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Controversial legislation on Media

By Sunny Hundal
March 28 2013

 

 

 

The controversial legislation on press and web regulation is likely to be ‘finalised’ in mid-April.

Bloggers will be offered a three-week ‘mini-consultation’ period, a senior source from the Labour party has told Liberal Conspiracy, to help draft the legislation on web regulation.

The controversial legislation on press and web regulation is likely to be ‘finalised’ in mid-April.

The currently drafted rules exclude various types of publishers including the BBC and other broadcasters, special interest magazines and political parties.

A senior source from the shadow media team said the three political parties were looking for the “right definition” of a small blog.

This [definition] has to steer a path between exempting blogs that are really small and not providing a legal loophole so that newspapers get exemption on all their online activity or are encouraged to avoid the law by restructuring themselves into a series of small bodies.

We also need to future-proof the law so that as papers gradually move online, we don’t see a slide back into the old world.

The aim of the consultation is to determine how to measure size: whether by company turnover, readership, number of staff or some combination.

Our souce added:

Lord Justice Leveson recommended a new independent regulator, underpinned by statute, with financial incentives to join. This is not state regulation of the press, nor does it in any way infringe on the important free speech rights we all want to protect.

Blogs run by just one person are already exempted from the current rules.

Originally published by Liberal Conspiracy 

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