Value of a free press at risk

The phone hacking scandal which engulfed the News of the World shocked the nation.

But the subsequent inquiry entirely exonerated the local press and said newspapers such as this one should not be penalised by any processes designed to prevent a repeat.

Although we have willingly signed up to the toughest independent regulation through IPSO - which rightly consumes an enormous amount of journalists’ time whenever a complaint is made - it seems the government is still not satisfied.

Under the Crime and Courts Act of 2013, we are already liable for exemplary damages in any libel action we lose.

Now, there is a real fear that politicians will enact a clause which means we would have to pay our costs and those of any complainant - even if we win the case.

How can that be right and fair - to win a defamation action and yet be burdened with both sides’ costs?

And it’s not just limited to libel.

It could stop or chill a legitimate investigation run on your behalf. A local authority might fight a newspaper on breach of confidence grounds and we would still have to pay their costs even if court held that we were in the right and publication was in the public interest.

Were we to join a regulator approved under ‘Royal Charter’ it’s true we could evade such penalties.

But no respectable national or local newspaper is prepared to sacrifice our independence to represent you in this way.

It is a bedrock of free speech that newspapers should never run the risk of political intervention or some element of state overview.

If the government proceeds with this costs threat, the real loser will be the public.

We trust that culture secretary Karen Bradley and Prime Minister Theresa May will not endorse such a brutal attack on free speech nor erode the principle that those who win in court should not be made to pay the loser.

If you agree, please ask your MP to back our cause.