A YouGov Poll, commissioned by the campaigning group Hacked Off, shows continuing strong public support for establishing the second part of the Leveson Inquiry and for the Government to take steps to bring all newspapers into a press regulator which meets the criteria suggested by the Leveson Inquiry.
The poll showed that
- 52% support the re-establishment of the second part of the Leveson Inquiry. Asked whether Part Two should be re-established, and excluding those who said “don’t know”, 80% of respondents backed Leveson Part Two, and only 20% opposed its re-establishment.
- 72% of those to express a view think it matters that some newspapers are not members of a Leveson-compliant regulator.
- 67% of those with a view believe the Government should do something to bring those newspapers into a Leveson compliant regulator – with new laws to compel the press to sign up given as the most popular solution (50% calling for direct laws of compulsion, with 27% calling for penalties for non-compliance and 13% calling for incentives).
As reported by Inforrm over many years, opinion polling has shown consistent support for tough, independent press regulation:
- A 2012 opinion poll showed that 60% of the public favoured statutory regulation of the press (see the Inforrm post here)
- This result was repeated in 2013, with a poll commissioned by ITN [pdf] showing 63% favouring statutory regulation (see the Inforrm post here).
- A 2013 YouGov poll [pdf] (commissioned by the Sunday Times but not reported in the paper) showed that 52% supported the proposed new system for press regulation (see the Inforrm post here).
- A poll in 2015 [pdf] showed that 66% had little or no confidence in IPSO (see the Inforrm post here – this post summarises the consistent results of 7 polls on this issue)
- A 2016 poll [pdf] showed that 51% of the public thought that newspapers should be required by law to join an independent regulator (see the Inforrm post here).
- A 2017 You Gov poll [pdf] showed that 57% of the public favoured tougher press regulation and 59% had no confidence in IPSO (see the Inforrm post here).
The number supporting independent regulation seems to have increased over the years. Encouraged by the YouGov poll I’ve started a Government petition ‘Ensure all the press is regulated by a Press Recognition Panel approved body’. Please consider signing it.