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9 Denning L.J. 1 (1994)

handle is hein.journals/denlj9 and id is 1 raw text is: Freedom of the Press:
Freedom from the Press*
Sir David Calcutt, QC
As the Parliamentary Summer Recess once again approaches, it is perhaps appropriate
that we should be considering the balance which has yet to be effectively struck between
the freedom of the press, and freedom from the press - that is, the freedom of the
press to investigate and to inform the public about matters of legitimate public interest;
and the freedom of the individual to be protected from public exposure, by the press,
of private matters, but in which the public has no legitimate interest.
After all, it is now over five years since the Government called for - and called
for as a matter of urgency - a Report on the measures needed (whether legislative
or otherwise) to give further protection to individual privacy from the activities of
the press.
It is now over four years since the Government accepted, in principle, the
recommendations of the Committee on Privacy and Related Matters that a package
of changes (including some legislative changes) was needed, and accepted the
recommendation that this must positively be the last chance for the press to get
its act together, failing which statutory support would be inevitable.
It is now over two years since the Government asked me to review - and to review
urgently - the new arrangements which the press had put in place for self-regulation,
and to say whether, in my view, those arrangements should now be modified or put
on a statutory basis.
It is now over 18 months since the Government expressly accepted, in terms, my
conclusion that the Press Complaints Commission was not an effective regulator of
the press.
It is now over 15 months since the National Heritage Select Committee published
its Report recommending statutory support for the voluntary regulation of the press.
It is now over 12 months since the Secretary of State for National Heritage assured
Parliament that the Government envisaged a White Paper setting out the Government's
final views on press self-regulation, and said that the Government would do its best
to ensure that its response to the Select Committee's Report would be published before
* The Child & Co. Lecture 1994.

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