We call on Theresa May not go down in history as the Prime Minister who killed free press
UK newspapers may be forced to sign up to being regulated by politicians in a move which would destroy investigative journalism and strip local papers of all news value
TOMORROW the Government faces a decision that could destroy our free Press and fundamentally undermine the principle of natural justice in Britain.
The first State-backed regulator of the Press in British history is likely to be approved this week.
Impress — a creation of free speech-hating celebrities and the Left-leaning activists of Hacked Off, funded by the odious Max Mosley — has no more than a few dozen obscure blogs to its name.
Yet Britain’s media is being coerced into bending the knee to Impress by the absurd, unprecedented and utterly unjust threat of paying the entire costs of every libel a
ction aimed against us — even if we win.
Signing up to Impress would mean granting the State an indirect hand in what the once-free Press could publish, when it is the primary job of the Press to hold those in power to account.
Today, The Sun appeals directly to Prime Minister Theresa May: Do not let this historic calamity happen on your watch.
It is State-sponsored blackmail — newspapers either agree to be regulated by politicians or risk paying through the nose for every story we print, even if it’s verifiably accurate.
The implications are far-reaching and fearsome.
Local newspapers, already on financial life-support and petrified of legal action, would be stripped of almost all news value.
Investigative journalism would cease overnight as the fear of litigation outweighed any pride in exposing wrongdoing.
And those in the public eye who object to a story published about them could punish media outlets with huge court bills, even if the story is justified and proper.
In IPSO Britain already has a Press regulator free from State control and with the power to compel newspapers to account for our errors.
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So we say this to Theresa May: You must fight this and you must stop it.
If you don’t, your years in Downing St, whatever else they are remembered for, will go down in history as the profoundly illiberal era in which 300 years of the free Press in this country was ended.
By Max Mosley, by Hugh Grant, and by the other self-appointed censors of Hacked Off, disguising the settling of their personal scores as some noble crusade on Britain’s behalf.
Do not let them silence the noisiest and most vibrant Press industry the world has known.
It will do untold harm to local and national newspapers and immense damage to our democracy.
Prime Minister, do not let this happen on your watch.