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Bill aims to give citizens legal right of reply

A private member's bill published in the UK's House of Commons today proposes legislation to protect 'ordinary' people from harm caused by press mistakes and to force editors to make more corrections more quickly.

Under the proposal, adjudicators would decide the merit of complaints not satisfied by publishers in three days and, failing that, a legally binding verdict would be made by a new Press Standards Board, which would maintain an open database of corrections.

Fifty-six per cent of complaints to the current UK press watchdog the Press Complaints Commission in 2003 were about inaccuracy; with 94 per cent coming from people described as 'ordinary', according to Peter Bradley, the Labour MP for Wrekin who tabled today's private members bill.

"Too often their lives and livelihoods are irreparably damaged by a newspaper's casual inaccuracies and too often their complaint is ignored by the editor... It is my expectation that if this citizen's right existed, the worst offenders in the press would clean their acts up very quickly and we would see higher standards of journalism, less casual inaccuracy, more respect for individuals' reputations and, ultimately fewer complaints.

"No journalist need fear my bill. Only the worst will be inconvenienced by it. Most, I believe, will welcome it because as well as protecting the reputations of others, it will help to restore their own."

Among those welcoming the bill were the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom, the National Union of Journalists and MediaWise, the independent media ethics charity.

The bill stands no chance of being debated in this Parliament, but Mr Bradley is hopeful that it will be in the next one.

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press complaints commission | united kingdom | national union | house of commons | independent media ethics charity | press standards board | peter bradley |

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