Free speech in peril

Reporters without Borders ranks the UK just 40th in the world for press freedom, a scandalously low score. Yet on Wednesday things could get even worse. MPs will debate the Data Protection Bill – a piece of legislation being hijacked by politicians who hate newspapers. One goal is to force publishers to pay all costs of claims brought against them, whether claimants win or lose. There is talk of exempting some local newspapers but 85 per cent of them would still be affected, and laws that discriminate between publications would still be a violation of natural justice. This is a shameless attempt to poison the economic environment for an industry that already has to compete with the taxpayer-financed BBC and the big American digital platforms.

Another ambition is to trigger a second statutory inquiry into the media: a pointless Leveson 2. The press was well scrutinised years ago and two regulatory bodies established as a result. Most newspapers, including this one, are signed up to Ipso; the long-game of anti-press MPs is to force everyone to join the state-approved Impress. Of course, the key objection such politicians have to the press is that it continues to investigate them. If newspapers were financially over-burdened or lived in terror of regulation, there would be no exposure of the Windrush scandal, anti-Semitism in Left-wing politics or MPs fiddling their expenses.

The Tories promised in their manifesto to remove the threat of press control, but a tenuous “majority” and a handful of rebel Conservatives mean the danger remains very real. The Government must do everything it can to defeat any dangerous amendments to the Data Protection Bill and these blatant attempts to kill free speech.