Bribery is wrong, even if you are a journalist.

So the Crown Prosecution Service cases against journalists who bribed public officials are falling apart and the press are crowing.  "Is it in the public interest to hound journalists for doing their job?" asks the Times in its leader.  Well when put like that yes, but then the Press spins as much as politicians when it wants to.  Is bribery part of a journalist's job?  When paying relatively large sums of money to lowly public officials the journalists concerned, and their management, know that they are bringing undue pressure to bear.  The journalists concerned, and their management, know that they are encouraging someone to break the law.  Is that the job of journalists?

For some time now it has been unacceptable for businesses to pay bribes to drum up business or "facilitation payments" to induce public officials to act in their favour.  Such bribes are unethical and, in many countries including the UK, illegal.  Many's the multinational that has felt the wrath, and paid the fines, of the U.S. Department of Justice for bribery in far off lands.  These payments  not only distort markets (in some cases) but more importantly they also undermine public morality.  And that is all quite correct; businesses and people working in businesses should in my view be held to high ethical and moral standards.

And our oh-so-moral press have filled pages and pages with stories of corporate bribery and corruption scandals.  They have published, with much glee and smug self-appreciation, stories of stings where bribes have been deliberately offered as entrapment. And in the case of some public figures their "crime" is not breaking the law, but merely being hypocritical.  Isn't there something hypocritical about journalists paying bribes while shaming others for taking them?

Don't get me wrong.  I am not in favour of building barriers to protect corrupt and venal public servants.  But is there a line that should be drawn when it comes to bribery?  Should the press not do their job without inducing people to break the law?  Perhaps the right response to the unravelling Eleveden enquiry is to revisit the public interest defence and the use of the official secrets act to tie the hands of public officials absolutely.

If it is in the public interest to pay a bribe, why is it not in the public interest to receive one in return for information?  Now that would be a worthy topic for the journalists to consider, although in my view, bribery will never be the ethical way to conduct any business, including journalism.