UK Parliament / Open data

Leveson Inquiry

Proceeding contribution from Baroness Harman (Labour) in the House of Commons on Monday, 3 December 2012. It occurred during Debate on Leveson Inquiry.

I will press on with my comments, because many hon. Members want to speak.

That is the core reason why Leveson concludes that statute is, to use his word, “essential”. However, to follow up on the point made by the hon. Member for Reigate (Mr Blunt), all that any statute would have to do is set out criteria about what independence means and check once every three years that it is still independent—that is all. The oversight body—the one prescribed by statute—would have no role in hearing complaints, no role in deciding whether they are justified, no role in laying down penalties, and absolutely no role in deciding anything that does or does not go into a newspaper. That would be down to the independent self-regulator set up by the industry.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
554 c604 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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