Cameron faces split over press regulation

British prime minister David Cameron warned the newspaper regulation system is unacceptable, as he received a key judicial report into the Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal.

His comments came ahead of today’s publication of findings by senior judge Brian Leveson from a year-long inquiry into press ethics, which are expected to include recommendations for statutory regulation.

But The Spectator, Britain’s oldest political magazine, said it would refuse to sign up to any government-enforced regulator system, and other newspapers warned that introducing new laws were a threat to 300 years of press freedom.

Cameron set up the Leveson inquiry in Jul 2011 after the discovery of phone hacking and other illegal practices at Murdoch’s News of the World, which the Australian-born tycoon then closed down.

Cameron told parliament he hoped the process would lead to “an independent regulatory system” for the press and called for a cross- party consensus, but did not say if he supported new laws. “The status quo, I would argue, does not just need updating — the status quo is unacceptable and needs to change,” he said.

The British press is currently self-regulated by the Press Complaints Commission.

Cameron will today give a statement to parliament following the publication of Leveson’s report. There will be a parliamentary debate next week on the report’s recommendations, probably followed by a non-binding vote.

Cameron is not obliged to follow the recommendations but they are likely to present him with a dilemma amid splits in his Conservative party over the need for statutory regulation.

More than 80 MPs from the three major parties said in a letter yesterday that any introduction of statutory regulation would be the biggest blow to media freedom in Britain for 300 years. But 42 Conservative MPs have previously written a letter calling for strong new press laws.

Newspapers are thought to be ready to accept an independent regulator that could hand out big fines but insist that signing up should be voluntary.

The Spectator, a right- leaning political magazine, said laws aimed at tackling tabloid abuses could have a “chilling effect” on the rest of the press.

But actor Hugh Grant, who has spoken out on behalf of phone hacking victims, called for new laws.

“What people are campaigning for is an end to newspapers being able to regulate themselves, marking their own homework,” he said.

Police have launched three probes into misdeeds by newspapers, while Andy Coulson, Cameron’s former spokesman and ex-Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks have been charged with phone hacking and bribery.