U.K. report urges new law to keep watch on the press

Friday, November 30, 2012

— After nine months of hearings sparked by phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid, a landmark report released Thursday recommended new, independent oversight of newspapers in what was seen as a day of reckoning for the British press.

The nearly 2,000-page report set up a politically explosive battle between freedom of the press and a desire to eradicate a “subculture” of illicit news gathering that festered in dark corners of old Fleet Street. The report called for a new press law - the first since the 17th century - that would safeguard freedom of the press in Britain, while also creating an independent body that would effectively act as a watchdog on an industry that has thus far largely regulated itself.

Britain’s famously aggressive print media - and particularly its salacious tabloids - came under fire last year after revelations of widespread phone hacking of celebrities and crime victims, including a 13-year-old girl who was murdered, at News of the World. While singling out the nowdefunct paper for particular wrongdoing, the report issued by a panel headed by Justice Brian Leveson amounted to a far broader indictment of criminal behavior and ethical lapses in the press.

Media and free-speech groups in Britain have bitterly opposed any legislation smacking of government regulation of the press. The report appeared to sidestep their biggest fears - some form of government oversight. But skeptics remained cautious about the part of the Leveson proposal that would underpin the independent oversight body through a newpress law.

In presenting his report Thursday, Leveson said part of the proposed law would actually be designed to protect press freedoms, serving almost like the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. He insisted he was not suggesting government oversight, and he lauded the domestic press as a pillar of British democracy and a treasured haven for the “irreverent, unruly and opinionated.”

But he said it was clear the current Press Complaints Commission, peppered with newspaper editors and limited in its powers, was not working. Instead, he called for an independent body - free of influence from both the government and media groups - to be enshrined in law. The powerful new body could investigate and arbitrate claims made by victims of media wrongdoing and issue finesas high as $1.6 million.

The recommendation is not binding, but it put immediate pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron. He has expressed public opposition to statutory regulation of the press but is facing pressure from his coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, to take new steps to tackle media wrongdoing.

“The ball moves back into the politicians’ court,” Leveson said at a news conference Thursday. “They must now decide who guards the guardians.”

Cameron immediately expressed deep misgivings about the recommendation that the new regulator be enshrined in law. Cameron said he was concerned about government interference in free speech.

“I’m proud of the fact that we’ve managed to survive hundreds of years without state regulation,” he said.

Cameron called on the British press to show it could control itself by implementing the judge’s proposals quickly without political involvement.

In the wake of last year’s phone-hacking scandal, the Press Complaints Commission was criticized as a “toothless” organization.

The current commission chairman, Lord David Hunt, put forward his own plan for a rehabilitated independent commission with a new “compliance” arm that would be able to impose fines and enforce standards, powers that the current body does not have. Lord Conrad Black, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission’s funding arm, has also recommended retaining a system of selfregulation but increasing its power in order to launch investigations and levy larger fines.

But Leveson dismissed those options for beefed-up self-regulation as not going far enough. “A free press in a democracy holds power to account but, with a few honorable exceptions, the U.K. press has not performed that vital role in the case of its own power,” he said.

Many of the practices documented by the report are already illegal under British law, suggesting that the problem is as much one of tolerance or ineptitude in law enforcement as it is one of journalistic ethics. The Leveson report, however, found no evidence of widespread wrongdoing by law-enforcement officials.But it cited specific examples of gray areas, including cozy relationships that led to unofficial tip-offs and informal briefings.

Critics of the tabloid press generally backed Leveson’s findings.

“I welcome Lord Leveson’s report and hope it will mark the start of a new era for our press in which it treats thosein the news responsibly, with care and consideration,” said Kate McCann, who was the subject of intense press interest after her 3-year-old daughter Madeleine disappeared during a 2007 holiday in Portugal.

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World in July 2011. His U.K. newspaper company, News International, has paid millions in damages to dozens of hacking victims, and faces dozens more lawsuits from celebrities, politicians, athletes and crime victims whose voice mails were hacked in the paper’s quest for scoops.

News International chief executive Tom Mockridge said the company was “keen to play our full part, with others in our industry, in creating a new body that commands the confidence of the public.”

“We believe that this can be achieved without statutory regulation - and welcome the prime minister’s rejection of that proposal,” he added.

Information for this article was contributed by Anthony Faiola and Eliza Mackintosh of The Washington Post and by Jill Lawless of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 10 on 11/30/2012