Exactly; that is very much what I fear if the statutory body, following its own prejudices, determines the contents of the code and how it is enforced. Such a body would almost inevitably be made up of the sort of people who run and control the BBC. The BBC Trust has got into trouble for telling untruths about how it decided there should be unbalanced coverage of climate change and many other things, so we know the sort of prejudices such bodies have.
Lord Leveson specifies only one item of the code that the new body should contain. He says that it should “equip” the
“body with the power to intervene in cases of allegedly discriminatory reporting and in so doing reflect the spirit of equalities legislation.”
The body will be a politically correct one, enforcing politically correct standards on the media and press.
The body will also have the power to establish a
“ringfenced enforcement fund, into which receipts from fines could be paid, for the purpose of funding investigations.”
It will therefore have an incentive to levy fines, and in that way it will carry out investigations to increase and enhance its power and control over the so-called independent regulator.