The man who knows too much? JOURNALISM: ETHICS JOURNALISM: ETHICS

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Oct 19, 2008 | by Steven Vass

FOR a nation transfixed by the worst weeks of financial upheaval in recent memory, BBC business editor Robert Peston has become the face of the crisis.

Appearing morning, noon and night on BBC TV and radio bulletins with the latest updates and filling in the details on his blog, Peston has become one of the most controversial reporters in the history of the BBC.

There has been fury in the City about his scoop earlier this month reporting that Lloyds TSB, HBOS and RBS had initiated talks with the government and Bank of England for recapitalisation in exchange for part-nationalisation. The story saw bank stocks crash the following day, led by a 40per cent or GBP9 billion drop in the value of RBS stocks, allegedly pressurising the government into rushing forward a deal.

Former Conservative leader and shadow chancellor Michael Howard was sufficiently concerned about the partnationalisation story last week to write to Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, calling for an inquiry into the source of the leak.

The Daily Mail, vulnerable like all journalists to charges of sour grapes directed at a rival's scoop artist, called Peston a "market menace". Political blogger Guido Fawkes wrote that he was usurping the stock market's company announcements service. Columnist Stephen Glover wrote in The Independent that the BBC ought to keep him on a tighter rein, pointing out that the story followed other market-moving exclusives such as Peston's exclusives about the Northern Rock calls for emergency funding (September 7 last year) and the HBOS-Lloyds deal (September 17). In the former case, the story was said to have sparked the run on the Newcastle bank that eventually saw it nationalised by the government.

With business journalism arguably more important than ever before, the question of Peston raises serious issues about the proper limits of reporting.

Should business journalists publish their best stories and be damned?

Or are there situations where a story could have such catastrophic effects on markets and events that they should hold off? We asked some experts about the correct course to be steered.

OWEN KELLY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SCOTTISH FINANCIAL ENTERPRISE

"I am amazed by the way that Robert Peston does his blog. He seems to produce it at short notice after conversations with contacts, which is particularly impressive given the BBC pressure for accuracy following Gilligan and the fact that the information is market sensitive. It's the blog culture coming directly into the world of commerce. He doesn't seem to have many competitors.

"Business reporting is different to reporting any other spheres of public life because of the market sensitivity. Peston is probably reporting at the boundary of what's right, and it throws up new issues for his profession."

MICHAEL HOWARD, QC, MP FOR FOLKESTONE AND HYTHE

"Robert Peston is not the issue. He's a journalist and will report stories that he comes across. The issue is the leak and establishing where it came from, which is why I think the FSA should launch an inquiry. It may well be that the leak was illegal."

BEN THOMSON, CHAIRMAN, NOBLE GROUP

"There were clearly a lot more problems with the balance sheets of the banks than we knew about, and so they deserved having someone having a good prod at them. I don't think any of the banks have come back to say, 'This is absolute rubbish. Our balance sheets are much stronger.' Therefore, to some extent, Peston's reporting got the right results.

"Some will look back and think it would have been a blessing to have had something like you had in the 1970s, so that by the time the public got to know about the banking crisis it had all been done and dusted, all handled behind closed doors.

But the system was run very differently in those days. Accounting was not as transparent. Nowadays, the philosophy is to make sure everything is out in the open and we all have to go with it.

"In 99 times out of 100, it is right to publish because we have moved towards this more transparent society.

If people still wanted everything to be solved behind closed doors, it would be fine to curb the tongue in certain instances until we had found the solution. I think transparency is a good thing, although I'm not saying one way was wrong and another is right.

"Looking back [on the part-nationalisation story], the banks probably should have got it out sooner [through a stock market announcement], but it's a grey area. I wouldn't favour tightening the rules because it may work in one instance but not in another."

ALAN STEEL, HEAD OF ALAN STEEL ASSET MANAGEMENT

"I said to my wife the other night that it should be renamed the BPBC, the British Pessimistic Broadcasting Corporation. Journalists like Peston should be held accountable. In effect, he's giving advice, and he should think very carefully about how this kind of thing is reported.

"I wrote a newspaper piece after the Northern Rock story that didn't point the finger at fat reckless bankers, like all the others. I asked why has this happened, who is really behind it and what can be learned from it. I also said that there was every chance that depositors would be affected, which nobody else said at the time. You have to report the facts but you have to make it measured."