Mourning the loss of Marie Colvin

Marie Colvin, who has died today under the Syrian onslaught on Homs, epitomised why we need a free press. Over recent weeks we have been forced to look at the gutter into which so much of the press has fallen that we might have forgotten what the press is really for.

When I was a journalist - a humble financial hack - the war correspondent was seen as the pinnacle of our profession. They were the people who embodied the key value that all journalists must strive for: to be a witness to the truth, to see and to tell others what they are seeing, to tell the story that is happening on the ground and its effect on the innocent and non-combatant.

Colvin was the best of this breed of fearless reporters, spending time in almost every war zone of the past 30 years, shedding light in the heat and fog of propaganda put out by both sides. She lost an eye reporting the war in Sri Lanka in 2001, a war that was almost invisible in the west as the media paid it very little attention. Colvin brought out the story of the horror of this inter-ethnic conflict unfolding on a scrap of land in the North East of the island.

At its best the press is about being a witness to the truth. We need a free and fearless press because governments and vested interests do not want the truth told about their activities, only their version of events.

So in the midst of the entirely justified outcry over press tactics now being investigated by the Leveson Commission, we need to remember what the press is at its best. It is tragic that it takes the death of a talented, fearless and clear-sighted reporter like Marie Colvin to remind us of this.

Hacking is not just the province of newspapers

There's a good piece by my friend Steve in today's Society section of the Guardian. He's a bit of an expert on keeping young people safe on line and has some important things to say about how young people without good literacy skills and supportive adults are at some risk of finding themselves 'hacked' and their futures left in threads.

I particularly liked his image of the social web created by new mobile media as an incubator rather than merely a platform. 'It is a place where communication is captured, aggregated, added to, morphed, changed and rehatched as a new broadcast or "ping"'. His article is based on an extensive report he's written on the subject for the government's training and development agency.

Check it out here. And you can download the full report here.

It is a reminder that information is currency, often highly sought-after, not just for those seeking to grab better headlines than their rivals. Perhaps it's yet another reason why what's happened at News International over the past years has affected the environment in which all of us live.

Lancing the boil?

So, the Murdochs have decided that the solution to the News of the World phone hacking horror is to close the newspaper. So, lots of people are going to lose their jobs while the people responsible for the culture at the paper make the announcement in sackcloth and ashes, assuming that sweeping away the title gets rid of the problem.

Astonishingly, the Government thinks it's the right decision. Hopefully, it won't dissuade the government from holding the enquiries that David Cameron promised yesterday.

What we've seen today is the combined effect of advertisers, figures from public life and even outraged readers attacking Murdoch's bottom line. His response is to remove the running sore. But it doesn't do anything to deal with the infection at the heart of this company. The boil is still waiting to be lanced.

At the very least all those who have had editorial control of the paper in the last decade should be sacked - whatever job they currently hold - and investigated by the police as part of their wide-ranging enquiry. After all, it is they, not the News of the World's current staff, who bear responsibility for dragging the paper into the sewer and beyond.

And surely no one can now think Murdoch is fit and proper person to run yet more of Britain's media. The company's desire to control all of BSkyB must be thwarted. It's turnover makes that of the News of the World look like petty cash. Over to you Jeremy Hunt; try to do the right thing; seek help if you're not sure what that is.