Leveson summary at March 2013

JUNE 2014: This is great to look back at and get a clear sense of what was proposed, and how very, very tame (yet again!) the new self-regulator IPSO appears - where's the power to fine up to £1m that was mooted for example?!

See the post below for a great table on the responses of the 3 big parties; victims and the press to the emerging proposals for a new regulator.
Here, I've copied in a point-by-point FAQ from The Guardian summing up many of the points you need to know to really grasp this thorny issue
Its also necessary to put this into wider historical context, something we'll look at in more detail

The press regulation deal – Q&A

Is it statutory regulation, how would the new watchdog deal with phone hacking and what do victims of media intrusion think of it?

• Lisa O'Carroll and Josh Halliday
• The Guardian, Monday 18 March 2013 20.38 GMT

The new press regulations will affect the newspaper industry – including regional newspapers and news-related websites, and magazine publishers. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

How will press regulation be different now from before?
Culture secretary Maria Miller has claimed the prospect of investigations, fines of up to £1m for the worst or serial offenders will make it one of the toughest regulators in the world. While the predecessor Press Complaints Commission had no powers to impose fines, it was its lack of independence from newspapers that caused its demise. Its inaction over allegations of widespread phone hacking at the News of the World led it to being branded a "toothless poodle". The new watchdog should be completely independent. The press will have no veto over who sits on the board and serving editors will not be members of any committee advising on complaints, unlike the old system in which editors adjudicated on each other.
Is it statutory regulation or not? (And what is statutory underpinning anyway?)
The new regulator will be established by royal charter, not law. The charter will be entrenched in statute so it cannot be changed by ministers. It could only be amended if there is a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of parliament. The wording, d

Leveson responses by parties press victims (Guardian table)

Handy resource from the Guardian here - click here to go to their site and download it

   Leveson Grid

Press unites against Labour-LibDem Leveson proposals

David Cameron has been the subject of much hostile coverage from a right-wing press apparently unhappy with the PM for not being right-wing enough. Today he is represented as an heroic figure, a true titan, single-handledly safeguarding British democracy from the terrors of state regulation of the press, whilst Miliband/Clegg (Labour/Lib Dems) are castigated as opportunistic anti-democratic hooligans with no sense of British history or traditions, taken in by the brazen buffoons of Hacked Off.

Which is one way to paraphrase today's extraordinary coverage of the ongoing parliamentary splits over how to implement Leveson's recommendations.
Roy Greenslade, as ever, provides a sharp summary of all this - you can see here a good example of what Chomsky's propoganda model referred to as "flak" (one of the five filters keeping radical or counter-hegemonic content out of mainstream discourse).
Political columnist Michael White also weighs in with a discussion of whether the PM is effectively in league with the Murdochs, fearing their wrath.

Cameron, the editors' press freedom hero, versus 'draconian' Miliband

Michael White

Friday 15 March 2013

The majority of nationals lauded the prime minister for his opposition to statutory underpinning for a new press regulator

The Daily Mirror’s headline on Friday.

Prime minister David Cameron might have enjoyed his national newspaper coverage this morning. It was predictable that his opposition to statutory underpinning for a new press regulator would be greeted by headlines in his favour.