Elstein has described the Leveson Bill and its proposals for delivering effective regulation for the British press as 'draconian'. Here, the founder of the Hacked Off campaign, which drafted the Bill and represents victims of the press, responds.
David Elstein’s reflections on the Leveson report and its implications deserve a reply from Hacked Off, not least because they include comments upon us and our work.
We have indeed published a draft Bill – our Leveson Bill – which has been open for consultation. Mr Elstein says that it is deceptive because, though it is billed as supporting voluntary press regulation, the penalties for failing to join are actually, to use his word, draconian.
A little background. Before the publication of the report the air was thick with warnings that the judge would introduce compulsory statutory regulation. He did not. He proposed independent self-regulation, and instead of making membership compulsory he proposed a series of carrots and sticks. News publishers that claimed to be concerned as a matter of principle about a risk of ‘licensing’ could therefore stay out, but they would suffer disadvantages. Our draft Bill, to which Mr Elstein is welcome to suggest amendments, is our best effort at delivering Leveson’s regulatory system into law as purely as possible. That includes meaningful incentives as opposed to meaningless ones.
News publishers choosing to remain outside the system, in other words, would face possible disadvantages in terms of court costs and damages and (generally overlooked) in their relations with a reformed Information Commissioner’s Office. The purpose is to encourage membership. The history, and the Leveson Report, show that most of our national press organisations hold the very idea of self-regulation in contempt, and have no moral commitment to providing protection or redress for the public. If there were no meaningful disadvantages to avoiding it, then why would any organisation join the self-regulator?
As for Lord Lester’s concerns about exemplary damages, they were answered in full here by Hacked Off’s chair, Hugh Tomlinson QC: To put it briefly, the Leveson recommendations on exemplary damages are not in breach of the Human Rights Act, nor are they draconian. On the other hand, they would help to protect people from the abuse of their rights.
Elsewhere, Mr Elstein has written that ‘It is time to say thank you and goodbye to Hacked Off. The notion that "victims" should have a decisive voice at this stage of the debate is mere sentimentality.’
The bravery and determination of victims of press abuse is the main reason we had a public inquiry, and also the main reason that the judge’s findings are capable of carrying public support. Their involvement is of course inconvenient for the press (convicted by Leveson of ‘wreaking havoc in the lives of innocent people’), but for all other purposes it serves the public good. On the day the victims of press abuses no longer take an interest in these matters, ministers and editors will promptly get together and cheat the rest of us. So we should thank those like the Dowlers, McCanns, Watsons, Hollinses, Christopher Jefferies, Jacqui Hames and many more, and we should remember the words of David Cameron in July 2011: ‘This has to be about the public and the victims.’