THE UK Government has ditched the second part of the Leveson Inquiry, which was due to look into unlawful conduct within media organisations as well as relations between police and the press.
Culture Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that reopening the "costly and time-consuming" inquiry - which reported on press regulation and ethics in 2012 - was not "the right way forward".
Mr Hancock also announced the Government would not put into effect a controversial measure, which would have required media organisations to sign up to a state-backed regulator or risk having to pay legal costs in both sides of a libel case, even if they won.
Ministers would seek to repeal the measure, contained in Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, "at the earliest opportunity", he told MPs.
Tom Watson for Labour described the decision not to go ahead with the second part of Leveson as "a bitter blow to the victims of press intrusion".
Announcing the original inquiry in 2011 in response to a wave of public anger over alleged phone-hacking by the now-defunct News Of The World, then Prime Minister David Cameron said that it would be divided into two parts.
The first would look at the culture, practices and ethics of the press, while the second - which could not begin until after all criminal investigations were concluded - would enquire into "unlawful or improper conduct" within media organisations and their relations with the police.
But Mr Hancock said there had been "significant progress" in the practices of the press and the police, including by the creation of the new Independent Press Complaints Standards Organisation, since Sir Brian Leveson's report in 2012.
A large majority of those responding to a consultation launched by his predecessor John Whittingdale in 2016 opposed the implementation of Leveson II, he said.
Telling MPs he was formally closing the inquiry, he said that priority should be given to dealing with the challenges of the modern media landscape, such as the rise of clickbait, fake news and social media.
We do not believe that reopening this costly and time-consuming public inquiry is the right way forward."
As the Culture Secretary made the announcement there were cries of "shame" in the Commons.
Mr Hancock highlighted reforms to the police as well as the challenges faced by publishers, especially local newspapers.
“The world has changed since the Leveson Inquiry was established in 2011,” he declared. "Since then we've seen a seismic change in the media landscape. The work of the inquiry and the reforms since have had a huge impact on public life."
Mr Watson, Labour’s deputy leader and the Shadow Culture Secretary, began his reply by addressing his links with Max Mosley, who this week was revealed to have published a campaign leaflet linking non-white immigrants with diseases such as tuberculosis.
The frontbencher has faced calls to hand back more than £500,000 in donations from Mr Mosley, who also has links to media regulator Impress.
But he said: "If I thought for one moment he held those views contained in that leaflet of 57 years ago, I would not have given him the time of day.
"He is a man, though, who in the face of great family tragedy and overwhelming media intimidation, chose to use his limited resources to support the weak against the strong."
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