Independent and effective? The post-Leveson framework for press regulation

Abstract

This paper aims to show how the legal framework for independent self-regulation of the press in the United Kingdom has developed in the three years since the publication of the Leveson Report in November 2012. The paper begins by providing a brief summary of the negotiations between major newspaper publishers, politicians and civil society organisations which led to the development of a legal framework that is similar to but distinct from the framework recommended by Lord Justice Leveson. This framework is referred to here as the ‘post-Leveson framework’. The paper goes on to show how the post-Leveson framework has been implemented in the relevant provisions of the Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 and the Crime and Courts Act 2013. It then provides a first-hand account of the development of a new self-regulatory body, IMPRESS: The Independent Monitor for the Press CIC, which is designed to inhabit this framework. The paper concludes by arguing that the Leveson recommendations, despite legal and political challenges, may yet have a significant and beneficial impact on the future of media regulation in the United Kingdom.