LONDON — Hugh Grant said intrusion victims felt “betrayal” when they heard British prime minister David Cameron‘s response to Lord Justice Leveson‘s report into media ethics.
Grant, a director of the Hacked Off campaign, a not-for-profit company that campaigns for press reform in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, tweeted his response.
“With a group of (non celeb) victims including Hillsborough families listening to PM. Buzzword is betrayal,” Grant’s tweet read.
The actor was referencing some of the victims of the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed The News of the World and The Sun, the tabloids owned and published by News International, Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. division.
Cameron’s reaction to the report of having “serious misgivings and concerns” about state regulation of the press appears to be backed up by fellow Conservative party member, U.K. culture secretary Maria Miller.
Miller insisted the “principles” of Lord Justice Leveson’s press regulation blueprint can be met without giving it statutory backing.
She dismissed the question of legislation – which has put Cameron on a collision course with his Coalition partners, Labor and the victims of press intrusion – as “a matter of detail.”
The legislators have given themselves two weeks to draw up statutory regulation proposals in line with Leveson’s recommendations with many commentators suggesting it will simply be an exercise in demonstrating how difficult such law-making will prove to be.
The father of missing schoolgirl Madeleine McCann, Gerry McCann, described the need for legal backing for any new system of press control as the “minimum acceptable compromise for me and for many other victims” to the BBC and urged the prime minister to “do the right thing.”
Leveson Thursday condemned the “culture of reckless and outrageous journalism” that dominated sections of the press for decades, as he unveiled the findings of his 16-month inquiry.
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said he believed the Leveson model could be “proportionate and workable” and Labor leader Ed Miliband urged MPs to “have faith” in the proposals.
