Free speech underpins our democracy and the Government has always been clear it is vitally important to uphold it. For this reason, the Government does not interfere with what the press does and does not publish, as long as the press abides by the law.
The Government will continue to defend hard-won liberties and the operation of a free press. But alongside the media’s rights comes a clear responsibility, which is why the public, judge-led Leveson Inquiry was set up in response to the phone-hacking scandal, and why the Government created a new watchdog by Royal Charter and legislated to toughen media libel laws.
Following the Leveson Inquiry into the culture and practice of the press, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) was created, which ensures the press upholds the highest standards of journalism by monitoring and maintaining the standards set out in the Editors’ Code of Practice. IPSO also provides support and a means of redress for individuals seeking to complain about breaches of the code.
Consequently we now have two potential press regulators, both of which are independent, running self-regulatory systems with sanctions, and certainly represent a considerable improvement on the Press Complaints Commission, which went before. It is still early days and obviously we will watch carefully to see how the new system operates and whether it is delivering the proper protection that we all want to see to ensure that the abuses that have taken place in the past do not happen again.
By Patrick McLoughlin on October 13, 2016