READING The Press in childhood inspired me to become a journalist.
So I was surprised to read your report on press freedom (“Your newspaper needs your help – now!”, December 23 to 30 and counting).
Do encourage readers to respond to the Government consultation on Leveson – but with facts, not distortions.
You claim legal changes mean The Press might “cease to exist”. Not so. Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 simply provides a way to resolve disputes.
Papers which sign up to an independent regulator such as IMPRESS can offer access to justice through inexpensive arbitration and run investigations without the fear of a libel action.
Papers which refuse to do this force claimants to seek justice in court and may therefore be asked to pay their legal costs.
You say that IMPRESS was “dreamt up” and “approved” by politicians. It wasn’t.
IMPRESS was dreamt up by me – after many years as a journalist and press freedom campaigner – and approved by the Press Recognition Panel, an independent public body.
IMPRESS is independent of both publishers and politicians, unlike your preferred regulator, IPSO, which is ultimately controlled by newspaper owners.
Jonathan Heawood, CEO, IMPRESS, Fulford, York
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Press, in common with the vast majority of local, regional and national newspapers, has refused to sign up to IMPRESS because it is approved by a mechanism which allows politicians a toehold in state regulation of the press for the first time in more than 300 years.
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