State control of Press fears

STATE regulation of the news media would damage liberal democracy, the Culture Secretary warned yesterday.

Matt Hancock said it was right the second part of the Leveson Inquiry into the Press had been scrapped.

He told the Oxford Media Convention: ‘I tremble at the thought of a media regulated by the state in a time of malevolent forces in politics. Get this wrong and I fear for the future of our liberal democracy.’

Mr Hancock said a Government review into journalism would ‘explore whether intervention may be required to safeguard the future of our free and independent Press’.