A threat to freedom - Telegraph A free press is one that is free from government or political interference. Our politicians maintain that they are defenders of a free press in this country and yet they persist in wanting to impose legal constraints upon it. Ever since the Leveson report was published last November, the newspaper industry has endeavoured to draw up a new regulatory structure that would be both robust and independent. Overseen by a Royal Charter, it would be the toughest form of self-regulation in the democratic world - and be paid for by the industry. It would provide the same safeguards and opportunities for redress that MPs want to see, with the added virtue of being completely free of political control. But this is not good enough for our politicians, who appear to take their lead from the pressure group Hacked Off. Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, told the Commons yesterday that a committee of the Privy Council had rejected the newspaper industry's petition for the granting of a Royal Charter "because it falls short of government policy on the self-regulation of the press, based on the Leveson report." The politicians have devised their own structures, also to be enshrined in Royal Charter, but one that they seek to impose upon the press. This is the first time it has been proposed that an industry should be forced to sign up to a Royal Charter rather than voluntarily accede to one. Moreover, the cross-party charter - cobbled together without any discussion with the industry - would be underpinned by legislation, thereby giving it the very statutory basis that David Cameron rightly said would be "crossing the Rubicon." For all their protestations to the contrary, our politicians are proposing to bring back statutory press control for the first time in more than 300 years. This is unacceptable.