Express & Star

Section 40: Final day to speak out and stand up for press freedom

A consultation on controversial plans that could cripple the newspaper industry is due to end today.

Published

Readers have until 5pm to have a say on Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, which would make newspapers pay all court costs in libel and privacy cases even if they win, unless they signed up to a state-approved regulator.

Critics have warned the move would see hundreds of newspapers going to the wall, while those that remained in business would be severely restricted on what they could report.

  • Click here tell the Government what you think of Section 40

  • Email your views to the editor here

Express & Star editor Keith Harrison said: "Newspapers' ability to investigate and publish everything from council bosses' expenses to police cover-ups would be stripped back for fear of costly legal proceedings, even if the information was accurate and in the public interest.

"Anyone with something to hide would know that even the threat of legal action would put doubt in the minds of newspaper editors up and down the land.

"As such Section 40 is akin to someone throwing a brick through your window – then billing you for not only the window but the brick, too." The only regulator that currently has Government approval is Impress, which is backed by anti-media campaigners including Max Mosley.

MPs including Government Chief Whip Gavin Williamson and Dudley South's Mike Wood are among those to question the credibility of Impress to regulate the media.

Mr Wood said he did 'not believe for one minute' that the organisation was independent, and said Section 40 would result in newspapers such as the Express & Star getting 'punished for telling the truth'.

Fellow Tory MP Damian Collins, chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, warned the legislation could create a new industry of 'ambulance-chasing lawyers' encouraging people to hire them on no-win, no-fee terms to take up complaints against the press.

"These lawyers could set high fees and know that there would be a good chance of getting paid even if they lost the case," he said.

More than 2,500 media outlets are signed up with the Independent Press Standards Organisation, IPSO, while no major newspapers have joined Impress.

The IPSO code of conduct is similar to that of the state-approved regulator, but crucially, it is independent of any political control.

The Section 40 proposal was introduced after the Leveson Report on press ethics.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley is expected to rule on whether or not to enact it in the coming weeks.

She has previously acknowledged that the legislation could have a negative impact on 'a vibrant free local press'.

To have your say on the proposals before today's 5pm deadline, visit www.research.net/r/9WH5LV3.

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