Thursday, March 20, 2014

Big names back press regulation underpinned by royal charter

More than 200 – from JK Rowling to Rowan Williams – feature in Hacked Off ad supporting watchdog rejected by publishersl

Irvine Welsh
Author Irvine Welsh, one of the signatories said newspaper proprietors 'should accept the will of the people and implement these sensible recommendations'. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

More than 200 leading figures from the arts and academia, including writers, film-makers, actors, comics and broadcasters, have signed a declaration of support for a system of press regulation underpinned by royal charter.

They include Danny Boyle, Michael Palin, Sir Tom Stoppard, Sir David Attenborough, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Alan Bennett, Dame AS Byatt, Irvine Welsh, Bob Geldof, Ian McEwan, John Cleese, VS Naipaul, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

Their names appear in full-page advertisements published in three national titles on Tuesday, including the Guardian. The ads – headlined "What do all these people have in common?" – will also be carried later this week in other papers and news magazines such as the Spectator and New Statesman.
The declaration, and the assembling of the names, has been organised by Hacked Off, the body formed by and on behalf of victims of press intrusion and abuse, several of whom – such as JK Rowling, Christopher Jefferies and Kate and Gerry McCann – have signed the statement.

Its publication marks the first anniversary of the royal charter agreement on press regulation, the system agreed by parliament following the report into press standards by Lord Justice Leveson.
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