Editors warn over press charter plan

The government's proposed royal charter underpinning newspaper regulation puts press freedom at risk, the head of the Society of Editors has warned.

Bob Satchwell said issues with the charter meant "you wouldn't have a free press any longer".

Shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman said newspapers had nothing to fear from the all-party draft charter.

Independent self-regulation is to be brought in after recommendations by the Leveson Inquiry.

Mr Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, told the BBC: "You can't have a new system of regulation which is drawn up by and imposed by politicians.

"The things which are being proposed at the moment would be totally unconstitutional in the US and other countries.

"People in other countries, not just journalists, are looking at what's going on here at the moment with horror."

But Ms Harman urged newspapers to "try out" the proposed system because there was nothing to fear.

She said: "The last thing we want is to have a situation that there is in some countries where politicians control the press, we're strong supporters of a free press.

"But it's quite ironic because a system that's quite like this operates in Ireland and applies to our UK press for their Irish editions - they sign up to it and it hasn't caused any problems of politicians controlling the press."

It might even prove to be the easy bit.

Now they need the papers on board, and some of them will take a lot of convincing.

Sceptical titles have a trump card: they could just set up their own regulator by their own rules.

Get that running, think some, and the differences between one version of a Royal Charter and another will look pretty obscure.

So the culture secretary has got a lot of persuading to do.

Fail to get the press onside and the politicians could look pretty weak, and make some powerful enemies.

The Industry Steering Group, which represents national, regional and local newspaper publishers, said the royal charter unveiled on Friday was not "voluntary or independent".

But the group said it would look closely at changes agreed by the three main political parties at Westminster to try to make the charter more acceptable to the industry.

Many in the press are keen to get their own regulator set up as soon as possible.

Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre said the row between Ed Miliband and his newspaper over an article about the Labour leader's late father showed why politicians should not be involved in press regulation.

Mr Dacre also claimed the "hysteria" which followed Geoffrey Levy's article was "symptomatic of the post-Leveson age".

In an article published in the Guardian and in his own paper, he said: "Some have argued that last week's brouhaha shows the need for statutory press regulation. I would argue the opposite.

"The febrile heat, hatred, irrationality and prejudice provoked by last week's row reveals why politicians must not be allowed anywhere near press regulation."

Disgraced Conservative ex-cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, who was jailed for perjury in 1995 after unsuccessfully suing the Guardian for libel, told BBC Radio 5 live he was "in favour of a free press, warts and all" and the new proposals "won't work and won't last".

Cross-party political agreement on regulation comes after months of wrangling since Sir Brian Leveson published his report into press ethics and practices.

The Leveson Inquiry was set up amid public and political anger at the extent of phone hacking by journalists, first exposed when it emerged that the now-closed News of the World had accessed the voicemail messages of murdered teenager Milly Dowler.

The all-party charter states that changes to regulation could be made only with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller said that the deal would safeguard the freedom of the press and the future of local newspapers.

Hacked Off, which campaigns on behalf of victims of press intrusion, said changes to the draft proposals meant there was no reason for the press to refuse to back the charter.

The proposals will be put to the Privy Council for final agreement on 30 October. /bbc