I believe that freedom of the press should be clarified as freedom to dissenimate any information that can be supported evidentially.

This already exists in the form of libel laws, but they do not prohibit the dissemination of false information, they only allow the victim of a smear to financial recompense and a public apology.

Often though, the trial goes unreported and the apology is reported in a small article on the back page while the smear was publisghed on the front page.

I believe that a good solution would be an "ASMO" or anti social misinformation order, which would place a ban on a journalist or newspaper that was proved, in court, to be deliberately producing false information either without checking their sources or indeed without bothering to refer to any source, but merely fabricating facts out of thin air.

This of course would have to be governed by strict guidelines concening evidence as any other prosecution would.

Breach of an ASMO could result in imprisonment for whoever was responsible for that breach, be they individual or in charge of an organization.

Opiniions would have to be clearly labelled as such, and opinons based on no evidence would have to be prefaced with the disclaimer that they were merely opinions and nothing more.