As a result, most Western countries have voluntary or statutory regulation intended to address such anxieties.
After the report was published, the Independent praised Lord Justice Leveson for "rejecting statutory regulation as such".
For all Mr Cameron's protestations, the distinction between his proposed regime and statutory regulation is a semantic one.
Lord Justice Leveson insists that "this is not, and cannot be characterised, as statutory regulation of the press".
Soldiers call it mission creep, and statutory regulation would not just provide a tool for misguided politicians at home.
The paper said Mr Cameron's resistance to statutory regulation "showed courage and principle".
Mr Cameron said this was the "key argument" to be had about the report, and reiterated his concerns about statutory regulation.
The NLRA was an attempt to create fairer labor markets by shifting bargaining power from the employers to the employees through statutory regulation.
She stressed her party was not prepared to see "statutory regulation of the press" because of the "chilling effect" it would have on journalism.
But agreement seems to be elusive and without it there's a chance Labour and the Lib Dems might be able to push Leveson-style statutory regulation through.
"This is not, and cannot reasonably or fairly be characterized as, statutory regulation of the press, " Mr. Leveson said in a speech after the report's release.
First, we propose that the House of Commons - and then subsequently the House of Lords - move from the old system of self-regulation to independent, statutory regulation.
Mr Dorrell told the inquiry the government at the time preferred to avoid statutory regulation of the press and said he was "personally hostile for any proposal for official regulation of freedom of expression".
He said he did not want newspapers to face statutory regulation, as broadcasters do, but they must have a robust system with credible sanctions - free from interference by politicians and by media owners.
Self-regulation or statutory regulation may well be necessary.
As well as Conservatives who want Leveson, there are Liberal Democrat and Labour MPs who oppose statutory regulation in principle - Labour's Sir Gerald Kaufman, for example is an ex-Mirror journalist and is vehemently against any scintilla of statutory regulation.
Our political editor says that with the Liberal Democrats less likely to be hostile to the possibility of statutory regulation, Mr Clegg could "take the extraordinary step of speaking in the Commons after the prime minister and in opposition to him".
BBC: Leveson Inquiry: Cameron and Clegg meet to agree response
It may be humanely directed, but the ultimate price of a statutory backstop to regulation of the newspaper industry is a docile press.
In a separate statement to MPs, the Liberal Democrat leader and deputy PM, Nick Clegg, said he believed statutory self-regulation could be done in a "workable and proportionate way".
They said they were "alarmed and distressed" by reports in the press and comments by senior MPs, that "you have already made up your mind and that you were 'preparing to reject statutory intervention in the regulation of the press even if it is strongly recommended by Lord Justice Leveson".
Given that those who favour the "full Leveson" option of statutory underpinning for press regulation had very little time to react to the Conservative proposals before the deadline for amendments expired, most MPs expect him to use his discretion to allow late amendments - "manuscript amendments" in Commons jargon - to be discussed.
National newspaper editors have "unanimously agreed" to put in place Lord Justice Leveson's "broad proposals" for self-regulation - "save the statutory underpinning".
The FSA was given statutory powers to intervene in the panel's regulation of takeovers.
Lord Leveson wanted "statutory underpinning" for any new system of press regulation which arose from the ashes of the phone-hacking scandal.
Lord Justice Leveson not only recommends statutory 'underpinning' for a new independent system of press regulation - rejecting the industry's own proposal for a new body as "not going nearly far enough" to demonstrate independence from publishers.
Legislation will be introduced to improve the regulation of financial services and markets, with a new statutory regulator, the Financial Services Authority.
But there was immediate division about the extent to which the new regulator had the "statutory underpinning" demanded by the Hacked Off group campaigning for tighter regulation of the press.
What is proposed here is independent regulation of the press organised by the press, with a statutory verification process to ensure that the required levels of independence and effectiveness are met by the system.
FORBES: The British Press Already Has a Regulator: The British Press
Business minister Viscount Younger of Leckie insisted Culture Secretary Maria Miller would "not shy away" from a press law as a last resort if a new system of self-regulation could not be made to work, but was "committed to a non-statutory route".
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