Gove warns of Press inquiry threat to freedom of speech

Mr Gove cautioned against allowing “judges, celebrities and the establishment” to become the arbiters of where the limits of free speech should be set.

Questioning the need for additional regulation of the Press, he said existing laws were already in place to deal with wrongdoing by “rogue” reporters.

And he praised News Corporation chief executive Rupert Murdoch for his decision to open a Sun on Sunday this week to take the place of the defunct News of the World.

Speaking to a Westminster lunch, the Education Secretary – who worked for Mr Murdoch on the Times – said he saw “dangers” in the inquiry into the Press chaired by appeal court judge Lord Justice Leveson, which was commissioned by David Cameron last year in the wake of claims of phone-hacking at the News of the World.

Mr Gove said: “It is undoubtedly the case that there were serious crimes which were committed, but we know that these crimes were serious because they broke – if the allegations are proved – the already existing criminal law.”

He went on: “However, there is a danger at the moment that what we may see are judges, celebrities and the establishment – all of whom have an interest in taking over from the Press as arbiters of what the free press should be – imposing either soft or hard regulation on what should be the maximum of freedom of expression and the maximum of freedom of speech.”

Mr Gove said that the Leveson Inquiry came at a particularly difficult time for the UK’s newspapers.

“That is why whenever anyone sets up a new newspaper – as Rupert Murdoch has with the Sun on Sunday – they should be applauded and not criticised, and why journalists should be more assertive in making the case for Press freedom,” he said.