to get on as best I can. However, there is something in my way; the economy.

I read all about it, try and get my head around it but as soon as I think I'm getting somewhere, someone else throws in a curve ball. 

For example, the OECD has warned of a European recession. Good god, best get ready for the wheelbarrows to carry my money in for a loaf of bread. I read the article, and start to worry (but then, in the area of global economics, what can one person do but join the ridiculed Occupy protests).

Then I find myself on the blog of the BBC Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders. She tells me that the OECD's reputation is that they are known for being wrong. But then she tells me that their warning fits in with other, private, economists' views.

So then is it to be believed? I really don't know. I have even found myself on the OUP's Openlearn website trying to teach myself economics. My conclusion is simple: What's comin' will come and we'll meet it when it does. (yes I have just quoted Harry Potter).

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Woman rants about ethnic minorities

WARNING: THERE IS LOTS OF SWEARING IN THIS VIDEO

Even though the language is terrible, I had to post this video. I cannot believe what right this woman thought she had to go into this rant on London Transport. 

Disgusting.

Update: She has been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence. Thank god, people like this scare me. I wonder if social services should be brought in too. You can't help but wonder how the kid will turn out under her influence.

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Now, if this isn't innovation, I don't know what is. Some salmon take advantage of a flooded road.

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Tim Backhouse in Bow, Devon, has painted a speed sign the size of a double decker bus to remind motorists to keep to the speed limit in the village. I find people who come up with really unique solutions to problems brilliant.

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The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear

Antonio Gramsci (23 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) - An old comment that still rings true with today's politics and economy.

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Types of schedules

Over the course of a project, different types of schedule are used that compliment and guide each other. What schedule is being used at any given time greatly depends upon what phase the project has reached. This post will attempt to explain the main types of schedule and when they are most commonly used.

Conceptual schedule

The conceptual schedule is very simple and shows the major tasks, milestones and approximate start and end dates. Its use is mainly confined to the initiation and early planning phases when the scope of the project is still being determined. Detail is not included as tasks may be edited or completely removed and allows for flexibility by senior management.

Master schedule

The master schedule is the daddy of all schedules. It is drawn up as soon as a project has been decided on and has all major dates and tasks on it. This schedule is frequently part of the contract, meaning changes cannot be made without formal agreement of all the parties and can be legally enforced.

Detailed Schedules

There will be many detailed schedules that will breakdown the major tasks in to smaller activities. There can be detailed schedules for time period, individuals and tasks, such as weekly schedules, a personal schedule for individual contractors and/or a schedule for stage 1 of a new build. New schedules will be drawn up as activities progress or are completed and are mainly used in the execution phase of a project.

Technorati Tags: Project Management Schedules Time Management 

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Read the latest jobs, apprenticeships and training news from HullWorks in a web page flip book.

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Project Phases

Projects have a beginning and end, but they also have some defined phases in between. This post will identify the phases of a typical project and describe the types of activity that go under them.

A phase is, generally, a grouping of similar activities. Phases are mostly sequential, with most of the activities in one phase being completed before the next phase is started. However, this is not clear cut as some activities started in an earlier phase can continue to run throughout another phase. This is because phases do not have set deadline and completion dates in contrast to tasks and milestones, which do.

Initiation Phase

The initiation phase is the phase that starts off a project. It will involve activities which are associated with a project start up and include identifying the project team and defining resources. This phase usually starts with the appointment of a project manager and will end when the project team has enough information to start planning.

The main activities that will generally happen in the initiation phase are:

kickoff meetings 

developing resources 

acquiring project management infrastructure (office space, PCs etc)

defining the scope of work 

developing conceptual schedules 

Planning Phase

The planning phase is fairly self explanatory and involves all activities required to develop an understanding of how the project will be executed and plan for acquiring the resources need to do so. Though this is the phase for planning, a project will always have flexibility in it to allow new planning to take place in order to meet challenges that might crop up.

The main activities involved in the planning phase include:

development of more detailed schedules and budgets 

staffing plans 

procurement plans 

control plans 

Execution Phase

The execution phase involves all activities required to complete the work of the project. The type of activities involved in this phase depends upon what the project involves but taking the example of a house building project would include things like the appointment of an architect, the drawing of the housing plans and the actual construction of the building.

Closing Phase

The closing phase is the completion of all the activities followed by the project documentation being archived, the project team being transferred off the project and ending in the product of the project being handed over to the client.

The phases of a project are fairly common sense. You start by deciding on what the project is and how it could be done, then you fully plan how to complete the project, do it and then hand it over to the client when you’re done. The complexity comes in when assessing the details or, in other words, just how to actually do it all!

Technorati Tags: Project Management Project Phases 

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Tintin!

I am reading The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure in anticipation of watching the Tintin movie. I do hope Speilberg does the character and Herge justice. 

I think one the main disappointments with all the other adaptations is that they have cut out the little things. One of the things about the Tintin novels that I always loved was Snowy. In the books he talks to the audience, providing witty, and quite bitchy, commentary on what the main characters are up to. And who can forget the time when Snowy becomes drunk on whiskey? These points never feature in the adaptations.

Then there is the complexity of the plots. They are more involved and far more intelligent than they have ever been portrayed on screen. Some might think this is for obvious reasons (they have been made for kids etc), but then, so were the books. Why can't kids get to enjoy clever plots any more?

Ultimately, though, the reason I have never preferred an adaptation over the original (and the reason why I will probably be disappointed by this latest one) is the same reason why I was attracted to them as a child in the first place - the artwork! I can spend hours with a Tintin book just exploring each of the pictures. The detail, for a cartoon, is immense and when you combine this with art deco, a style I love, there is nothing better. Sadly, that is something I cannot do at a cinema. 

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101 - I just don't agree with it.

Humberside is getting the new 101 non-emergency police telephone number at the beginning of November (the 7th), and I just don't agree with it.

To report a crime deemed an emergency, you dial 999 and it is free. This is because you, the tax payer, pay for the police to protect you and the rest of your law abiding citizens through your council tax. However, if you call the non-emergency number to report a non-emergency crime, you are charged for it. This being the case even though you pay for the police and are observing your moral duty to not clog up 999 which should be reserved for real, life threatening, emergencies.

However, that is not the reason I don't agree with it. Even though I knew I would be charged to report a crime, I have still used the non-emergency number in the past. But there are many people out there who will continue to ring 999 simply to stick two fingers to the police and say "I'm not payin' 15p a minute". Now, if the need to have a non-emergency number is so important, why charge. Not only is it morally questionable, you are well aware that there are people who will still divert 999 from real emergencies.

On the other hand, maybe the police need it to fund their £100,000 art work whilst trying to save £134 million. Got to love the Greater Manchester Police.

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The importance of client expectations

You have received carefully written instructions from your client. You have read through them several times, had meetings and communicated with them over any ambiguities. You start the project, complete it and evaluate it against the specifications, everything can be ticked off. Are you happy? Well your clients might not be.

Some project managers think that is a job well done. They have, to put it in a formal, textbook way, applied the “knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements”. But what if your clients are not happy? Shouldn’t the aim of a project manager be to meet the project’s requirements to the satisfaction of the clients? Well, I know this is not always practicable, but it should always be attempted.

Let me give you a couple of examples:

Example 1

The Department of Highways in South Carolina was exploring ways to reduce the road construction costs and developed new contracting processes to allow the road builders to bring new ideas for cutting costs. On one project, the contractor proposed cost-cutting ideas throughout the life of the project. At each phase, the client accepted many of the ideas and then revised the budget. The client promoted the revised cost target of the project as an example of the success of the new process. By the end of the project, the final cost was less than 1 percent over the newest target. Although the total cost of the project was almost 10 percent less than the original cost projections and contract obligations, the success of the project was connected to the new expectations that developed during the life of the project. Even though this project performance exceeded the original goal, the client was disappointed.

In this example, we have a project that has exceeded it’s original goal but, because of the expectations that had formed in the client’s mind, the project feels like a failure. Example 2 shows the exact opposite, a project which exceeds costs and duration, but is a success because of the expectations of a client.

Example 2

A biotechnology company developed a new drug that proved to have a large market demand, and the team that developed the drug was assigned to build a new manufacturing facility to produce the drug. The project manager for the construction company that was awarded the contract to build the manufacturing facility managed the project effectively. Every request for a change in scope was approved, and the result was a 20 percent increase to the total cost of the project. On most projects, a 20 percent increase in the project cost would be considered poor performance. For the client’s project team, who were accustomed to complex projects with a large number of unknown issues that increase the final cost of the project, a 20 percent overrun in cost was not unusual. Even though the project was 20 percent over budget, the client was happy.

Client satisfaction is often tied to expectations about project performance. Identifying and managing those expectations is a primary responsibility of the project manager but a client’s expectations involve an emotional element the cannot be fully captured in a written brief.

The expectations will not always be the successful completion of a project, but a vision that has formed in their mind. Project managers can easily forget this as they are being brought in to run a one off process, or in other words, their client’s ‘baby’. If you want to successfully sign off on a project then you must try to manage and compensate for a client’s emotion, for them it is not enough the a box has been ticked.

Technorati Tags: Project Management Client Expectations

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It is more and more important to keep your knowledge and skills growing. There are great sites out there like the OU's Open Learn but I find the free modules don't go deep enough because, frequently, you don't have access to the materials and resources they cite. However, Flat World Knowledge addresses this. It is a website that provides textbooks from top authors. It is an American site, so their examples talk about American institutions but it isn't difficult to imagine them in the UK. I've found them to be a great way to get up to speed on a topic you might need for work or even to show knowledge to a prospective employer.

Two I particularly like are:

Project Management from Simple to Complex

and

Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology

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robmspicer:

For most organizations, the day-to-day reality of project tracking done can get pretty ugly.  Status meetings, poor visibility, the wrong tools for managing work — all of it ends up overshadowing the good work your project was intended to do & destroying the energy your team had when the project began.

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The majority of people are not out to mock disabled people!

This is a very quick post to say to all carers of disabled people that not everybody out there is just waiting for the chance to mock and ridicule them.

When you're out and about, you sometimes catch a person's eye. Sometimes, as a result of this embarrassing you're looking at me, I'm looking at you situation, they smile. Isn't the polite thing to do to smile back and acknowledge them?

Well, apparently this is not the case when it comes to people with disabilities. This just happened between me and a girl with a physical disability whilst I was in the city centre. She looked at me and smiled, I smiled back. Her carer came up to me, jabbed her pudgy finger in my chest and deemed to tell me that I "shouldn't mock the disabled".

This resulted in the girl having to explain to her that I wasn't. It was just embarrassing for her and, to my embarrassment I apologised for something I hadn't done!

Really, it's not very often do you have a pleasant and polite moment in a city, and you just ruined it.

Rant over.

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Ricky Gervais - Freedom of speech v. personal offence

The sudden uproar over Ricky Gervais using the word 'mong' is, in my view, ridiculous. It has resulted in an argument over the definition of the word 'mong' with Gervais saying that it it is now used to describe an idiot, rather than being a derogatory term for those suffering from the chromosome disorder.

Then we have others citing the example of the word 'Paki' not becoming any less offensive because it broadened out to mean anyone Asian.

We do have the freedom of free speech in this country, but we are subject to some of the most draconian exceptions in the 'free' world. Considering this, why hasn't he fallen foul of one of our many exceptions? Because of intention.

And this is where I think these people who argue over the definition of a word lose out. By arguing over the meaning, they are clearly saying that they believe Gervais to not have intended offence/hatred against people with chromosone disorder. This means that they must accept that, as a comedian, he is simply intending to cause laughs with a word which he probably thinks sounds funny and believes to only mean 'idiot'. Otherwise they would not feel the need to justify their personal offence at his joke by getting bogged down in language.

Should intention (or 'mens rea') no longer apply to people's actions?

If a comedian can be persecuted for intending to incite laughter amongst people who share his type of humour then I no longer want to live in this country. I believe that you still don't get prosecuted for murder if you don't intend to kill a person, so why should someone be persecuted if they don't intend to cause offence?