Cynical plot to put free Press in peril
Ministers vow to combat Labour’s bid to get Leveson plan through back door in...
MINISTERS vowed last night to scupper a Labour plan to impose state regulation on the British Press.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is steering through Parliament an Online Safety Bill to crack down on internet hate speech.
The legislation includes exemptions for the media by making it harder for their content to be removed.
But now a Labour MP has put forward an amendment to the Bill which would mean this protection only applies to papers which are a member of an ‘approved regulator’.
This is a reference to one of the most controversial aspects of the Leveson Inquiry into Press standards – the demand that newspapers should sign up to a State-approved regulator.
Critics say the amendment means Labour is trying to get the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry through Parliament clandestinely.
A Government source said: ‘Labour
‘The Government must stand firm’
wants to muzzle a free Press. We won’t allow this amendment, which is designed to do Leveson via the back door.
‘The Online Safety Bill is there to help keep children safe and hold big tech accountable but instead Labour want to play political games.’
All major national newspapers have refused to become members of a Stateapproved regulator, because they say it would imply State control of the Press. The majority, including The Daily Mail, have instead signed up to the Independent Press Standards Organisation, which regulates the Press but is neither controlled nor funded by the State.
A State-approved regulator, called Impress, has been approved by a State body set up after the Leveson inquiry. But no major national newspaper is part of this set-up.
The amendment to the Online Safety Bill has been tabled by Batley and Spen MP Kim Leadbeater.
It says the safeguards in the legislation protecting online media content from being removed should only be open to newspapers which are a ‘member of an approved regulator (as defined in section 42 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013)’.
The MP states that this amendment is designed to ‘expand the definition of a recognised news publisher to incorporate any entity that is a member of an approved regulator’.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘This looks like a Labour attempt to bring in regulation by the back door, and the Government must stand very firm against it.’
The Government has still not published its own amendment, promised by Mrs Dorries, which would protect genuine news content by preventing tech giants from blocking it or taking it down until any appeals have been heard.
There are concerns it may now be published in the Lords, where the Tories do not have a majority, making it more difficult to get it voted through.
Under the Online Safety Bill, senior managers at global tech firms will face prosecution for breaking their duty of care to users. The draconian laws come amid growing concern that companies such as YouTube and Facebook are failing to take down harmful content. Children’s charities and worried families have long campaigned for social media firms that fail to crack down on self-harm material to be prosecuted.
The calls grew louder after the death of Molly Russell, 14, who took her own life in 2017 after looking at graphic self-harm images on Instagram.
But defenders of free speech are concerned that the threat of criminal prosecution could cause tech companies to censor legitimate content, thus stifling public debate on important issues.