The Voice

Royal Charter deal struck on press self-regulation

By | Mon 18th March 2013 - 4:55 pm

The BBC reports:

A deal has been struck between the three main political parties on measures to regulate the press in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal. An independent regulator will be set up by royal charter, but views vary over whether it would be underpinned by law. Labour leader Ed Miliband and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said this would be the case, but the prime minister denied it. …

Mr Clegg said he had worked “flat out” to get the deal, and was “delighted” with the cross-party agreement.

“We’ve secured the cherished principle of freedom of the press, which is incredibly important in our democracy, but also given innocent people the reassurance that we won’t be unjustifiably bullied or intimidated by powerful interests in the press without having proper recourse when that happens.”

The draft Royal Charter for the proposed body to recognise the press industry self-regulator has been published here.

Read more by .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

3 Comments

  • Hywel 18th Mar '13 - 6:35pm

    This is something with massive, massive long term implications. And it’s getting virtually no Parliamentary scrutiny. Whatever your view on press regulation that is something we should be condemning

  • Peter Hayes 18th Mar '13 - 6:57pm

    I do not think we should condem without further thought. I would like to see a complaints commission which is mandatory and if they say the press should make a reparation and the press refuse to pay then the complainant gets legal aid to balance the millions the Murdoch and other press empires have.

    Peter H

  • Hywel 18th Mar '13 - 11:02pm

    My criticism was the lack of further thought! 🙂

    Parliamentary scrutiny will be very limited as the legislation is being put into:
    1) the Enterprise and regulatory reform bill (Report stage in the Lords today)
    2) Crime and Courts bill (Report stage in the Commons today)

    Potential ambiguities in the Royal Charter are being dealt with by statements from Downing Street – which have no legal status.

    This is no way to make serious and far reaching legislation

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Hirst
    Extending the school day should be primarily for children. For it to be done significantly there would need to be an overhaul of timetables. There would need to...
  • Peter Hirst
    Predicting the future is not easy. What we can do is predict trends. One of them is that many of our challenges as a nation are likely to increase inequality. C...
  • Peter Hirst
    While in favour of some redistribution to create a fairer society, the only long term solution to our challenges is increased economic growth. I favour green gr...
  • kanteilog
    Pointing out the long-term impact of frozen tax thresholds is a stronger fiscal critique than focusing on short-term relief measures, but any alternative should...
  • shiboudouki
    A phased ban backed by robust evidence, transparent policy evaluation, and a credible plan for the welfare and rehoming of existing racing greyhounds would be a...