British politicians strike press regulation deal, new code follows phone hacking scan

LONDON - British politicians say they've struck a last-minute deal over press regulation, unveiling a new code meant to curb the worst abuses of the country's scandal-tarred media.
The code follows days of debate over how to implement the recommendations of Lord Justice Brian Leveson, the senior judge tasked by politicians with cleaning up a newspaper industry plunged into crisis by revelations of widespread phone hacking.
Leveson recommended that lawmakers establish an independent media watchdog, but British Prime Minister David Cameron balked at legislation, warning that it threatened press freedom.
On Monday opposition lawmaker Harriet Harman said that a deal had been reached. She said a new watchdog would be set up through a royal charter — executive action — and be independent of both the press and politicians.

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Northern Light said:

I don't get it. If someone hacks someone else's accounts then they should go to jail for cyber crimes under laws which already exist. Why does the entire press now need regulation?

British Conservatives at it again.

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American said:

Since David Cameron balked at the law, and is the leader of the Conservative Party, I'm not sure about your statement. The Labour Party is the big proponent.

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Northern Light said:

I don't get it. If someone hacks someone else's accounts then they should go to jail for cyber crimes under laws which already exist. Why does the entire press now need regulation?

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HonestJoe said:

The phone hacking that pushed the issue in to the fore is the tip of an iceberg of UK "news"paper crimes and misdemeanours.

It’s worth noting that the UK press are already regulated, buy the industry-run Press Complaints Commission and any new regulator is likely to have a set of rules very much like the current Editors Code of Practice. The fundamental problem currently is that many "news"papers routinely break those codes yet, because the PCC won't take pro-active action and makes it very difficult for complaints to be raised, they usually get away with it. The few times they don't, the punishment consists of little more than a slap on the wrist and a "correction" printed in the bottom corner of page 28.

Ultimately, the industry has nobody to blame but themselves for allowing the corrupt tabloid culture to continue unchecked for so many years. There are plenty of issues with where things are at the moment (not least by the games of both politicians and the industry) but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the principal of independent press regulation. The only question is how (and whether!) it works.

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