Leveson report: Newspapers reject press royal charter

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Newspaper industry representatives are to reject cross-party plans for press regulation, and are to publish an alternative royal charter.

The three main political parties agreed to a royal charter last month in response to Lord Justice Leveson's report on press standards and ethics.

They said an independent watchdog would be set up by royal charter with powers to issue fines and demand apologies.

But newspapers argue that they had no say in the final discussions.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22294722

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Yo, dipsydoodle:

There's a copy of the Magna Carta down the street, in the U.S. National Archives. I can take a look at it to see if it says anything about this. Just let me know.

Rubenstein Buys Copy of Magna Carta

Private Equity December 19, 2007, 8:13 am
Rubenstein Buys Copy of Magna Carta
By DEALBOOK

David M. Rubenstein, chief of the private equity firm Carlyle Group, did some serious holiday shopping on Tuesday — but he won’t be taking his purchase, a 710-year-old copy of the Magna Carta, home with him. Though Mr. Rubenstein won the auction for the document with a $19 million bid ($21.3 million with fees and commissions), he told reporters he was just a “temporary custodian” of the historic piece of parchment, which David Redden, Sotheby’s vice chairman, called “the most important document in the world, the birth certificate of freedom.”

Mr. Rubenstein added that he would not need to travel far to see his latest acquisition, because his office is just a few hundreds yards from the National Archives, where it has been on display since 1988.

And it seems Mr. Rubenstsein, a skilled dealmaker, got himself a bargain, given that the Magna Carta copy had been expected to draw bids of $30 million or higher.

The document was owned by the Perot Foundation, created by the Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, since the early 1980s. It had been on exhibit at the auction house for the past 11 days.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I knew you had a copy over there

from something I came across a while ago. http://news.yahoo.com/us-archives-unveils-magna-carta-repairs-183756050.html

Runnymede which is near Windsor, where the first document was signed , has also got the Kennedy Memorial up the top of the hill above the river.