What was the Leveson Inquiry? Lord Justice Leveson has made recommendations on the future of press regulation. What did it look at? What did Lord Justice Leveson recommend? He made broad and complex recommendations relating to how the press is regulated: Newspapers should continue to be self-regulated - and the government should have no power over what they publish.
There had to be a new press standards body created by the industry, with a new code of conduct That body should be backed by legislation, which would create a means to ensure the regulation was independent and effective The arrangement would provide the public with confidence that their complaints would be seriously dealt with - and ensure the press are protected from interference.
Why did he recommend reworking press regulation? Will his recommendations be implemented? What about broadcasters and the internet? The inquiry has been specifically into the press, not into the media more generally. And although the exemplary damages provisions will come into force even later, these costs will not be insignificant.
Some editors and journalists such as Fraser Nelson may be tempted to grandstand, but companies that are ultimately accountable to shareholders may be forced to weigh risks a little more prudently, and also take into account the wider climate of public opinion.
Whilst it is finely balanced, no frontbench politician, and least of all the Prime Minister, will want to go into an election year with nothing at all to show for the Inquiry. This is likely to be a fraction of the total cost of the inquiry which heard evidence from witnesses from government, media companies, the police and all sectors of society.
Many witnesses had senior legal and PR advice and representation, much of the cost of which will have been borne by the public purse. And that leaves out the lost productivity caused as the Inquiry was streamed into homes and offices up and down the land. I hope, when we look back at the Leveson Inquiry in 20 years it will not have been a waste of time. Whatever the outcome in terms of regulatory reform, an academic industry has been set up to pore over the evidence Leveson uncovered, asking what it reveals about the ways our democracy actually works.
As Leveson himself put it, his inquiry should be put in the context not only of the phone hacking scandal this millennium, but of the Calcutt Reviews in the s and a total of seven public inquiries since the first Royal Commission on the Press.
From the start, commentators who focus on political economy identified media ownership as the more important issue, and it was one that politicians argued should be dealt with after the issue of regulation. Part one of the inquiry approached the examination of the practices of the media using four modules BBC News, These are:.
Lord Justice Leveson made broad recommendations for effective self-regulation that can be summarised into four major points The National Archives, The government, in response to these issues, recommended the use of a Royal Charter—considered by the Privy Council—that would document issues of self-regulation, create an independent recognition panel that would be anchored in legislation Tomlinson, The present system of self-regulation of the UK press is characterized by an absence of adequate controls and answerability to the public, coupled with a high level of unpredictability.
Since human rights guidelines do not endorse a particular method of print media regulation, then the best bet would be self-regulation on account of being the least restrictive means available. Nevertheless, self-regulation should be consequential; it must wholesomely ensure accountability by the journalists and the print media outlets together with protecting the rights of the journalists. The present setup of self-regulation of the UK press falls short of guaranteeing accountability and responsibility.
One of the biggest developments is the Royal Charter—a legislative underpinning—which formally assures that the press would not be interfered with by the political class. Moreover, it insists on self-regulation of the press.
The charter formalizes the Press Recognition Panel mandated to recognise self-regulatory institutions. Further legislation has been enacted that pledges incentives, especially for news outlets that voluntarily join a self-regulating body, such as protection from liability. However, the press industry players have faulted the Royal Charter by reiterating that it is not independent.
They have insisted that the process of initiating the Royal Charter was owned and controlled by the politicians. Hence the industry does not recognise the Charter, and to add on to the scrutiny, the Hacked Off group has also weighed in with the fact that the Charter is under the control of the Privy Council. This Council is a sub-committee of Cabinet, which is consequently under the influence of government.
The law would help defend litigants, more so the defendants, from the exorbitant costs linked to lawsuits, particularly if they are members of a self-regulating institution— and who can also provide inexpensive arbitration avenues. This law provision is only applicable to self-regulatory bodies that have been recognised by the panel. However, there has been a delay in the commencement of Section 40 of the law Hughes, This delay in the commencement of the law can be construed as interference by the government, which in effect goes against the spirit of the recommendations set out by the Leveson inquiry.
It further undermines the public trust in the press—that is the watchdog of democracy—since the government has placed upon itself the power of Section 40 which they can deploy as a threat toward the press industry at any time if they so wish. Moreover, private representations driven by the news industry have contributed to the delay in implementing the self-regulatory structure. The new regulator appears to be equally ineffective as was its predecessor.
There are presently two institutions formed for self-regulation:. It consists of the major publishers and newspaper outlets.
Impress has accumulated a membership of thirty small publishers, but has insignificant support from the mainstream outlets. Further criticisms have been levelled against the regulator IPSO. 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.
But the Major government failed to introduce that, and Tony Blair, entering government, concluded there were more important tasks than introducing a press law. Self-regulation and the PCC has continued, but the authority of the regulator was fatally undermined by the News of the World phone-hacking saga.
The PCC's initial investigation into the Guardian's investigation concluded there was "no new evidence" of phone hacking by the News of the World beyond the activities of a single reporter, Clive Goodman, and that there was "nothing to suggest that the PCC was materially misled" in an earlier inquiry. The regulator chose to criticise the Guardian, saying its story "did not quite live up to its dramatic billing".
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