Leveson: What the newspapers said
Following yesterday’s publication of Lord Justice Leveson’s report into the media, here is a round-up of what the dailies said.
None of the tabloids gave too much, if any, space on their front pages to Leveson, but The Sun dedicated two double-page spreads (pages 8-11), mostly applauding the Prime Minister for saying he had ‘serious misgivings’ about the proposals for a press law.
There was some gloating too over a ‘ratings dip’ for Hugh Grant’s Channel Four documentary looking into the tabloids, which it says lost out to The Removal Men with only 2.3% of the audience share.
Murdoch’s best-selling paper states in its ‘Sun Says’ section that the paper is explicitly against legislation and ‘censorship’, citing the elephant in the room as the internet: “An overregulated Press in parallel with an unregulated internet spells chaos and will be the nail in the coffin of the newspaper industry.”
More of a focus on the political fall-out from the Daily Mirror. “Dave and Nick’s rose garden honeymoon suite has been swapped for a Relate waiting room. Both completely hacked off,” it says. Another report comments that the “strange thing about the report is the way it almost ignores the internet and new media.”
The Daily Mail leads with: “SAS hero walks free…and thanks the Press,” before dedicating eleven pages to Leveson. The editorial opens with: “Cameron leads the fight for liberty,” and goes on to say:
“Let the Mail say at once that Lord Justice Leveson, though sometimes let down by sloppy researchers, has approached his impossibly wide brief in a fine spirit of public service…Despite all this, we have the gravest reservations about some of Sir Brian’s recommendations.
“Repeatedly, he has said he is not proposing statutory regulation, but merely a body ‘underpinned’ by statute. This is just playing with words.”
Meanwhile, over at the Guardian, pages one through to seventeen are dedicated to comment and analysis, leading with the headline “PM defies press victims” – reporting that the lawyer for Milly Dowler’s parents says the PM has “failed the Dowler test.”
Another front page story states the situation is a “nightmare – but only for the old guard of Fleet Street.”
Inside, the editorial runs with the headline: “The prime minister should think carefully before dismissing significant parts of it. The press should treat it with respect – and not a little humility.”
The Times welcomed Leveson’s report, calling it “a success”, but disagreed with the proposal for statutory underpinning – praising Cameron for showing “courage and principle” for his quick dismissal of it.
It rounds up its editorial saying “The press, not parliament, must act.” And, like others are quick to point out, it asks what the difference between a printed article and tweet really is.
The Independent agrees and says that “Mr Cameron is right: legislation would be unnecessary, complex and slow.”
The Telegraph, too, welcomes the report – but without the need for a new law. “The newspaper industry must act quickly to set up an independent regulatory body that fulfils the principles put forward by the Leveson Report,” it says, adding: “Whatever the judge hopes, [a new law] would be a slippery slope to state meddling.”