The press regulation lobby represent the few, not the many

Those pushing for press regulation claim to have the people on their side, and since the phone-hacking scandal, Hacked Off has posed as warriors for the victims of press intrusion, standing up to the big media barons. Today, MPs vote on amendments to the Data Protection Bill that would effectively force publications into state-backed regulation for the first time in 300 years. The amendments, tabled by Labour’s Tom Watson and Ed Miliband, would also kickstart the second part of the Leveson inquiry. Watson claims this is ‘for the many, not the few’. But if that’s really the case, why are these plans being sneaked into obscure amendments to a dry-sounding piece of data legislation?

Attempts to pass tougher press laws have become increasingly covert and underhand in recent years. Watson’s amendment revives something called Section 40 – a measure, originally drafted as part of the Crime and Courts Act, that would force publications to sign up to a state-backed regulator, or else be liable to pay legal costs in cases brought against them, even if the plaintiffs lose.