The Frontline club played host, on Friday, to a discussion about the role unregulated online comment will have on the democratic process ahead of the election.
Press Gazette has put together a highlights package of the event in which Caroline Thomson, chief operating officer of the BBC, expressed her concerns about the quality of some bloggers versus journalists who trained to keep within ethical guidelines.
It was a point contested by Sunny Hundal, founder of liberalconspiracy.com, who suggested that blogs, like Guido Fawkes, Drudge Report, Talking Points Memo, filled a different purpose to mainstream journalism – with non-professionals often being prepared to read lengthy documents word for word and dig deeper into issues.
Sir Robert Worcester, founder of MORI/Ipsos Group, argued against regulation that could inhibit free speech online. While Prof Steven Barnett, from the University of Westminster, rallied against the “echo-chamber effect” of Twitter.
The debate was moderated by William Horsley from the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) and the Association of European Journalists.
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