In a piece for his local paper, the Stoke Sentinel, the Labour MP and a member of the Commons Culture Committee, Paul Farrelly has set out why he believes the Privy Council signing the Royal Charter next week will mean the creation of an accountable watchdog for the newspaper industry.

The MP addresses directly the worries expressed by the local press about the costs of the new system, explaining, "it’s far better for papers to be onside, because signing up gives protection against the huge bills of libel and privacy lawsuits… And it's that 'chilling effect', the threat of costly court action, which is the real enemy of good, investigative, public interest journalism, not this Charter, or the 'Recognition Panel’."

Read the full article here.