UKIP Leader Attacks British Press Regulation

Threat to "freedom of speech, democracy, the rule of law"

The national leader of UKIP Nigel Farage this week made a passionate defence of a free press when he visited West Sussex as part of his Common Sense tour of Britain.

The three main parties in Westminster—the Conservatives, Lib Dems, and Labour—are set on a course of imposing draconian controls on newspapers through a Royal Charter, claiming that this was the wish of Lord Leveson following his inquiry into press standards.

But Leveson made clear in his report that local and regional newspapers were not guilty of any of the offences and should not be penalised by any subsequent regulation.

However, newspapers such as this one will be bound by the same costly and bureaucratic regulation as national titles and are campaigning vigorously against the imposition of such a colossal burden on free speech.