J.K. Rowling Speaks Out Against British Government’s Response to the Leveson Report

In a statement issued on the Guardian website, J.K. Rowling has talked of her “anger” and alarm at Prime Minister David Cameron’s response to the results of the Leveson Report.

Rowling, who gave considerable evidence of journalists’ interference into her personal life, says that she feels “duped” by the government after their previous assurances that the report would result in active change. In the article, Rowling discusses her “dismay” as to why the government would launch such an investigation, using huge amounts of public money, if they had no intensions of changing the law in the first place. The author believes that the suggestions put forward by Leveson would “give everybody, whatever their degree of celebrity or their bank balance, a quick, cheap and effective way of holding the press to account.” She also urges those with similar concerns to sign the Hacked Off petition.

The proposals come at the end of a lengthy investigation by the Lord Justice Leveson into the culture and ethics of the British media, which ran alongside another investigation into the phone hacking activities of News International. Despite previously stating “as long as it’s not bonkers, we’ll implement it”, David Cameron is now strongly against statutory regulation.

We will keep you posted on any further developments in this petition.