Press WON’T face a second Leveson probe
After newspapers backed independent watchdog...
Culture Secretary Matt Hancock said there had been a ‘seismic change’ in the media industry since the Leveson Inquiry was set up in 2011 during the phonehacking scandal.
He also confirmed a draconian law that would have forced newspapers to pay all legal costs in a libel case even if they won will be scrapped.
A second stage of the Leveson Inquiry had been due to examine relations between journalists and the police, but the Government yesterday announced it would be formally scrapped.
In a Commons statement, Mr Hancock said: ‘We do not believe that reopening this costly and time-consuming inquiry is the right way forward.’
He highlighted reforms to the police as well as the challenges faced by publishers, especially local newspapers.
He said: ‘The world has changed since the Leveson Inquiry was established. Since then we’ve seen a seismic change in the media landscape.’
There had been ‘extensive reforms to policing practices and significant changes to Press self-regulation’.
The new Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) had ‘taken significant steps to demonstrate its independence as a regulator’, he said.
Some 2,500 publications, including the Daily Mail, have joined Ipso, which Mr Hancock said ‘now regulates 95 per cent of national newspapers by circulation’.
He added: ‘We have seen the dramatic and continued rise of social media, which is largely unregulated. And issues like clickbait, fake news, malicious disinformation and online abuse, which threaten highquality journalism.
‘A foundation of any democracy is a sound basis for political discourse. This is under threat from these new forces.’ Mr Hancock also announced that the Government would not put Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, which would have made media organisations pay legal costs of libel cases whether they won or lost, into effect.
‘We do not love every story that is written about us in the Press, but the idea that the solution lies in shackling our free Press with the punitive
‘Seismic change’
costs of any complainant is completely wrong,’ he said.
SNP culture spokesman Brendan O’Hara said: ‘The SNP is committed to ensuring that the practices that led to Leveson do not happen again.
‘All individuals should have a right to redress when they feel that they have been a victim of malpractice. However, the Scottish Government have no plans to introduce statutory incen- tives for the Press to sign up to a State-approved regulator.”
Scottish Newspaper Society director John McLellan said: ‘Although Section 40 would only have applied in English courts, its effect would have been felt by Scottish titles owned by UKwide publishers.
‘The principle of using a punitive costs regime to force publishers to join a State-backed regulator is being extended by Labour and Lib Dem peers to UK-wide data protection legislation.
‘Imposing a system whereby publishers who refuse to join a State-backed regulator are punished by having to meet all costs of civil court action, even if they win, flies in the face of natural justice.’
Privacy campaigner Max Mosley criticised the decision. He said: ‘I will not be deterred from pursuing what is right and nor should those who have campaigned for Part Two of the Leveson Inquiry. The Government’s decision today is a disgrace.’