A Kent MP has joined critics who fear government proposals to force newspapers to pay the costs of people who sue them could weaken the media’s ability to hold those in power to account.
Damian Collins, Folkestone and Hythe MP and the chairman of the commons culture, media and sports committee, said the plan could create a “new industry of ambulance-chasing lawyers.”
The KM Group is among national and regional media companies campaigning against Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013, under which publishers who do not sign up to a state-backed regulator will have to pay the legal costs of both sides in a libel case, even if they win.