What happened to the Dowlers, to the McCanns, to Christopher Jefferies and to other innocent people who have never sought the limelight was despicable. Such cases mean there is a justification for new rules to try to prevent such abuses from happening again.
Rather than adopt statutory regulation, the Prime Minister proposed that the new system be based on a Royal Charter, which would underpin arrangements which the press themselves will establish and run.
After difficult cross-party discussions, this has now been agreed as the way forward for delivering independent regulation aimed at preventing people from becoming the victims of the kind of unjustified and abusive intrusion we have seen in recent years, while at the same time properly safeguarding press freedom.
This system will ensure up-front apologies, million-pound fines, and a self-regulatory body with independence of appointments and funding. It will also introduce a robust standards code, an arbitration service free for victims and a speedy complaint-handling mechanism.
The Government will do all of this without the need for statutory regulation. Indeed, the No Change clause specifically ensures that Ministers cannot interfere with this new system without explicit and extensive support from both Houses of Parliament.