Council papers exempt from press regulation

Minor detail, but still one that undermines the principle of press regulation: it has been noted this week that papers published by councils have managed to slip under the radar of the press regulation system, with no mention of them either in the Leveson recommendations or subsequent discussions. Here's Roy Greenslade once more:

Why are council papers exempted from press regulation?On a related subject, it appears odd that the government is prepared to allow council-owned papers to be exempt from a new system of press regulation.
And it's no wonder that Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for the east London area of Poplar and Limehouse, should be in the forefront of attacking the exemption.
He serves part of a borough, Tower Hamlets, where the council publishes a weekly paper, East End Life, that has spent years strangling the life out of the commercial local paper, the East London Advertiser (also owned by Archant).
Fitzpatrick said: "East End Life has become too big and too biased. Hand-delivered to nearly every household in the borough it enjoys a privileged position without any real oversight."
Sources: Newspaper Society/Barking & Dagenham Council/East London Advertiser