Hacked Off begins campaign to persuade news publishers that self-regulation is in their ‘best interests’
Hacked Off, the campaign for a free and accountable press, is today launching an initiative which looks to suggest self-regulation under the Royal Charter is in the best interests of news publishers and that membership of a body proposed by the parts of the industry is not.
The booklet, which is being published in the week of the first anniversary of the Leveson Report, suggests that the Royal Charter has faced ‘relentless negative propaganda’ and looks to show where local and regional press stand to benefit if they join the royal chartered system, and where they will lose out if they instead choose IPSO.
The chair of Hacked Off, Hugh Tomlinson QC, wrote: “I want to make you aware of the serious disadvantages of IPSO membership for smaller publishers.
“Under IPSO, you will surrender control to larger publishers, because it is structurally biased against smaller publishers.
“You are more likely to be fined than well-resourced publishers as they will be better able to thwart investigations. And you won’t benefit from costs protections in court because you will have denied litigants the option to access arbitration.”
The report (below) comes a month after the press industry was denied an injunction to prevent the UK Royal Charter on press regulation being signed off.