Should we be worried about the fact that at least 55 UK journalists have been arrested over the last two years?
Is it down to an over-zealous politically-motivated crackdown by the police – or is it about corrupt journalists getting their just desserts?
Could proposed changes to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act result in more journalists going to prison rather than giving up their sources to the police?
And could other post Leveson-changes to the way police officers interact with journalists stop the sort of reporting which led to the hacking scandal being reported in the first place?
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To find answers to these questions and others City University London's journalism department has organised panel discussion presented in association with Press Gazette on 12 March.
The panelists are:
- Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis – who was cleared last week after 21 months on police bail after beng arrested by the Met's phone-hacking inquiry.
- Former News of the World journalist turned university lecturer Bethany Usher, arrested on 30 November 2011 and cleared just over a week later.
- Former Guardian editor Peter Preston – who in December led a mission to one of the few countries in the world to have arrested more journalists than the UK in recent times, Turkey.
- Director of Hacked Off – professor Brian Cathcart
- Sun investigations editor Brian Flynn.
Register for this free event here.
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The discussion starts at 6.30pm on 12 March in the Oliver Thompson lecture theatre at City University's Northampton Square campus.
Note: I am a visiting fellow at City University.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
