A number of national newspapers are taking "high-level legal advice" about whether to co-operate with a new press watchdog established by royal charter and backed by legislation.
While the Independent welcomes the move, most papers are hostile and are holding back on making a decision.
They complain they were not represented in a meeting on Sunday night at which the three main parties struck a deal.
Press reform campaign group Hacked Off, meanwhile, had four members there.
Party leaders said the independent regulator - with powers to demand upfront apologies from UK publishers and impose £1m fines - would protect victims of press intrusion and preserve press freedom.
It will replace the current system, in which the press is self-regulated voluntarily through the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).
The deal follows Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into press ethics which called for a new independent press watchdog, backed by legislation to ensure it was it was doing its job properly.
The inquiry found that journalists had hacked thousands of phones.
A joint statement from Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers, The Sun and Times publisher News International, the Daily Star and Daily Express publisher Northern & Shell, and the Telegraph Media Group said they would wait to decide if they would join the new regulator after consulting lawyers.
"No representative of the newspaper and magazine industry had any involvement in, or indeed any knowledge of, the cross-party talks on press regulation that took place on Sunday night.
"Start Quote
End Quote Chris Blackwood, Independent editorI think we have to recognise the mess the industry got into. I mean, the industry did some very bad things and our existing regulator just wasn't up to the task"
"We have only late this afternoon [Monday] seen the royal charter that the political parties have agreed between themselves and, more pertinently, the recognition criteria, early drafts of which contained several deeply contentious issues which have not yet been resolved with the industry."
On Tuesday, the Times said in its editorial it had been "a bleak episode in the story of freedom of the press in Britain" and that "the principle that a free press not subject to Parliamentary statute has been conceded".
The Newspaper Society, representing local papers, said the proposals agreed by the three parties would place "a crippling burden on the UK's 1,100 local newspapers, inhibiting freedom of speech and the freedom to publish".
That was, in part, because of the "huge financial penalties for newspapers which choose to be outside the system and an arbitration service which would open the floodgates to compensation claimants", president Adrian Jeakings said.
But Chris Blackwood, editor of the Independent, told BBC News: "We don't think it's too bad - it could have been a lot worse."
He added: "I think we have to recognise the mess the industry got into. I mean, the industry did some very bad things and our existing regulator just wasn't up to the task."
The 57-nation Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), meanwhile, warned that "a government-established regulatory body, regardless of how independent it is intended to be, could pose a threat to media freedom".
Prime Minister David Cameron said the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour had agreed on a new system of "tough independent self-regulation that will deliver for victims and meet the principles set out in (Leveson's) report".
He said a new system would ensure:
- upfront apologies from the press to victims
- fines of 1% of turnover for publishers, up to £1m
- a self-regulatory body with independent appointments and funding
- a robust standards code
- a free arbitration service for victims
- a speedy complaints system
The charter defines publishers as newspapers, magazines or websites containing news-related material.
But there remains confusion about moves to extend the new regulation to the internet, with Downing Street conceding it is not clear exactly which websites would be covered under the new rules.
No comments:
Post a Comment