There’ll be time enough later this week to weigh the impact of section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act going live if Impress, the would-be press regulator, is deemed fit for Royal Charter purpose. But it’s difficult even now, as Sir Philip Green becomes plain Phil – at least at the hands of MPs shouting “billionaire spiv” – not to ponder what section 40 might mean in any notional case brought by Green against a non-Impress paper (from the Guardian and FT to the Mail). Plain Phil could lose big – but he’d still win the costs on both sides. A newspaper would lose hundreds of thousands of pounds in victory.
No, the BBC and ITN aren’t affected here. Nor is BuzzFeed, the HuffPost or Vice. This is one post-Leveson legacy reserved for newspapering alone. And looking increasingly idiotic.
