Legal challenge over Mosley’s Press watchdog
A DECISION to give official recognition to a Press regulator funded by Max Mosley is set to face a legal challenge over questions surrounding the watchdog’s independence from the tycoon, it was announced yesterday.
Lawyers acting for the News Media Association, which represents newspaper publishers, said they intended to seek a judicial review over whether the Press Recognition Panel was right to rule last week that regulator Impress met the standards set out by the Government’s royal charter for the Press.
Impress, which describes itself as Britain’s ‘first independent Press regulator’, is almost entirely reliant on multi-millionaire Mr Mosley, who has given £3.8million towards its running costs.
The money is donated via two charities, and the Government’s PRP decided last week that the funding process meant the regulator was independent of its benefactor.
Its board voted unanimously to recognise Impress as an official Press regulator, but the NMA intends to challenge that decision. The NMA said it believed there were grounds to challenge whether Impress could be consid- ered independent from motor racing tycoon Mr Mosley, who has campaigned for tougher rules for the Press since the News of the World printed photographs of him taking part in a sadomasochistic orgy with prostitutes dressed in military uniform.
Its lawyers said the funding, donated via the Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust and the Independent Press Regulation Trust, meant Mr Mosley was effectively given ‘a monopoly over the funding arrangements of Impress’. In a letter to the PRP, the NMA’s lawyers added: ‘The funding of Impress cannot reasonably said to be independent.’
The NMA legal team is also expected to challenge whether the watchdog could be an effective regulator, as it does not have a single mainstream newspaper among its members.
Most major newspapers, including the Daily Mail, The Times, The Telegraph and The Sun, have signed up to a code of conduct and complaints system run by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
It can levy large fines and force newspapers to correct inaccuracies.
The PRP said it would publish all the information related to its decision to approve Impress within 30 days of the decision. It declined to comment on the NMA legal challenge. Impress also declined to comment.