JK Rowling and Max Mosley bankrolling independent press regulator Impress
Max Mosley, the former president of the FIA, and author JK Rowling are bankrolling Impress, the first truly independent press regulator.
In a lecture on Wednesday (20 January) by Walter Merricks Chair of Impress, the regulator reported JK Rowling and Max Mosley who “have the reasons and resources to support decent standards of journalism”, have helped get the regulator off the ground during its initial crowd-funding appeals.
Impress was set up over a year ago and offers an alternative to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) which regulates most national and regional newspapers and magazines. IPSO has been called out before by Hacked Off for “abandoning even the pretence of independence” following the appointment of former political editor of The Sun Trevor Kavanagh to its board.
The regulator has said it will accept donations of £3.8 million to cover the first four years of expenditure, which will come almost exclusively from The Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust.
Both Mosley and Rowling have campaigned for press reform, after Mosley received £60,000 in damages from the News of the World in 2008 after he was falsely accused of taking part in a "Nazi orgy". Rowling is a member of Hacked Off a campaign group for ‘free and accountable press’.