Leveson: Leech signs phone hacking victim’s petition.

There will be a debate on Leveson in the House of Commons this afternoon. Here is the text of a press release I put out earlier today in support of the full implementation of Leveson.

John Leech MP

 

 

Lib Dem Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport John Leech MP has today given his full backing to the e-petition implement the Leveson Report in full launched by the victims of phone hacking.

 

The e-petition was launched by inquiry witnesses Gerry McCann and Christopher Jefferies and is run by the campaign group Hacked Off.

 

John Leech MP said,

“The Leveson report should be implemented in full; it is a simple as that for me.

We need a system in place that allows us to look at the parents of Milly Dowler in the eye and say that we have done all we can to stop what happened to them happening to anyone else.

I have signed the petition calling on Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg and Mr Milliband to do just that and I urge anyone who cares about openness and transparency within the media to sign it”

 

He went on to add,

“We need to change the way in which media accountability works, but we should also defend the principle of a challenging, independent and free press as an integral part of democracy.  I believe the Leveson report proposals strikes the right balance.”

 

<ENDS>

 

 

John Leech MP is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport.

The online petition can be found here: http://hackinginquiry.org/petition

The full text of the petition can be found here:

 

“To Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg and Mr Miliband

 

We call on you to work together to:

 

• ·         Implement, as soon as possible, the recommendations of the Leveson Report in full;
• ·         Ignore pressure from media barons and introduce legally-backed regulation, independent of politicians and the press;
• ·         Place tighter limits on how much of our media an individual is allowed to own , and
• ·         Promote investigative journalism through effective public interest defences.”

 

The petition was signed by John Leech MP on 03/12/12