Published: 12 January, 2012
by JOHN GULLIVER

THE Leveson inquiry into media standards is in full swing.

And last year the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, had two tabloids fined for contempt of court.

They had turned an innocent man, Christopher Jefferies, into a prime murder suspect in the Joanne Yeates case.

So, all should be well with daily newspapers.

But is it?

This week newspapers, especially the tabloids, were at it again, in my opinion.

Stories alongside a picture of a named hospital nurse arrested as a murder suspect appeared in the dailies, more lavishly in the tabloids.

If a person has been arrested, but not charged, newspapers have greater freedom in reporting a person’s possible involvement with a crime.

Once charged, the curtain comes down on what can be reported.

Taking advantage of this “law” governing reporting, newspapers have gone to town on the case. Where did the nurse’s name come from?

Possibly, from the police – just as they revealed Christopher Jefferies name last year.

Even so, that does not let the newspapers of the moral peg.

Since the 1980s, and the rise of the Murdoch empire, newspapers have begun to ape the US gutter press.

The result?

The unfair, irresponsible stories published today.