The world of media has watched in anticipation during the past month as the Leveson inquiry finally drew to a close with the damming conclusion of a new royal charter system for press regulation.
Culture secretary, Maria Miller this month announced an agreement had been reached between all three major UK parties over a new press regulation system. A final draft of the royal charter ended days of political wrangling between Labour and the coalition leaders over concerns raised by the major newspaper groups. The agreement came just a few days before plans for self-regulation from the newspaper industry were rejected by governmental ministers. Miller commented that the industry’s royal charter plan did not comply with some of the “fundamental principles” of the Leveson Report on regulation, including those regarding privacy and independence.
The Charter settlement is said to offer a ‘historic opportunity to put behind us widespread misconduct in the press. A new system has been produced in response to the Leveson inquiry, which was triggered following revelations that the phone messages of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler had been hacked by the News of the World.
By publishing the new charter the government aims to rebuild trust between the press and the public. It does this without in any way reducing the freedom of the press to carry out journalism that is in the public interest. And contrary to popular belief the Charter does not actually create a regulator, but a recognition panel. The aim of the panel is to act on behalf of the public to ensure a future press self-regulator meets basic, specified standards of effectiveness and independence. It will be up to news publishers and other independent organisations to set up any such self-regulators. The industry will also be subject to a new code of conduct for editors which are outlined in the charter.
In conclusion the revised charter offers three major concessions to the newspaper industry. Two of which are specifically concerned with addressing issues raised by regional publishers, including Johnston Press & Trinity Mirror.
The above publishers can now opt out of an ‘arbitration scheme’ however to do so they must prove it is causing their corporation “serious financial harm”. Both warned they were in danger of being driven out of business by lawyers who encouraged clients to seek compensation from the regulator’s arbitration arm, rather than using complaints unit. Trinity Mirror has featured in a number of high profile cases surrounding phone-hacking allegations in the past two years.
The current complainants system will also be reconfigured. With media owners now being charged a significantly smaller fee to use the arbitration service – this fee will be recoverable if they are successful in winning their case. This move from the government is said to help in winning more support from the local and regional press titles.
The third and final amendment is set to open the door for serving editors to have a greater role on the committee that establishes the code of practice. To do this they have removed current quotas that limited their membership to just one-third, alongside independent members and other journalists.
In review the new charter lays the foundations for a new, more trusted era of journalism. While it may not directly affect advertisers, it may be an important step in rebuilding public trust in newspaper brands which in turn may help circulations rise once more.