"What would legislation achieve?" asks Leveson, to which rhetorical question he replies, "First, it would enshrine for the first time a legal duty on the government to protect the freedom of the press." Commentators initially thought that this might mean a First Amendment—free speech about public figures "absent of malice" (i.e. absent indifference to truth). Alas, this will never be vouchsafed. "Free speech" in Britain, as the Privy Council once pointed out, comes with contextual baggage: "Free speech does not mean free speech: it means speech hedged in by all the laws against defamation and so forth. It means freedom governed by law . . ."

So round we go in circles, afraid to adopt the American full-blooded commitment to free speech, deluding ourselves that it will somehow be enhanced by a Defamation Bill that abolishes trial by jury, and incapable of making a sensible amendment that would relieve the press of most libel actions and provide victims of inaccuracy with a cheap and speedy remedy. It would not really matter to the freedom of the press if newspapers were bound to publish corrections when they are proved beyond doubt to have falsely stated facts. The best remedy for an abuse of free speech is to have more speech.