Tom Slater Tom Slater

The press regulation lobby represent the few, not the many

Those pushing for press regulation claim to have the people on their side, and since the phone-hacking scandal, Hacked Off has posed as warriors for the victims of press intrusion, standing up to the big media barons. Today, MPs vote on amendments to the Data Protection Bill that would effectively force publications into state-backed regulation for the first time in 300 years. The amendments, tabled by Labour’s Tom Watson and Ed Miliband, would also kickstart the second part of the Leveson inquiry. Watson claims this is ‘for the many, not the few’. But if that’s really the case, why are these plans being sneaked into obscure amendments to a dry-sounding piece of data legislation?

Attempts to pass tougher press laws have become increasingly covert and underhand in recent years. Watson’s amendment revives something called Section 40 – a measure, originally drafted as part of the Crime and Courts Act, that would force publications to sign up to a state-backed regulator, or else be liable to pay legal costs in cases brought against them, even if the plaintiffs lose. It is an affront not only to press freedom, but also natural justice, which is part of the reason why the Tories dropped it last year. It took the unelected House of Lords to resurrect it in the form of an amendment to the Data Protection Bill. It was then defeated in the Commons. But not to be put off, Watson is giving it another shot.

Section 40 is an attempt to force regulation on an industry that, from the Sun to the Guardian, has made it clear it doesn’t want it. In the wake of Leveson, the Press Recognition Panel was set up under Royal Charter, to give state approval to new press regulators.

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