Hacked Off and other pressure groups campaigning for the introduction of a Leveson-style press regulator are confident there will be fresh opportunities to “crank up the pressure” against the delaying tactics of press proprietors and Conservative politicians.
Supporters of the victims of press intrusion and harassment believe the Secretary of State for Culture Maria Miller has become the captive of Pressbof, which has yet again defied a cross-party agreement and is now establishing its own independent organisation to monitor press standards.
Having already outwitted the government by getting ahead of Parliament with a rival royal charter on press regulation, Pressbof is now able to take advantage of a delay until October at the earliest before the Privy Council considers the royal charter which the party leaders agreed in March and which has the support of both the Commons and the Lords.
Brian Cathcart, a founder member of Hacked Off, told the annual meeting of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (13.7.2013) that it was now a question of “who governed the country”. Pressbof and its allies in the Conservative Party should not imagine that the will of Parliament could be ignored by a “tiny group of powerful vested interests who have wreaked havoc in the lives of ordinary people”.
Because of the conflict between the royal charters put forward by the press proprietors and the party leaders it could be October before decisions were taken by the Privy Council. But Cathcart issued this warning:
“It is the Conservatives who are dragging their feet...We are having an incredible response from our supporters...If need be we will deploy the Exocet of asking some of the most prominent victims of press abuse to go public and I can tell you the politicians won’t like it.”
But Hacked Off and others who are campaigning for a system of press regulation which meets the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry face an awkward political timetable which is ticking inexorably towards a general election in May 2015.
David Cameron, guided no doubt by his political strategist Lynton Crosby, is desperate to strip away peripheral issues which might distract voters and hamper the Conservatives’ attempt to focus on election-winning policies and win the support of the tabloid press. Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband face a similar dilemma: do they want end up championing a cause which might have lost its momentum?
Since the Leveson Report was published last November the press proprietors have found it far easier than expected to encourage the Conservatives to back pedal.
Cameron’s initial intervention ensured Pressbof had the opportunity to institute its first delaying tactic of submitting a rival royal charter. By exploiting the archaic procedures of the Privy Council – and by covert threats of legal action – Pressbof then succeeded in engineering the current delay.
By stealing another march on Hacked Off & Co with the announcement in early July of the creation of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, Pressbof has every chance of getting its new regulator up and running well before the Privy Council’s potentially redundant discussions on the merits of the rival royal charters.
In his address to the CPBF Brian Cathcart acknowledged the significance of the proprietors delaying tactics. He blamed the Liberal Democrats for having insisted on further consultations on Pressbof’s royal charter because of the fear of legal challenge despite there being “no possibility” of it being approved by the Privy Council.
“The issue now it one of political delay and the Conservatives would like an indefinite delay; indeed the Conservatives would like to stall it all in a sub-committee of the Privy Council for ever.
“The Liberal Democrats feared Pressbof would launch a year-long judicial review unless there were further consultations...The Liberal Democrats’ naivety was leapt on like Christmas by Maria Miller...She has been monstered again and against by Pressbof...She is their captive...We fear she will do what she can to delay the royal charter.
“Ed Miliband has been cast iron in support. Labour will do the right thing but they will need motivating.”
Cathcart believed that Pressbof might well have miscalculated public opinion. An Old Bailey trial, due to start in September, involving fourteen defendants charged with offences relating to phone hacking at News International would present a new opportunity for Hacked Off.
“The judge says the trial could last for two months and it is not going to be a great moment for the Conservatives if David Cameron’s close friends are being tried on serious criminal charges. Will it look like a Mafia super trial? This might well be a moment to mobilise public anger and make sure that the royal charter implementing the Leveson recommendations is approved.”
Hacked Off’s position would also be strengthened by the decision of the House of Commons culture select committee to question Lord Justice Leveson and to recall Rupert Murdoch over apparent discrepancies between the evidence he gave and the secretly-recorded tape of his conversation in March with 23 Sun journalists arrested over investigations into corrupt payments to public officials.
In an attempt to break what had become a “ridiculous log jam” over the Privy Council, Julian Petley, co chair of CPBF, said legal advice was being taken in the hope of sending a letter to Maria Miller threatening the government with a judicial review if it continued to delay a Privy Council hearing of the royal charter which had cross-party support and had been backed by both Houses of Parliament.
Natalie Fenton of the Media Reform Committee shared Cathcart’s opinion that campaigners for press regulation might find events going their way; new victims of phone hacking had been revealed by the police and their cases would highlight the need for reform.
“Pressbof’s new regulator IPSO is part of the delaying tactics. Pressbof’s aim is to get a mildly-reformed Press Complaints Commission; they hope the Leveson royal charter disappears and all we are left with is IPSO.
“We know the regional press is concerned but Pressbof’s propaganda machine keeps turning out their line. They hope we will lose the will to live. Hacked Off has no intention of easing off but we do want a civil society coalition stronger and more apparent than it has been so far.”
Illustration: Daily Mail, 9.7.2013