In the face of strong government opposition, the UK's second chamber, the House of Lords, voted in favour of adopting further Leveson recommendations to pressure any press not signed up to a recognised regulator. This would mean those papers would have to pay all libel action legal costs and risk higher damages payments too.
Campaigners for tougher press regulation, including the opposition party, Labour whose deputy leader Tom Watson is largely responsible for persisting and forcing phone hacking, then Leveson, onto the agenda, alongside The Guardian (which was attacked by the then regulator, the PCC, for it's 'false' reporting!!), welcomed the vote. The Culture Secretary (from the Tory party) condemned it as an attack on press freedom.
The vote also said yes to bringing in EU data protection law.
As I've pointed out before, this strand of Leveson shows how difficult it is to balance the need for much more effective regulation with democratic press freedom and the economic vulnerability of the press at a time when circulation is collapsing and Google/Facebook are swallowing up ever more of the as revenue that largely pays for the press. The S*n just this week posted extraordinary losses.
Matt Hancock: Lords' Leveson 'yes' vote is blow to local press https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/11/matt-hancock-lords-leveson-yes-vote-is-blow-to-local-press?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger
The new culture secretary: besides loving Galway Girl, what do we know about Matt Hancock?
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jan/10/who-is-new-culture-minister-matt-hancock?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard
New DCMS Minister profiled, and the Culture Minister role and challenges explained.
Sun newspaper posts huge annual loss.
Sun makes £24m loss amid print ad slump and phone-hacking costs
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/10/sun-makes-24m-loss-under-shadow-of-print-advertising-and-phone-hacking?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard
And then the PM declared the government would overturn the vote!Government will seek to overturn Lords vote on newspapers, says May
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/11/government-overturn-lords-vote-newspapers-may?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard
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