Cameron urges papers to back press deal

Britain’s prime minister David Cameron yesterday urged the newspaper industry to sign up to a new system of regulation, which he said would preserve freedom of the press while protecting the vulnerable.

The proposed new system was agreed in a cross-party deal at 2.30am yesterday morning, after late-night talks which averted almost certain defeat for the prime minister in the House of Commons later in the day.

Setting out plans for a royal charter to back a new, tougher press regulator with the power to impose big fines and prominent apologies on errant newspapers, Mr Cameron told MPs that the proposals delivered on the recommendations of last year’s Leveson Report on press standards.