Newspapers 'protected from punitive damages' under new rules

Newspapers that sign up to the official press regulator will be protected from punitive damages under new rules coming into force.

The Leveson Inquiry into press standards recommended papers be regulated under a Royal Charter, which has yet to be set up.

But many newspapers formed their own regulatory body instead.

Now charter membership will offer immunity from exemplary or punitive damages in libel and privacy cases.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale detailed the new rules last month., external

Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry took place in 2012 and was a public, judge-led inquiry set up by Prime Minister David Cameron to examine the culture, practice and ethics of the press.

It was established in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

Sir Brian Leveson's recommendations were supposed to provide "carrot and stick" incentives to the press to sign up to independent regulation under the Royal Charter.

But according to the BBC's legal correspondent, Clive Coleman, no one has yet applied to be the official regulator.

The press has formed its own - the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).

It has stronger regulation than its predecessor the Press Complaints Commission and the threat of £1m fines, but has its own rules and has not applied to be a regulator under the official charter system.

The new legislation means there is now a fresh incentive for publishers, under the exemplary damages provisions in the Crime and Courts Act 2013, to come within the charter system.

When he announced the new rules in a speech to the Society of Editors, Mr Whittingdale said it meant "that in media-related civil litigation claims, damages that go beyond ordinary compensatory damages - known as exemplary damages - cannot be awarded against publishers that have signed up to an approved self-regulator".

IPSO would not comment on the new rules, but the Society of Editors said it knows of no one who wants to join the Royal Charter system.

Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors said: "This means that so far the recognition panel will have no organisation to oversee and certainly no organisation that includes any of the newspapers that were examined by the Leveson Inquiry.

"That must render the new law regarding exemplary damages somewhat pointless as either a stick or a carrot, which was its apparent purpose."

Mr Satchwell also said the new law should be repealed as it would cause organisations to be "treated differently" which would be a "gross interference with the centuries-old principle of English law that everyone is equal under the law".