As a witness to the Leveson Inquiry in 2012, I was concerned to read your piece on press regulation (January 6). I have been involved with supporting victims of abusive press coverage and working with the media to improve their standards for over six years.
It was sad to see you repeating the half-truths peddled by the Dacre, Desmond and Murdoch press. The commencement of Section 40 is required to ensure that everyone, not just the wealthy few, have access to justice should they find themselves subjected to unfair and inaccurate press coverage. The situations where papers would be responsible for paying a claimant’s legal costs are restricted, only applying where a paper had refused prior arbitration and where a judge ruled that paying costs was appropriate. This does not place the press at risk unless they knowingly break either the law or the rules they have voluntarily signed up to.
Readers can work out for themselves why the national tabloids are resisting what was agreed by Parliament and had the support of the vast majority of the British public. Questions then arise about why the Wiltshire Times is allying itself with papers who carried out abuses on ordinary members of the public. You are better than that.
Helen Belcher
Liberal Democrat prospective
parliamentary candidate
Chippenham
Editor’s comment: The newspaper industry is regulated, and very effectively so, by the Independent Press Standards Organisation. Ipso’s website will make it clear how well it polices its editors’ code of conduct, to which this and the majority of newspapers are signed up. Last week’s article was not ‘hysterical’, it outlines a very real threat to newspapers like the Wiltshire Times. The Government recognising Ipso as a regulator rather than pandering to a minority with an agenda would resolve this situation.
Gary Lawrence, editor