What price freedom? The Leveson inquiry into press standards exposed some appalling practices. What the families of Milly Dowler and Madeleine MCann went through is to be condemned absolutely. Sections of the press behaved abominably and illegally. Leveson condemned the ‘culture of reckless and outrageous journalism’ which he said had dominated sections of the press for decades. Journalists have been arrested and prosecuted and rightly so. However, people who are advocating statutory regulation of the press should tread very carefully. Ed Miliband says he backs the report in its entirety. I think he is misguided. There is a universal recognition of the need for proper tough regulation with proper penalties and the expectation that the press will sign up to a system of better regulation.
What is worrying is the suggestion that we should introduce state involvement in the regulation of the press, something which we have not had in 300 years. A free press is essential for a properly functioning democracy – an independent press watchdog – this time with teeth – is clearly needed. However the state should not be involved in controlling what the press may or may not report. In the light of such terrible abuses it is easy to call for intervention, as both Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have done – but in a rush to appear decisive they have made the wrong call. They should try to remember that once you introduce the state into the means by which you regulate the press, you are creating a danger; it is not what this government might do with such powers, but how a future government might exercise them. Freedom is a very precious thing. The behaviour of the press may have been appalling, but we should not abandon the principle of a free press in a knee jerk response to bad behaviour.