The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has lambasted the Privy Council and the government’s proposals for a royal charter in a strongly worded article in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph.
“Who are the Privy Council, for goodness’ sake?” Johnson said. “They are just a bunch of politicians, a glorified version of the government of the day.”
Last week the Privy Council rejected press proposals for a royal charter, meaning that newspapers could take legal action in the European courts to prevent new press regulations being passed.
Since then, the Mayor of London has attacked the Council, saying that we are on the verge of eroding freedom of the press and undermining the work of everyone from John Milton to John Wilkes – “men who fought for the right to say and publish things of which politicians disapproved.”
The Council has made it clear that even a revised charter will be rejected, and that the government’s plans will now be considered – a “monstrous folly”, according to Johnson.
“We already have abundant law against obscenity, or breach of official secrets,” he said. “We have laws against libel and defamation, against bugging, hacking, theft, bribery of public officials. We have a growing tort of breach of privacy.
“We have no need of some new body backed by statute, or the Privy Council, and it is wrong in principle. You either have a free press or you don’t. You can’t sell the pass, and admit the principle of regulation – because it is in the nature of regulation that it swells and grows. You can’t be a little bit pregnant.”
