Professor Steven Barnett talks to John Cleese about low standards in the British press and the public’s lack of trust

Surrounded by cats, suits of armour and men in bowler hats in a quirky setting, Professor Barnett sat down with the Fawlty Towers actor to talk about why the press is trusted less in the UK than in almost every other European country.

Professor Barnett pointed to the very high levels of trust in broadcast journalism, and said that broadcasters were properly regulated by Ofcom. The press, however, is entirely unregulated and has a history of unethical and sometimes illegal practices, but nevertheless has always proved too powerful for governments to hold newspapers accountable for their actions.  

He explained: “There have been seven separate enquiries in the last 75 years into the behaviour of the press – each one on the back of abuses of editorial standards – each time coming up with very sensible, moderate recommendations for how things might change and every single time the government of the day has run a million miles away because they are afraid. That’s why you had Tony Blair in the 1990s flying to the other side of the world to meet Rupert Murdoch when he became opposition leader because he wanted to make sure that Rupert was on his side. 

“Their conviction is that these people [are] the power brokers, without whom they will not get into power, so they run a mile in the other direction.”

Looking to the future, however, Professor Barnett is hopeful that progress can be made to improve the accountability of the British press.

He adds: “There is a sort of shift in the political environment now. The real question is whether a new government, which is going to be certainly somewhere to the left of the current one, under Starmer or whoever, is finally prepared to do something, or whether they are still too frightened”.

Watch the full interview on GB News’ YouTube channel.