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).