Alex Salmond's press law - Telegraph Can anyone in the land match Alex Salmond for chutzpah? The First Minister of Scotland was singled out by the Leveson Report for stronger criticism than almost any other politician, due to his inappropriate closeness to Rupert Murdoch and his empire. Indeed, the only thing that saved Mr Salmond from formal censure was the fact that Mr Murdoch's bid for full control of BSkyB collapsed before the SNP leader was able to fulfil his promise to do everything in his power to ensure its success - including urging ministers in London to breach their legal responsibilities. Undaunted and unabashed, Mr Salmond has now put himself at the head of the process of coming up with a new system of press regulation north of the border, in accordance not just with the devolutionary settlement but with the distinctive attributes of Scotland's legal system. His initial hope was to establish a separate Scottish regulator, backed by law. This would have imposed significant costs on newspapers (especially those publishing across jurisdictions) and snipped away further at the ties binding the Union together. That prospect is now receding, after the other parties at Holyrood combined at a meeting yesterday to block it. But supporters of press freedom should not celebrate just yet. Mr Salmond is still committed - as are his Labour and Liberal Democrat counterparts - to a form of "legal underpinning" for whatever system emerges. As we have argued previously, it is hard to see how this would differ from statutory regulation, given that the state would still monitor and invigilate the new regulator. It would be a strange and tragic situation for England to retain a free press and Scotland to lose it - but one that would doubtless suit Mr Salmond's purposes down to the ground.