Social media watchdog must not hamper Press says minister
‘A serious threat to free speech’
THE new web watchdog should not crack down on the Press, the Culture Secretary said yesterday.
Jeremy Wright said the body must not duplicate effort by ‘trespassing’ on areas that are already well regulated.
He made his intervention amid mounting fears that draconian laws designed to tame web giants will end up trampling on Press freedoms. Speaking to the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee, he said: ‘I want to make sure we are not duplicating effort, so where there is already a regulatory structure in existence, I don’t wish to trespass upon it.
‘So for example when you look at the Press, it is not an area where I think we should be asking the regulinks lator to trespass upon because it is regulated in a different way.’
Almost all national and local newspapers, including the Daily Mail, are regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation, an independent regulator which is entirely free of state control. Other news organisations – mostly hyper-local websites – are regulated by Impress, which has state recognition.
The Government is facing accusations that its Online Harms White Paper paves the way for totalitarian-style censorship.
The 98-page document, which is up for consultation, laid out plans for a watchdog that would have the power to block websites if they did not adhere to its rules.
The regulator could also remove non- compliant websites from search results and app stores, and stop users from accessing them via on social media.
The plans were designed to force lawless web firms to remove harmful material from their platforms. But they have sparked fears that they could backfire and turn Britain into the first Western nation to adopt the kind of censorship usually associated with totalitarian regimes.
Former culture secretary John Whittingdale drew parallels with China, Russia and North Korea.
Matthew Lesh of the Adam Smith Institute, a free market think-tank, branded the white paper a ‘historic attack on freedom of speech’.
Addressing the committee of MPs yesterday, Mr Wright did not back away from the idea of blocking websites. He also said he wanted to bring the legislation forward to the next Parliament.
He added: ‘What I am keen to do is make sure the regulator has the capacity to act in the scope of usergenerated content. I don’t exclude from the scope search engines because they are facilitating access to user-generated content.
‘The other principles I apply here are that first of all we must be careful not to overload the regulator. I [also] want to make sure we are not duplicating effort.’
Last month, he wrote to the Society of Editors to promise that ‘journalistic or editorial content would not be affected’ by the proposals.
However Mr Lesh said yesterday: ‘What the Culture Secretary says and the new laws he has set out do not match. Far from keeping Britain home to a free Press, it will leave the country with the most comprehensive online censorship regime in the democratic world.
‘This approach is a serious threat to free speech and a free Press.’