On his second appearance before the Levenson inquest on Wednesday, April 08, Max Mosley; the Former-President of Formula One, put forward his learnings from the fatal crash of 1994 that lead to Ayrton Senna’s death not being pertinent to the present scenario, Mosley reflected upon his experience from the past car crash.
As per Mosley’s suggestions, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) should be replaced by a regulatory body, Press Commission (PC) that would create new regulations and a committee backed by statutory for enforcing the updated rules and environment. His reasoning for these suggestions was that although many people outside the industry operate in good faith but they lack in insider experience to fully understand the requirements of the sport.
Further, he added that the suggested Committee should be given the power to inflict injunctions on newspapers in high court-style, by binding the publishers to provide proper notification of stories except for the rare situations of outstanding public interest. The basis for all such opinions and comments was Mosley’s belief that car crashes are inevitable in racing so the real concern doesn’t lie in ‘why did the car crash’ but in ‘why did the racer die?’ Hence, in Senna’s case, for ten years the Italian judicial system focused on an issue that didn’t really matter.
Mosley indicated that since every sport has innate dangers, implementing the new system will limit the external influences on the people involved in the sport. This would create a win-win situation for the competitors as well as the investors. Moreover, Mosley commented that informing the public about the relevant things and entertaining them when it’s appropriate are the two primary objectives of the press. However, they often come in conflict, the press and the public, when the press tries to violate public’s rights.