Letter from victims of press abuses to The Guardian

Published 20th June 2013It is baffling and disappointing tous, as people who have suffered some of the worst press abuses ofrecent years, that the Guardian suddenly appears ready to surrenderto the manipulations of press corporations responsible for many ofthose abuses (Inpraise of… Michael Grade,19 June). Your newspaper, whichdid more than any other institution to bring those corporations tobook, is advocating a delay that plays directly into their hands.

Before us is a hard-won opportunity: a draft royal charter that isbased on the recommendations of the Leveson inquiry, approved by every party in parliament and backedby public opinion and by victims of abuses such as ourselves. Afterseven inquiries into the press in 70 years we are closer than everto an effective, independent press self-regulation scheme that willprotect the public and at the same time protect freedom ofexpression. This is in large part a consequence of having victimsproperly represented for the first time by the campaigngroup, Hacked Off.

Yet the Guardian now calls for further compromise, even though the charteralready contains many concessions to press demands. You urge morenegotiation with proprietors and editors who have learned nothing and shown no contrition, and who have consistently rejected compromise. You complain of drift when the only drift is caused bythem, in their desperation to defy parliament and sabotage thecharter.

The surest consequence of the delay you propose will the kind of shady fix we have seen so many times before, and so we will be left at best with another sham self-regulator no better than thePress Complaints Commission. Please do not allow this to happen.

The judge has spoken, parliament has spoken and the polls indicate that your readers favour a Leveson-based outcome. Don't lose yournerve now.

Yours,Sheila HollinsChristopher JefferiesIan HurstJacqui HamesHJKBen JacksonMike HollingsworthAlex BestEd BlumSky AndrewTricia CooklinTom RowlandCiara ParkesProfessor John TullochJane WinterMargaret and Jim WatsonJoan Smith