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.

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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

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