Lord Lester of Herne Hill – (picture: English PEN/Fickr)
Lord Lester of Herne Hill, one of the UK’s most celebrated human rights lawyers, has slammed the government’s proposed Royal Charter on press regulation, saying he doubted it would “pass muster” under the Human Rights Act.
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Index welcomes newspapers’ rejection of cross-party approach to press regulation.
Index CEO Kirsty Hughes said:
“The Royal Charter introduces unwarranted government interference into the process of press regulation. Index welcomes the industry’s rejection of this approach. All those who refuse to sign up to the regulator will now risk facing exemplary damages, which means there will be a continuing chill on press freedom in the UK.
A truly independent and voluntary system is needed and must be one that offer tough standards and complaints procedures.
Index is concerned, however, that the industry appear to want to use the vehicle of a Royal Charter, which we believe would still allow an undesirable political influence.”
Read more about Index’s positions on press regulation:
Index on Censorship: Leveson, the Royal Charter and press regulation
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has released this handy flowchart illustrating who will and who won’t be covered by the proposed new press/web regulator. Suffice to say, Index has one or two problems with it.
UPDATE: This, from the DCMS website, is also a little confusing:
Despite not falling under the definition of relevant publisher, any publication that is exempt as a micro-business as a result of these amendments could still choose to join a regulator and receive the legal benefits otherwise only available to relevant publishers in the regulator. That means protection from exemplary damages.
If you’re exempt as a “micro-business”, aren’t you supposed to be protected from exemplary damages anyway?
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has released this handy flowchart illustrating who will and who won’t be covered by the proposed new press/web regulator. Suffice to say, Index has one or two problems with it.
UPDATE: This, from the DCMS website, is also a little confusing:
Despite not falling under the definition of relevant publisher, any publication that is exempt as a micro-business as a result of these amendments could still choose to join a regulator and receive the legal benefits otherwise only available to relevant publishers in the regulator. That means protection from exemplary damages.
If you’re exempt as a “micro-business”, aren’t you supposed to be protected from exemplary damages anyway?