The Leveson report: MPs cross the Rubicon on press regulation We need to go back a long way - to 1695, and the abolition of the newspaper licensing laws - to find a time when the press has been subject to statutory regulation. Last night, Parliament decided that 318 years was long enough to let newspapers and magazines remain beyond its influence, and agreed a set of measures that will involve the state, albeit tangentially, in their governance. This will be done by means of a Royal Charter that will establish a "recognition body," in order to ensure that the new press regulator complies with the requirement set out in Lord Justice Leveson's report last November to be "robust and independent." Newspapers that decline to join the new system will risk punitive fines. When the Leveson report was published, David Cameron bravely set his face against statutory regulation, which he said would "cross the Rubicon" and be inimical to a free press. He maintained in the House of Commons yesterday that the procedure agreed with Labour and Liberal Democrats in the small hours of Monday morning did not amount to statutory regulation. Yet in order to bring this new regime into being, there is to be "minimal legislation," intended to make it hard to amend the Royal Charter and to give courts the power to impose exemplary damages on those publications that stay outside the proposed framework. It will not be possible for politicians to interfere with the Charter without the support of two thirds of MPs and peers. In other words, it can be changed, albeit with some difficulty. So for all Mr Cameron's protestations, the distinction between his proposed regime and statutory regulation is a semantic one. As Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, observed, the solution involves a mixture of Royal Charter and statute. This newspaper has been clear that the abuses committed by some publications were reprehensible; many, indeed, were against the law, which is now taking its course. We have also acknowledged that the existing Press Complaints Commission no longer commands public support and needs to be reinforced to take account of Lord Justice Leveson's recommendations. The industry has been working for the past few months to create just such a body. The near unanimity in Parliament yesterday in support of the new approach was a powerful indication of how far the press needs to move in order to restore faith in its regulatory structure. The three party leaders urged the newspaper industry to endorse the new dispensation as quickly as possible. However, after 318 years of a free press, its detail deserves careful consideration.