by Brian CathcartMore than one hundred prominent people from the worlds of literature and drama, science and academia, human rights and the law have put their names to a declaration supporting the Royal Charter on self-regulation. It should not take courage – all they are doing is expressing an opinion, after all – but it does.These people could have played safe and said nothing. They know the vengefulness and nastiness of some of the newspapers that are desperately opposing the charter. They know that this list will be very closely scrutinised in some newsrooms, and that any personal grounds to attack the signatories will probably be snatched up and exploited.After all, these papers and their editors and proprietors are not interested in arguments or facts. They fight with poison and vilification. They seek to silence their critics by personal abuse.Those who have signed so far are showing that they have had enough of that. They also show that there is strength in numbers. There are well over one hundred of them and more will sign, because they agree and because they too have had enough of bullying.The big newspaper groups – led by the Murdoch papers, the Mail papers and the Telegraph – hate the Charter system because it will make them accountable. Remember the Express editor who was asked by MPs whether anyone on his staff had been disciplined after his paper admitted a mountain of libels against the McCanns? He replied: ‘I reprimanded myself.’ In other words nothing was done. That is the only kind of accountability they understand.They also believe that self-regulation, instead of upholding standards and protecting the public, is meant to uphold their profits and protect them from criticism.In recent years they have provoked national outrage over the industrial-scale theft of personal data, over the McCann and the Christopher Jefferies cases, and over phone hacking. They have been criticised by a senior judge after a painstaking, year-long public inquiry. All the main party leaders, every party in the Commons and an overwhelming majority in the Lords have backed the judge’s recommendations to deal with the problems they have. The victims of their past abuses have combined to support the charter. And the opinion polls show that the great majority of the public – their own readers – wants the same.Yet the big newspaper groups have no shame and no regrets. They hope simply to ignore the audit system created by the Charter and press ahead with a ‘self-regulator’ that is scandalously similar to the totally discredited Press Complaints Commission.Who can stop them? They think no one can. But the real answer is, you can and we can.Please add your name to the declaration now and send the message that you want change. Show them you want independent, effective press self-regulation on the lines Lord Justice Leveson recommended.If we don’t have these reforms, this much is certain: we will have more injustice. To borrow the judge's phrase, newspapers will remain free to wreak havoc in the lives of innocent people. Indeed injustices are going on now, every day and every week, as vulnerable members of the public are bullied and abused by newspapers without any justification – and no one is held accountable. That must stop.So please add your name to the declaration here, and please send the message that you, too, have had enough. They can promote their self-interested opinions every day through their own newspapers and they refuse to publish the real views of ordinary people. This declaration gives us all the chance to answer them. Please sign.Brian Cathcart is Executive Director, Hacked Off.