IPSO appoints politician as Chairman: Defend British journalists from politician-led regulation

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On August 1st 2019, the newspaper complaints-handler “IPSO” appointed a politician as its Chair.

Press freedom advocates around the world recognise that politicians shouldn’t be ANYWHERE NEAR a press regulator or complaints-handler.

Yet under IPSO, the work of many British journalists will soon be made ultimately accountable to a politician.

Join the fight to protect press freedom and sign the below:

We the undersigned believe that the freedom of the press is fundamental to a free society, and that any newspaper regulatory or complaints-handling body should be wholly free from partisan political influence or the appearance of such influence.

We therefore regret the appointment of a Parliamentarian who was, until recently, a party-political politician and a Government minister, to the Chair of IPSO. We believe that this is incompatible with any claims to independence, and therefore that IPSO is unfit to be a complaints-handler.

Signed,

Hacked Off | Media Reform Coalition | Professor Natalie Fenton, Goldsmiths University
Jonathan Coad, Media Lawyer | Professor Brian Cathcart, Kingston University
John Hendy QC | Professor Chris Frost, Chair of NUJ Ethics Council
Jane Winter, Leveson Witness |   Christopher Jefferies, Victim of Press Abuse
Sir Harry Evans | Hugh Grant
Stefan Bednarczyk, Actor | Graham Johnson, Journalist
Peter Kosminsky, Director |  Dan Evans, Journalist | Peter Tatchell | Peter Jukes, Journalist
Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve | Professor Julian Petley, Brunel University
Professor Angela Phillips, Goldsmiths University | Paul Farrelly MP
Tamsin Allen, Media Lawyer |  John Tulloch, Victim of Press Abuse |   Paul Dadge, Victim of Press Abuse | Terry Christian, Journalist and Broadcaster
Andy Miller, Victim of Press Abuse | Michael Frayn, Playwright and Novelist
David Lammy MP | Andy Slaughter MP | Professor Mark Hobart, SOAS
Professor David Buckingham, Loughborough University
Professor Martin Kemp, University of Oxford | Ronnie Campbell MP
Mary Ellen-Field, Victim of Press Abuse |  Dr Martin Moore, King's College London
Shoaib M Khan, Human Rights Lawyer | Tom Brake MP | The Rt Hon. the Lord Dholakia OBE DL
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock | Lord Beecham | Baroness Harris of Richmond
The Rt Hon. Lord Tyler CBE PC DL | Lord Filkin | Lord Judd | Lord Soley | Lord Swinfen | MEND
John Cleese | Article 19

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