In this respect, it is argued that questions of regulatory accountability and liability cannot be separated from broader questions about the purposes of regulation (why we regulate); the external and internal organization of regulatory agencies (how we regulate); and regulatory oversight and supervision arrangements (who regulates the regulators).

In this policy brief, published in conjunction with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Lara Fielden examines the three key qualities Lord Justice Leveson recommended for future press regulation – that it is ‘voluntary’, ‘independent’, and ‘self-regulatory’. These characteristics, which form the basis of the government’s draft Royal Charter, are explored within the instructive context of differing approaches to press regulation in a range of democracies overseas.