Leveson does not want to impose 'Ofcom-style' statutory regulation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jul/23/leveson-ofcom-statutory-regulation

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Lord Justice Leveson has revealed he will not impose tough Ofcom-style statutory regulation on newspapers, after almost nine months of evidence exposing what the newspaper industry has admitted were "appalling" practices in the press.

In a rare glimpse into the thinking of Leveson, who will be making recommendations on the future of press regulation to the government in the autumn, he said he would be "surprised" if he went down this route, which could have forced newspapers into a dramatic changes in reporting including providing balance and impartiality in every story published.

Leveson also said he cannot understand why newspapers were coming out so strongly against the proposal for a new law that would guarantee the independence of a new press watchdog and at the same time guarantee its freedom.

In slightly tetchy exchanges with a representative of Telegraph Media Group at the Leveson inquiry on Monday, the appeals court judge said he could not understand why there was opposition by the newspaper to some sort of "statutory underpinning" for a revamped Press Complaints Commission.

In its closing statement to the inquiry, TMG's counsel, Gavin Millar, had said the group remained "appalled" by the revelations over phone hacking but was vehemently opposed to statutory regulation, warning that it would lead to interference by politicians.

"It is a massive step to throw out the history of a free press," Millar said. "Any form of statutory intervention in the process of regulating the newspapers is unacceptable to us."

Leveson intervened: "But I don't understand why Mr Millar. I mean, I mean it."

Referring to the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, Leveson continued: "Mr Dacre last September recognised there was a possibility of a need for statutory underpinning. Not for a statute that regulated the press. I well understand the view of the press on that subject. But [a statute] that would facilitate the provision of powers for the press itself to set up an independent regulatory regime."

He tried to draw Millar out into a subtler position in which some form of statutory regulation might be acceptable by telling him the worst possible scenario was unlikely. "I'd be surprised if I went down a route that sought to recommend a system that replicated Ofcom. I would be very surprised if I reached that conclusion," said Leveson.

Millar said that once a statute was introduced the "Rubicon has been crossed" and history showed politicians would seize the opportunity to change the statute to diminish press freedoms.

"The concern is that once the door is open to some form of statutory intervention, which we have not had in this country for hundreds and hundreds of years ... we're in a different ballpark," said Millar.

The Leveson inquiry is in its final week of hearings before the summer holidays and is unlikely to have any more than a handful of public sessions in the autumn.

Also summing up on Monday afternoon was counsel for Richard Desmond's Express Newspapers, which outlined seven areas where Leveson could institute reforms of press regulation including a ban on serving editors deliberating on complaints about newspapers.

Express Newspapers also wants full "Nolan-style transparency in the appointment of individuals to the press body". Counsel for the company, James Dingemans, said newspapers had also shown "a stunning lack of judgment" in drawing the line between public interest in acquiring news and privacy.

Dingemans also said evidence to the inquiry over the last nine months had shown newspapers knew their readers' opinions but did not have a sensitivity to public opinion.

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