Responding to the announcement that the owners of the Telegraph and the Mail along with the Murdoch newspapers are pressing ahead with the establishment of a non-Leveson compliant regulator whilst attempting to judicially review the government's decision to reject their royal charter, Professor Brian Cathcart, Executive Director of Hacked Off said:"The people leading this part of the newspaper industry are exposing themselves as desperate and deaf."

Desperate, because they are now resorting to a legal challenge to something based on the findings of a public inquiry, and backed by the victims of press abuse, all parties in Parliament and the overwhelming majority of the public."

Deaf, because they refuse to listen to the evidence that there is no threat to the free press and that this deal actually benefits the press, both financially and in terms of freedom of expression."

Their actions, coming in the last few days before the cross-party charter is sealed, are entirely predictable and self-serving."

It's time they calmed down, listened, and did what the public expects of them."