Please write to your MP now - it only takes seconds

By Evan Harris, Associate DirectorAs you know, we have made historic progress towards effective, independent press self-regulation that protects ordinary people while safeguarding free speech. The draft Royal Charter approved by all parties in Parliament on 18 March will deliver what Leveson proposed, albeit after some compromises with press demands.Predictably, the Murdoch press, the Mail and the Telegraph are trying to wreck this.A few weeks ago we asked you to write to the Culture Secretary opposing the disgraceful rival charter put forward by these papers – and you did so in huge numbers. Now we need you to act again.Please write urgently to your MP to challenge the latest piece of press trickery. You can do this with just a few clicks, here.We need this because the Leveson Charter has still not reached its final stage of approval – ‘sealing’ at a meeting of the Privy Council. And because the big newspaper groups threaten legal action, the government is slowing down progress towards sealing.Believe it or not, the barrier seems to be the meeting schedule of the Privy Council, which rubber-stamps government decisions. It doesn’t usually meet between July and October, meaning that the next chance for ‘sealing’ could be months away.That can’t be right. The public, the victims of press abuses and the democratic will of Parliament deserve better than this. We want your MP to take swift action to ensure the delay is kept to a minimum.On 9 September Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and others go on trial on charges relating to the kinds of activities that made the Leveson Inquiry necessary. We want to send a message to our politicians that it is unacceptable that this trial might take place before even the first step has been taken on the path to carrying out Leveson’s recommendations.You have supported us before. Please do so again, now, by writing to your MP here. This is urgent.Success for our campaign is in reach, but our adversaries are desperate and must keep up the pressure to the end. In the meantime I know you will continue to take with a pinch of salt what you read about these matters in the press.

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