简体中文
Britain's three major political parties reached a deal on a new system of press regulation on Monday.
Under the new system, an independent regulator will be set up by royal charter, although opinions vary over whether it creates a new law. Other details are expected to be revealed in the House of Commons later.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who will apply for an emergency debate in the House of Commons on the reforms, has made it clear that he was very uncomfortable with the idea of setting anything down in law because it could be seen as politicians meddling with the press.
However, it is understood a compromise has been reached to include three lines of statute - a clause in the legislation to ensure that any Royal Charter cannot be amended in the future without two-thirds majorities in both Houses of Parliament.
Labor and the Lib Dems want statutory regulation as recommended by the Leveson inquiry, which Cameron commissioned in 2011 to look into press ethics following the voicemail hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's now closed News of the World tabloid.
The press reform is proposed in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.
Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party, his Liberal Democrat coalition partners and Labor party have been locked in talks for months on a new system of self-regulation for the press.
But Cameron called a halt to the talks last week, saying the differences between his Tories on the one side and the Lib Dems and Labor on the other were irreconcilable.
Culture Secretary Maria Miller, a member of Cameron's Conservative party, said she believed a deal would now go ahead but said the details still needed to be ironed out.
She insisted there was "no statutory underpinning" for the system, claiming victory for the prime minister's position.
"What's really important is the royal charter now has overwhelming support from all the three main parties and we have stopped this extreme form of press law" proposed by Labor, she told BBC radio.
