Leveson and the Press

After it was revealed in 2011 just how badly the British press behaves, the government called an inquiry into what had happened and what to do to prevent future bad behaviour. Lord Justice Leveson chaired the inquiry in which he listened to hundreds of witnesses, which included politicians, TV presenters, journalists, celebrities and ordinary civilians affected by the extreme behaviour of the press.

The report which was published at the end of November called for a new body to replace the Press Complaints Commission. The new body would be independent of both government and the press and would have the ability to fine companies that break the law up to £1 million. It should be noted that this would only apply to large organisations, not Twitter users or bloggers like myself.

The reaction to the report was not that surprising, nearly the entire press agreed with the Prime Minister, David Cameron’s, position that legislation should not follow as Leveson advised. The only exception was the Guardian which backed Ed Miliband’s approach of calling for full implementation of the Leveson Inquiry’s recommendations. J.K. Rowling and Gerry McCann both made statements expressing thing frustration at the PM, they felt as though they had been miss-led. Private Eye, which was actually praised in the report, complained that they proposed system would force them into joining the regulator despite good behaviour previously.

 This is a once in a generation chance to reign in the extremities of the press without damaging the all important freedom of the press. We must realise that too many people have had their lives torn apart by the excesses of the press and that this must stop. Labour is going to bring a vote in the House of Commons, which they will likely win thanks to rebelling Tories and Liberal Democrats, but unfortunately Labour does not have the ability to create laws and as such it will not actually go into law. This is quite disappointing, as the majority of the country backs the Leveson report.