Damages: Max Mosley

MPs will today demand a crackdown on 'chilling' libel and privacy laws, warning that freedom of speech is under fire from the courts.

In a hard-hitting report, the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee expresses 'deep concern' that the freedom of the Press to expose wrongdoing and report on Parliament has been eroded by privacy clauses in the Human Rights Act.

However, it also says the self-regulation of the newspaper industry through the Press Complaints Commission does not always work.

The committee particularly criticises the PCC for failing to hold a proper investigation over 'false and damaging' newspaper coverage of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

'In any other industry suffering such a collective breakdown ... any regulator worth its salt would have instigated an inquiry,' the report says, adding that newspaper industry is 'in denial about the scale and gravity of what went wrong'.

In their far-reaching report the MPs:

The MPs also take aim at the way Britain has the friendliest courts for those who want to sue for libel and say action is required to ' correct the balance which has tipped too far in favour of the plaintiff'.

The committee brands it 'a humiliation' for the British legal system that U.S. states have been forced to pass their own legislation 'to protect freedom of speech from what are seen as unreasonable incursions by our courts'.

At a press conference to discuss the report, Labour committee member Paul Farrelly warned: 'Certain judges are operating a one-man libel industry.'

The committee reserves some of its strongest criticism for the way oil company Trafigura tried to use a super-injunction to prevent the reporting of Commons debate on its dumping of toxic waste.

 

The MPs demand a new law to make clear that the Press can report what they like from Parliament, calling it a 'cornerstone of a democracy'.

The report concludes: 'We strongly urge that a way is found to limit the use of super-injunctions as far as is possible and to make clear that they are not intended to fetter the fundamental rights of the Press to report the proceedings of Parliament.'

The report follows a two-year investigation. At its centre was the way the Human Rights Act has been used by celebrities such as Formula One boss Max Mosley to seek damages over stories or block publication with injunctions.

The report dismisses widespread criticism of judges like Lord Justice Eady for using the Human Rights Act to usher in privacy laws via the back door.

But the MPs say the safeguards put in place by Parliament have not worked.

They call on the Ministry of Justice to set up an urgent investigation into the operation of Section 12 of the Human Rights Act, meant to balance freedom of expression with the right to privacy.

The MPs demand 'urgent' new measures to curb the huge payouts to libel lawyers which have deterred newspapers from investigative journalism likely to upset the rich and powerful.

The committee also calls for tougher regulation of the media, saying the PCC is 'widely viewed as lacking credibility and authority'.

It says the body should initiate inquiries before a complaint is received and the PCC code should be rewritten 'to include a requirement that journalists should normally notify the subject of their articles prior to publication - unless there is a strong public interest not to'.

It is already common practice, although not universal, for newspapers to offer the right of reply to people they plan to write about.

PCC director Stephen Abell said last night: 'The role of maintaining Press standards is vitally important, and the Commission will consider, in light of this report, how it can most appropriately improve.'