Our Press is the best in the world: let it decide on regulation - minister's blow to Hacked Off
Javid Sajid: no further role for government
Saturday 26 April, 2014
The royal charter system of press regulation looks dead in the water after the new Culture Secretary said that the Press should be left alone to decide what it wants to do.
Sajid Javid said that the Government should have no further part in the debate about controlling the Press - and that he was far more concerned about the Internet.
No one has signed up to the regulator being established under the royal charter approved by Parliament in the autumn. Most national and regional papers have put their lot in with the industry's alternative, Ipso, although the Guardian and Independent are waiting to see who is appointed to chair the body before deciding. The FT is appointing its own independent commissioner (see below).
In his first interview since his appointment after Maria Miller's dismissal, he told Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson of The Times: "The Press is hugely important and freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our democracy. I'm proud of the Press... the best in the world. It is fearless without favour."
It was clear after the phone-hacking scandal that the PCC wasn't working and that something had to change, he said.
The royal charter system of press regulation looks dead in the water after the new Culture Secretary said that the Press should be left alone to decide what it wants to do.
Sajid Javid said that the Government should have no further part in the debate about controlling the Press - and that he was far more concerned about the Internet.
No one has signed up to the regulator being established under the royal charter approved by Parliament in the autumn. Most national and regional papers have put their lot in with the industry's alternative, Ipso, although the Guardian and Independent are waiting to see who is appointed to chair the body before deciding. The FT is appointing its own independent commissioner (see below).
In his first interview since his appointment after Maria Miller's dismissal, he told Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson of The Times: "The Press is hugely important and freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our democracy. I'm proud of the Press... the best in the world. It is fearless without favour."
It was clear after the phone-hacking scandal that the PCC wasn't working and that something had to change, he said.
"It is now a decision for the Press what they want to do next. I don't see any further role for government in this...the most important thing has got to be that the Press is respected for the role they've played. Our country has benefited hugely over the ages from having a Press that is vibrant and fearless."
Newspapers were, he said, justified in pursuing his predecessor over her expenses. "One of the important roles of the Press is to hold public officials to account and Maria recognised that she made mistakes. As long as they are presenting facts, I think that is perfectly healthy."
Last week a group describing themselves as victims of press intrusion wrote to Rupert Murdoch accusing News UK of clinging to its shameful past and of digging itself into a hole of untrustworthiness and denial by its refusal to accept the royal charter regulator. The signatories, who include Christopher Jefferies, Kate and Gerry McCann, Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan write:
Last week a group describing themselves as victims of press intrusion wrote to Rupert Murdoch accusing News UK of clinging to its shameful past and of digging itself into a hole of untrustworthiness and denial by its refusal to accept the royal charter regulator. The signatories, who include Christopher Jefferies, Kate and Gerry McCann, Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan write:
"In defiance of an exceptionally broad consensus of opinion in the UK about the best way for the press to proceed, News UK is rejecting meaningful reform of the UK self-regulatory system and attempting to preserve the failed arrangements of the past.
Worse, News UK is leading a disreputable campaign of scaremongering while failing to reflect the majority view in its papers. You once said, Mr Murdoch, that newspapers had "a great power for evil" – the power to withhold important information from the public. News UK papers are currently exercising that power..."
The Leveson inquiry
Hysteria and hyperbole Parliament, Hacked Off and self regulation A new Press regulator |
Most of the signatories are linked to the Hacked Off campaign, but the organisation is not mentioned in the letter and it does not (at time of writing) feature on the Hacked Off website.
Nor is there any sign that they have written to any other publishers - Associated, for example, strongly opposes the Parliament-backed system and the Mail's editor Paul Dacre has been a target in the past because of his position as head of the committee behind the editors' code of conduct. The Telegraph is also refusing to support the "official" regulator and last week its executive director Lord Black of Brentwood told the Scottish Newspaper Society conference that the royal charter was a menace that represented an unacceptable infringement of freedom of the Press and freedom of expression: |
"There is a clear and present danger to press freedom in this country. It's vital that all the institutions which represent our industry continue to fight our corner with vigour.
What has happened is that politicians have laid out how they expect the regulation of the press to be organised and they now have the tools to make that compulsory if they choose to do so That involvement... could easily take politicians and governments to the heart of the newsroom and what you can and cannot publish.
That for me is an incredibly chilling, authoritarian prospect hiding behind the facade of an arcane constitutional document signed by Her Majesty the Queen. If ever there was a wolf in sheep's clothing - this one with a crown on it - it is this."
FT shuns new press regulators and sets up its own commissioner
Thursday 17 April, 2014 The FT is to set up an editorial complaints commissioner, independent of the editor, to offer readers redress if they don't feel the paper has adequately responded to their concerns.
Editor Lionel Barber says in a letter printed on the paper's website that the new mechanism will be accountable, credible, robust and highly adaptable. He points to the fact that three-quarters of the FT's readers are overseas and that its international rivals each have their own systems of international regulation.
Most newspapers have signed up to the industry's proposed new regulator Ipso, although the Guardian and Independent are holding fire until they see who is appointed as chairman.
Editor Lionel Barber says in a letter printed on the paper's website that the new mechanism will be accountable, credible, robust and highly adaptable. He points to the fact that three-quarters of the FT's readers are overseas and that its international rivals each have their own systems of international regulation.
Most newspapers have signed up to the industry's proposed new regulator Ipso, although the Guardian and Independent are holding fire until they see who is appointed as chairman.
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Mail and Telegraph release the purse strings
Neither newspaper group will be represented on the Press industry regulator's funding board. Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell, which pulled out of the old PCC system, will however join, in the person of editorial director Paul Ashford. Others nominated to the board include Paul Vickers of Trinity Mirror, who is one of the main driving forces behind Ipso, Ashley Highfield of Johnston Press, and Brian McCarthy, editor of the Belfast Telegraph. News UK will be represented by chief financial officer Christopher Longcroft. 
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"You don't believe in freedom of the Press. You have to come to terms with this. Most of the world doesn't - and that includes you"
- Michael Wolff at the Names Not Numbers festival |
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