Leveson, Lobbying and the London Elections: 7 goals for spring 2012

Earlier this week Full Fact gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press culture, standards and ethics. It is a once-in-a-generation chance to fix some of the long-standing problems that have led to low levels of trust in journalism, and we are glad to be so heavily involved.

But there are a lot of other things we are working on at the same time:

  1. London Mayoral Election: There was amazing interest in our AV referendum work last year, with links coming in from unexpected places like TeenHelp.org and PCGamer.org as well the national press and MPs. We don't want to be too London-centric but with one eye on the Scottish referendum and the next general election, making election campaigns better for the voters is an important goal for us.

  2. Statistics: Last year we announced that Full Fact would merge with Straight Statistics so that our expertise and influence could be combined towards making more and better data available to the public. We hope to be able to announce a new Statistics Editor joining our team soon.

  3. Corrections: Full Fact continues to press for corrections to inaccuracies where we find them. The BBC and the Daily Mail are the latest to correct the record, and we continue to press the Daily Express to do likewise, despite the fact that it isn’t covered by the PCC.

  4. Lobbying: Last month the Government unveiled plans for a register of lobbyists in an attempt to “shine the light of transparency” on those with Parliamentary influence. But how far will this ‘light’ extend? Look out for our special investigation in a few weeks time, thanks to one of our volunteers, Rob Lowcock.

  5. Our team: On top of the new part-time post of Statistics Editor, we are looking for enthusiastic volunteer researchers and writers to join our three full-time staff working to keep politics accurate. We’re delighted that our most recent volunteer, Joe Jervis, is now on a placement at the Guardian and then off to Demos, and we have other alumni in variety of interesting places. If you think you might like to work with, see volunteering at Full Fact.

  6. Website: We have just begun designing and developing a new website to make it easier for you to find the facts, figures, and content that you are interested in. If you have any ideas, please let us know on Facebook. We're looking forward to adding comments to the site itself!

  7. Leveson: We've made our mark on the problems of press inaccuracy and the PCC and now we are preparing evidence on the relationship between politicians and the press, which is coming up as module 3 of the Leveson Inquiry.  We'll be talking about the government's role in the spread of bad information about welfare reform, and the way bad information leads to bad decisions. As Leveson requested, we'll also keep talking to the PCC about designing a system that will work for the future, and genuinely live up to the ambition of fast, free, and fair regulation.

To keep up to date with Full Fact’s work, follow us on Facebook or Twitter. If you’d like to help out, consider a donation – we punch above our weight but we do rely on our readers' generosity to keep at it.

 
 

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Full Fact believes in the possibility of accurate and informed debate. Our factchecks look at whether it is reasonable for interested citizens to trust the claims of politicians and journalists based upon the evidence that is available to us. Where we find mistakes, we ask for them to be corrected.

 

Corrections:

We aim for our factchecks to be as accurate and up-to-date as possible. If you think we have made an error or missed some relevant information, please email: corrections@fullfact.org