Rise to challenge, press urged

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 30 November 2012 | 15.36

30 November 2012 Last updated at 03:27 ET
David Cameron in House of Commons

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David Cameron: "I'm not convinced... that statute is necessary"

The press has been urged to take action over Leveson Inquiry recommendations to regulate the newspaper industry.

Lord Justice Leveson called for a new independent watchdog - which he said should be underpinned by legislation.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller told the BBC "the gauntlet has been thrown down" to newspapers to outline how they would set up tough self-regulation instead.

Meanwhile, work is beginning on a draft bill to regulate the press, expected to be ready within a fortnight,

Lord Justice Leveson's 2,000-page report into press ethics, published on Thursday, found that press behaviour was "outrageous" and "wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people".

He said the press - having failed to regulate itself in the past - must create a new and tough regulator but it had to be backed by legislation to ensure it was effective.

The report exposed divisions in the Coalition government, with Prime Minister David Cameron opposing statutory control, unlike his deputy Nick Clegg, who wants a new law introduced without delay.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Cameron said he broadly welcomed Lord Justice Leveson's principles to change the current system but that he had "serious concerns and misgivings" over bringing in laws to underpin any new body.

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Would:

  • Create a process to "validate" the independence and effectiveness of the new self-regulation body
  • Validate a new process of independent arbitration for complainants - which would benefit both the public and publishers by providing speedy resolutions
  • Place a duty on government to protect the freedom of press

Would not:

  • Establish a body to regulate the press directly
  • Give any Parliament or government rights to interfere with what newspapers publish

Labour leader Ed Miliband has joined Mr Clegg in supporting a new press law.

Following cross-party talks on Thursday night - which will resume next week - the Department of Culture, Media and Sport will begin the process of drawing up a draft bill implementing the Leveson recommendations.

The prime minister believes this process will only serve to highlight how difficult it is to try to legislate in a complex and controversial area while Labour and the Lib Dems think it will demonstrate the opposite.

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman told BBC Two's Newsnight: "I think that the House of Commons will want to take that forward, will want to make sure that - by the end of January - it has an opportunity to have a full debate and vote to show its support for taking Leveson's recommendations forward."

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said that, at the core of this disagreement, were two separate political calculations.

Charlotte Church

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Charlotte Church, speaking on Question Time: 'I agree with the Leveson report'

David Cameron thought the press would swiftly agree to tougher self regulation which would make any new law unnecessary, allowing him to go into the next election as a champion of a free press.

Labour and the Lib Dems, meanwhile, do not trust papers to clean up their own act and assume the victims of press intrusion will say they are being sold short.

Writing in the Guardian, Steve Coogan, who told the Leveson Inquiry that journalists had been going through his rubbish bins, said Mr Cameron was "playing a despicable political game - disingenuous at best, bare-faced lying at worst".

"By rejecting Leveson's call for statutory regulation, Cameron has hung the victims of crime out to dry."

He added: "Quite simply, if future regulation is not backed by statute, Leveson's report is nothing more than a large slap on the wrist."

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Mr Coogan is a supporter of the Hacked Off campaign, which represents victims of phone hacking and press intrusion including the parents of missing Madeleine McCann, and Christopher Jefferies - who was falsely accused of murdering Jo Yeates.

Another celebrity phone hacking victim, Charlotte Church, told BBC One's Question Time "all that the statutory underpinning should be able to do is make sure that there is a body, that those rules are enforced, and I don't see any way in which that can affect the free press."

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Cameron had the confidence of knowing that, in the long Parliamentary battle ahead, he had some rather important supporters on his side - the press.

Many of Friday's newspapers have praised Mr Cameron's opposition to law-backed regulation.


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