PM fails to back Leveson on UK press law

An enquiry into the culture and ethics of the British press called for sweeping new regulation backed by legal statute reigniting a visceral battle between proponents of free speech and defenders of the individual right to privacy. Concluding a nine-month investigation sparked by a scandal over the hacking of thousands of mobile phones by journalists, Lord Justice Leveson said the government should legislate to enshrine, for the first time, the freedom of the press in the UK. His report, which rejected an industry proposal for stronger self-regulation, excoriated the press, in particular the tabloids, and politicians for fawning on them, and divided the political establishment.

While welcoming the Leveson inquiry’s outline of a system to tighten regulation of the UK’s rumbustious press, Prime Minister David Cameron refused to back the proposal to underpin a new regulatory system with law. Speaking to the House of Commons, the prime minister said he had “serious concerns and misgivings” about the proposal.