Regulation
The Conservative MP who chaired Westminster’s hacking inquiry has said that jailing journalists in the UK could send the wrong message abroad.
Liberty: Royal Charter press regulation plans are 'non-transparent', 'undemocratic' and 'un-British'
By Dominic Ponsford
22 May 9:07
Pressure group Liberty today urged the Government to scrap plans for a Royal Charter-backed system of press regulation.
Local newspaper groups have said the Government’s proposed Royal Charter on press regulation could threaten the financial future of many papers. Giving evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee at the House of Commons, regional newspaper publishers warned plans to introduce an arbitration process for complaints could open the way for a wave of small compensation claims that would have a crippling effect on local newspapers’ profitability.
The Sun has removed a story from its website claiming that Chris Huhne had been bullied whilst in prison following a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission.
A local newspaper editor has warned that the Parliament-backed press regulation Royal Charter would leave mean that titles like his will “struggle to hold local authority to account”.
The reporter involved has hit back at BBC claims that a Newsnight report broadcast on 9 August about the charity Help for Heroes was “misleading and unfair”.
The Government has been urged by a former cabinet minister to stand firm behind the Parliament-backed draft Royal Charter on press regulation. Tory Lord Jenkin of Roding, an environment secretary in the 1980s, said the press had become an "over-mighty subject" and compared the industry to aristocrats in the 18th century and trade unions in the 20th century.
The latest change to the Royal Charter proposed by the newspaper industry could see one of the three national papers not to have signed up to the rival plan fall into line.
Newspaper and magazine publishers have agreed a subtle change to their press regulation plan which has been interpreted as ending the industry veto over appointments to the board of the regulator.
The Newspaper Society has said that publishers representing more than 90 per cent of the regional newspaper industry have now backed the rival press regulation Royal Charter submitted to the Privy Council by press owners' body Pressbof.
A majority of members of the public do not have confidence in the rival press regulation Royal Charter put forward by the newspaper industry, according to an opinion poll.
A Government decision on a press regulation Royal Charter may have been delayed to avoid the threat of judicial review.
The Government has delayed making a decision on the press regulation Royal Charter pending further consultation.
A press regulation Royal Charter was agreed in a cross-party deal in March and sought to establish an independent press regulator underpinned by statute.
As World Press Freedom Day is marked today - global journalism organisations have given their backing to the independent Royal Charter on press regulation put forward by the UK newspaper industry.
The newspaper and magazine industry’s Royal Charter on press regulation has been tweaked to include the provision of a whistleblowers’ hotline.
The Chartered Institute of Journalists has lodged a legal challenge with the Privy Council over the proposed Royal Charter for the regulation of the press.
UK regional press trade body the Newspaper Society has warned Culture Secretary Maria Miller, the Privy Council and The Queen that the Government’s proposed press regulation plan could be unconstitutional.
Regional editors have voiced their support for a revised Royal Charter for the regulation of the press put forward by their trade body the Newspaper Society last week.
The national newspaper titles behind a rival Royal Charter for the regulation of the press today launched direct appeals to readers via full-page adverts and editorials.
Campaign group Hacked Off has condemned the rival press regulation Royal Charter published today as a “desperate move” which defies the will of Parliament.
