Talks on press regulations break down, says Cameron

Prime Minister David Cameron poses with children from Welton St Mary’s school Lincoln, outside No 10 Downing Street yesterday.Guardian News and Media/LondonThe Prime Minister, David Cameron, has accused Labour and the Liberal Democrats of posturing after the collapse of cross-party talks on proposed reforms to press regulation.The prime minister announced plans to put Conservative proposals for a royal charter to introduce a new press regulator to a vote in the House of Commons on March 18.He said the talks with other party leaders had been halted because the gap between them was too great. His stance means that Cameron now faces a parliamentary battle next week to ensure his proposals are endorsed in the face of opposition from Labour and, potentially, the Liberal Democrats who are his coalition partners.Cameron said: “I will urge all members on all sides of the house to support this approach. To put it simply they can back my amendments ... Or they can grandstand and end up with a system that will not work.” His attitude infuriated campaigners and victims of phone hacking who want legislation to underpin the proposals put forward by Lord Justice Leveson. “I think the public will see that a means has been found for the prime minister to help his friends in the press,” said professor Brian Cathcart, director of the press victims’ pressure group Hacked Off. “(They) would have a veto over the people who would run the independent self-regulator that Leveson proposed, they would have a means to filter complaints so they could pick and choose which they deal with and which they wouldn’t and a self-regulator which would not have the power to say: ‘You have to publish a correction or apology somewhere near where the offence happened,’” he told BBC News.In a phone conversation between the three leaders yesterday morning, Cameron told them they were trying to push him beyond a position he was comfortable with and beyond something the press would sign up to.Cameron then announced he would force the issue to a head by attaching an outline of his proposals as an amendment to the crime and courts bill when MPs vote on Monday night, claiming the alternative would be further difficult negotiations and the risk that several pieces of legislation could be blocked from being passed by continuing amendments and debate.The PM’s proposals include letting the new regulator levy fines of up to £1mn against newspapers and force them to issue “proper” apologies, all backed up by a royal charter rather than legislation. Newspapers that refused to join the new body would face potentially much more expensive “exemplary damages”. “The talks have been good-natured talks,” he said. “But there are a handful of pretty fundamental differences between the parties. But the danger is that we won’t have an option on the table without action. I have chosen action over inaction. I have made a choice.”In what appeared to signal a possible compromise between the party leaders, however, Cameron then suggested he would accept “two or three lines of legislation” to give statutory legitimacy to his proposed royal charter. “I don’t believe that’s necessary, that won’t be in my proposals, but of course there’s a world of difference between a full-on legislative solution and a modest underpinning statutory clause that basically says we shouldn’t be able to change this royal charter easily.”A senior Labour source said: “The prime minister’s decision is very disappointing. We still hope for an agreement. We still believe there can be an agreement. We urge the prime minister to reflect on his actions.” And a senior LibDem source said Cameron had made the decision to pull the plug on cross-party talks “unilaterally” and the Liberal Democrats were now considering their next step. “We were very surprised and disappointed,” said the source. “We thought we were making real progress and inching towards a deal, but the prime minister has unilaterally decided to pull the plug on cross-party talks. We are still prepared to work with politicians of all parties, including the Conservatives, who want to work with others to implement Leveson.”