The Bishop of Norwich has today called for an end to the current self-regulation in light of the publication of the Leveson Report. The Rt Revd Graham James, who sits as a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications and is the Church of England's lead spokesman on media and communications policy, today commented on the need for a genuinely independent body which "must have as one of its primary tasks the protection of citizens from unfair and damaging portrayal in the press and give them a proper chance of redress. When members of the general public are unfairly traduced in a major press story, it is not a necessary consequence of press freedom but an abuse of it."

In an article on the Leveson Report to be published in the Church Times next week, Bishop Graham says: "The Leveson Report must surely bring the era of self-regulation to an end. We do need a genuinely independent body able to investigate the practices of the press without the trigger of a complaint bringing it into action. It must be properly resourced by the industry itself but that doesn't mean it needs to build a large bureaucracy."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Culture-Watch • Media • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

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