[1]Britain should introduce the first press law since the 17th century to rein-in an 'outrageous' press that had 'wreaked havoc' in the lives of innocent people, a major inquiry set up after the phone-hacking scandal in Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid recommended on Thursday.
In his damning report running into 2000-pages, Lord Justice Brian Leveson said the British press must create a new and tough regulator but it had to be backed by legislation to ensure it was effective. He said the press had failed to properly regulate itself in the past, but he believed the law could be used to “validate” a new body.
Leveson said that the British newspaper industry had “wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people” and “acted as if its own code, which it wrote, simply did not exist.” He said behaviour of the press “at times, can only be described as outrageous.”
“The press has to be accountable to the public in whose interests it claims to be acting and must show respect for the rights of others,” Leveson said in his report based on eight months of testimony from hacking victims, politicians and media figures.
“It should not be acceptable that it uses its voice, power, and authority to undermine the ability of society to require that regulation is not a free for all, to be ignored with impunity.
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