Parliament may have to legislate if newspapers fail to sign up to a tough new regulator, a leading Conservative sceptic of a new press law said today.
John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons culture select committee, said that it was up to the industry to set up the kind of independent regulator recommeded by Lord Justice Leveson.
If they refused to recognise it, editors would leave MPs with little choice but to embed a new system in law, even though his personal instincts were against such a move, he said.
“We have real concerns about legislation and so we want to give a chance to the industry so that it will accept regulation without legislation,” Mr Whittingdale told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“Legislation