Ministers shrink from press curbs

Privacy debate: Restive House of Commons jeers Bottomley's rejection of proposed legal bans on bugging and long lenses

PATRICIA WYNN DAVIES

Political Correspondent

The Government yesterday stepped back from imposing statutory curbs on press abuses of privacy in favour of calls for the industry to set up its own compensation scheme and toughen its code of practice.

Virginia Bottomley, appearing in the Commons for the first time as Secretary of State for National Heritage, ruled out both criminal and civil remedies for privacy intrusions along with the statutory Press Complaints Tribunal recommended by Sir David Calcutt in his first review of press self-regulation in 1990.

The result is a further lease of life for the non-statutory Press Complaints Commission, coupled with a reissued warning - six years after the original and to jeers from Tory backbenchers - that "self-regulation still has a case to prove ... legislative measures should not be ruled out".

Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, had opposed new criminal offences, arguing against bringing the police into conflict with the media. In the Lords, Labour's Lord Donoughue, a former assistant editor of the Times, accused him of vetoing the measures "because he was afraid of offending the press ahead of a general election".

Restive MPs on both sides of the House were particularly disappointed by Mrs Bottomley's rejection of proposals for criminal offences to outlaw bugging, long-lens cameras and intrusion into private property put forward by Sir David in a second review in 1993 and endorsed by ministers and the Heritage Select Committee.

That drew the condemnation of Chris Smith, Labour's heritage spokesman, who called the proposals a "limited and justified measure to protect ordinary citizens". But Mrs Bottomley said: "We have been forced to conclude that the difficulties of scope and definition of the proposed offences are formidable." With even less enthusiasm for a civil law remedy, she said that consultation had not generated "the clear support which the Government looks for when considering major measures of law reform".

Mrs Bottomley supported the committee's recommendation for a "direct and rapid" line of communication between the PCC chairman and editors to warn them that the code might be about to be breached.

Inside Parliament, page 6

Leading article, page 14