Since Lord Justice Leveson published his recommendations seven weeks ago, there has been a flurry of activity. Three draft bills have been published – by Labour, the Lib Dem peer Lord Lester, and Hacked Off – all of which aim to put the Report into practice. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport have also produced a piece of draft legislation, that Hacked Off has now published. This Government Bill was intended to demonstrate the ferocious complexity of a bill to enact Leveson. In fact, like the three other draft bills, it does the opposite: it shows that legislation to make a reality of media reform is neither complicated nor particularly prone to the risk of endless amendments. Meanwhile, the Conservative side of the Coalition have been working on the idea of a Royal Charter to give effect to the same reforms. Continue reading