Legal Issues

So now the government, which is supposed to be Tory led (but this seems to have escaped the Conservatives around the Cabinet), are now going to end freedom of the press we may have some legal problems.

Downing Street has said:

“No newspaper or blogger would be forced to join the regulator, the Royal Charter system is a system of incentivisation. However, those ‘relevant publishers’ that choose not to join the regulator would be subject to costs and could be subject to exemplary damages if taken to court. ‘Relevant publishers’ are specifically defined and could include blog sites that are written by multiple authors, have editorial control and are published in the course of business.”

Ian Hislop summed up on the BBC quite well what is actually going on (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21848746).  Remember this isn't to prevent crime, we already have laws against phone hacking and the like. This censorship of the press is to stop you finding out about Celebrity Scandals. And who decides what you see? Well seemingly Celebs considering the amount of influence they had in setting it up. 

So like the Spectator we are saying NO! Reminds me of someone. 

Censored

Today the government reached a deal so that enshrined in statute is censorship of the press.#ThingsElliottSays disapproves of this as it extends to blogs so no more news stories on things going around the world as newspapers will be restricted in commenting on them. I hope the Conservatives have plans to over turn this in their manifesto as we are the party of Liberty and this is a clear breach of the beliefs of any Conservative. I hope those cowardly Tory MPs who wished to vote for regulation are chastised from the party. They do not represent any core Conservative beliefs by siding with celebrities who just wish for their public (but yet apparently private) lives not to be seen, despite making a career out of doing so. We just have to hope that Hacked Off doesn't see my blog or all of it will be blacked out.