Channel 4 News chief correspondent Alex Thomson believes the post-Leveson environment is affecting broadcast journalism as well as newspapers.
He said there is a “sense of trepidation” in television journalism at the moment, with broadcasters feeling more pressure in the current political climate.
Thomson, who was this year named television journalist of the year at the Royal Television Society awards, claimed that the “alleged misdemeanors” of newspapers have been taken as a “blueprint” for the whole of the media industry.
“Television journalism almost behaves at the moment as if we were in the dock over Leveson as well,” he said last week at the Frontline Club.
“There is an extraordinary kind of reticence… there is a lot of fear around. I mean, the lawyers are playing a big, big part in the process.”
He added: “There is this sense of trepidation… A sense that in some way, oh, do we need to get our house in order?
“And should we do this and we think… four times about doing stuff when maybe we should think just two or three times.”
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