Hacking victims and Hacked Off campaign members following Leveson Report announcement. Credit: Gareth Fuller
The John Whittingdale story is not about privacy. It is about the vulnerability of a government minister who knows the press have an “embarrassing” story on him that they chose not to run right at the time that a new framework of press regulation is supposed to be implemented. It just so happens that during this period John Whittingdale decided to suspend implementation of a crucial element of the new system of press regulation under the provisions of the Royal Charter enacted by parliament and to change his mind about pressing ahead with part 2 of the Leveson inquiry. It is worth taking each of these in turn.
On 19 October 2015, in a speech to the Society of Editors, the main annual gathering of all newspaper editors and executives, the Secretary of State said that he was not convinced that the time was right to commence Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act. Section 40 is an integral part of the Royal Charter process. It will bring substantial benefits to ordinary citizens by providing access to justice at low cost – because news publishers inside a regulator recognized by the Royal Charter, will have to provide an arbitration system that will greatly reduce the need for prohibitively expensive court proceedings, previously the preserve of the very wealthy. It will also offer protection to journalists and investigative journalism – because if a news publisher does end up in court and is a member of a recognized regulator it will not have to pay costs, even if it loses. Conversely, if it is not a member of a recognized regulator and ends up in court it will have to pay costs even if it wins. It is the key incentive for news publishers to join a Leveson compliant independent regulator.
