THE press has lost the right to regulate itself, the Bishop of
Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham James, said on Thursday after the
publication of the Leveson Report.
Bishop James, who sits on the House of Lords Select Committee on
Communications, backed Lord Justice Leveson's calls for an
independent body to regulate the press. This must "have as one of
its primary tasks the protection of citizens from unfair and
damaging portrayal in the press and give them a proper chance of
redress. When members of the general public are unfairly traduced
in a major press story, it is not a necessary consequence of press
freedom but an abuse of it."
The Leveson report - An inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics
of the press - is the product of a 16 month review. It was
set up after it was revealed that mobile phone of Milly Dowler, a
murdered teenager, had been hacked by the News of the
World. It recommends the creation of a new regulatory body,
underpinned in statute, "which is truly independent of industry
leaders and of Government and politicians". This body would not
include any serving editor or politician.
Introducing his report yesterday, Lord Justice Leveson concluded
that this new approach to regulation "cannot be realised without
legislation". He was not proposing statutory regulation of the
press, he said, but a "statutory process to support press freedom,
provide stability, and guarantee for the public that this new body
is independent and effective".
On Thursday, Bishop James described this as a "finely nuanced
recommendation", and argued that "it takes a vivid imagination to
think it readily opens the door for state control of the print
media."
The Prime Minister welcomed the Leveson report yesterday, but
said that he had "serious concerns and misgivings" about the
recommendation of enshrining the system in statute.
"We would have crossed the Rubicon of writing elements of press
regulation into the law of the land," he told Parliament yesterday.
"We should be wary of any legislation that has the potential to
infringe free speech and a free press."
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, thanked Lord Leveson for his
report and said that the party would "unequivocally endorse both
the principles set out and his central recommendations". This
included support for "a truly independent regulation of the press,
guaranteed by law". He paid tribute to "people who did not seek to
be in the public eye, who suffered deep loss and grief, and then
faced further trauma at the hands of sections of the press".
Defying his coalition partner, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick
Clegg, also supported the system proposed in the report, which he
argued could be done "in a proportionate and workable way."
Changing the law was "the only way to give us all assurance that
the new regulator isn't just independent for a few months or years,
but is independent for good. . .
"A free press does not mean a press that is free to bully
innocent people or free to abuse grieving families," he told
Parliament yesterday.
Lord Justice Leveson concluded that "the British press - all it
- serves the country very well for the vast majority of the time".
But he said he would "wholly reject" the analysis that examples of
malpractice, including phone hacking and harrassment, were
"abberations and do not reflect on the culture, practices or ethics
of the press as a whole".
Bishop James called yesterday for a culture within the national
press "which does not treat ordinary people caught up in
extraordinary events so callously and casually".
What is needed, he writes in an article for the Church
Times to be published next Friday, is "a deeper examination of
the moral and theological themes raised in the Leveson
inquiry".