A sad day for British democracy

March 18 was an important day in British history, as for the first time in three hundred years, politicians decided to reintroduce legislative controls over the British press.

Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron, announced that talks among the three big political parties had broken down, over proposals to back a new press regulating system.

Both Liberal Democrats and Labour wanted a watchdog set up by royal charter. Mr Cameron, however, was determined to avoid it, and said that statutory backing with legislation would threaten press freedom and may lead to politicians meddling with the media.

Labour party leader Ed Miliband said: “ It will be a regulator, a system of complaints where the regulator has teeth so they can direct apologies if wrong is done and it is independent of the press, which is so important because for too long we have had a system where the press have been making their own homework,”.

“This is a sad day for British democracy,” Mr Cameron declared.

Newspapers could face £1million fines for breaches of the new regulations, with considerable damages for those who refuse to sign up to the new code.

Even bloggers could face fines for libel under the new deal, while scientific journals, student publications and not for profit community newspapers do not have to sign up.

The proposal was made by Lord Justice Leveson and the deal follows his Inquiry, which was set up after thousands of people had their phones hacked by tabloid journalists and investigators.

There are concerns that local newspapers could fall into financial difficulties because of the tougher regulations.