The Government has today announced plans to repeal section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, a key part of the cross-party agreement to implement the Leveson recommendations for independent press regulation.
The Media Bill will remove a threat that publishers will pay all legal costs if they win or lose a court case, it has been announced in the King’s Speech.
The Government has already made a commitment to repeal Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, which is not in force.
If enacted, it would have meant that publishers would have to pay legal costs in defamation and privacy cases, for both sides, if not a member of an approved regulator.
In the wake of the Leveson Inquiry into the media, the Press Recognition Panel (PRP), set up under a royal charter, gave approval to the Independent Monitor for the Press (Impress).
The media body Impress oversees 125 publishers and is currently the only approved regulator, according to the PRP.
However, many of the main publishers – including News UK, Daily Mail and General Trust and Telegraph Media Group – have signed up to another body called the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).
The voluntary press-funded body, launched in 2014, was founded after the Leveson Inquiry concluded that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) was not working.
On Tuesday, News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith welcomed the King’s Speech, adding: “We hope that the Bill will become law quickly, removing this pernicious threat to press freedom from the statute book once and for all.”
However, campaign group Hacked Off has been critical of the move, with chief executive Nathan Sparkes saying the repeal was an attempt to “curry favour” with the media and encouraged MPs to reject it.
He said: “Section 40 underpins the Leveson system of independent press regulation and is critical to upholding the rights of the public, protecting people from lies, intrusion and other abuses in the press, and ensuring that newspapers can defend themselves from wealthy litigants. It is vital to upholding the interests of the public as well as the freedom of the press.
“National newspaper owners’ opposition to the measure is based on a self-interested obsession with avoiding accountability at all costs.
“The Government’s plan to repeal section 40, announced today in the King’s Speech, is a cynical attempt to bribe national newspaper owners ahead of the next election in the hope of receiving more favourable coverage in return.
“It is utterly desperate stuff from the Prime Minister, who is prepared to abandon the victims of press abuse, over 200 independently regulated newspapers and the cross-party agreement on press standards, all to curry favour with the press barons.
“We are confident that voters will see straight through this grubby and self-serving attempt at retaining the support of the national press and will be working with our supporters across the country to expose it for what it is among the public.
“Parliament has a history of standing up to the Government on this issue, and we encourage all politicians of integrity to be prepared to take a stand again.”
Related: Alex Chalk suggests removing tents is a form of ‘tough love’
