Who is leveson

Its coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, and the opposition Labour Party are ready to support stricter or even statutory press regulation. Richard Sambrook, director of the Center for Journalism at Cardiff University, expects Leveson to suggest stricter press regulation, but the final outcome to be less severe for publishers. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. By Stuart Kemp , Georg Szalai. Related Stories. Media Regulation Delayed Report. Related Story U. Related Story West of Memphis.

He was referring to press campaigns run by the owners of the Daily Express and Daily Mail , the lords Beaverbrook and Rothermere, who wanted the Tories to support free trade throughout the British empire. But if that controversy has long since faded, Baldwin's famous saying has not, because the debate about the power of the press has persisted. Newspapers , unlike broadcasters, have not been regulated by a statutory body since licensing was abolished in Post-second world war, successive royal commissions and public inquiries have recommended the creation and limited strengthening of the so-called system of "self regulation" to handle complaints from the public and create industry standards.

Under self-regulation, publishers of newspapers and magazines collectively created a body — now the Press Complaints Commission PCC — to adjudicate on behalf of unhappy subjects of press coverage and set an industry code of practice. However, critics say the PCC is weak compared to powerful publishers, and that its activities are limited in scope. Many issues, such as privacy or libel, are left to the courts — and many people prefer to go the courts to seek redress rather than use the PCC.

Some argue that self-regulation is a flawed concept in an era when there are specialised statutory regulators covering almost every other profession, from medicine to the law. Lord Justice Leveson's report will conclude a 16 month public inquiry into "the culture, practices and ethics of the press". His inquiry — the sixth since — was set up by David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the wake of the revelation that the mobile phone belonging to the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler had been hacked by the News of the World.

That demonstrated that phone hacking, as conducted by the News of the World , appeared to be far more widespread than had been previously admitted. It also raised the question as to why politicians, police and the PCC had failed to investigate it more thoroughly when the first allegations of News of the World hacking were raised by the Guardian in July Critics of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation , the owner of the now-closed News of the World, argued that the power of his company was so great that ministers, chief constables and regulators were unable to stand up to him.

The Leveson inquiry is a wide-ranging exercise aimed not just at News Corp's newspapers but the press as a whole. It will examine relations of power between the press and the public, politicians and police. And it will make recommendations on how press regulation should be reformed: whether to introduce some sort of statutory regulation or whether to argue for beefing-up the existing model of "self-regulation".

Meanwhile, a fierce debate has broken out within Westminster and the media as to what the most appropriate model of reform could look like. Newspapers in England date back to the early 17th century, a time of conflict framed by the civil war.

A freer period of publication during the conflict was followed by a period of licensing adopted by Cromwell and followed during the Restoration. However, licensing ended in when parliament decided against renewing the relevant act, paving the way for a free press. Berrow's Worcester Journal , Britain's longest-surviving newspaper, dates back from this time, appearing occasionally after and regularly from There has been no statutory regulation of the press since, although radio and television broadcasters have long been licensed — partly because the transmission spectrum is scare and needs to be managed, and partly due to the power perceived to be inherent in those media.

Newspapers rapidly grew in number, and gradually national newspapers emerged, with the Times being founded in Expansion of the press continued until the s, when sales peaked, its dominance gradually being eroded by the popularity of television and the competing BBC and ITV network. Under the postwar Labour government the first royal commission, headed by Sir William Ross, recommends the establishment of the Press Council.

Incremental changes followed: a second royal commission in the s recommended the appointment of lay members to the Press Council. But none of this had much impact on an increasingly aggressive tabloid culture. At their worst some papers displayed a cavalier regard for accuracy, as seen in the notorious Hillsborough coverage of Kelvin MacKenzie's Sun , but also in exposing politicians' sexual and other indiscretions.

Politicians failed in a bid to introduce a privacy law in the late s through a private members bill and instead a committee under Sir David Calcutt QC was set up. This was the period when politician David Mellor later himself a victim of press exposure memorably warned that the press was "drinking in the last chance saloon".

Calcutt concluded that the press had one last chance to ensure "that non-statutory self-regulation can be made to work effectively. This is a stiff test for the press.

If it fails, we recommend that a statutory system for handling complaints should be introduced. Calcutt's first inquiry led in to the creation of the PCC , the successor to the Press Council and — for the first time — the creation of an industry code of practice. Publishers and editors agreed to fund the PCC on an arm's-length basis.

However, reviewing the progress of the PCC, Calcutt concluded in that it was not an effective regulator and recommended the introduction of a press complaints tribunal, backed by law. Nor is this intended as a condemnation of tabloid newspapers — at their best, they remain terrific battering rams against hypocrisy and injustice. But British tabloids only reached their present unhappy pass by following their readers there. It looks like your browser has JavaScript turned off.

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