Judge: British media wreaked havoc with lives of innocents

NEW: Leveson: The press has at times wreaked "havoc with the lives of innocent people" Lord Justice Leveson calls for an independent regulator, backed by law His inquiry has heard from politicians, police, the media and victims of press abuses The Leveson Inquiry was called by Cameron in response to public anger about hacking

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London (CNN) -- The British press should have an independent regulator, underpinned by law, and with the power to fine, Judge Brian Leveson recommended Thursday in a long-awaited report sparked by a phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid.

Leveson said he was not recommending that Parliament set up a press regulator, but rather that the industry set up its own regulator, backed by a law.

"The legislation would not establish a body to regulate the press; it would be up to the press to come forward with their own body," he told reporters in London.

Read the report summary (PDF)

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Leveson said that he had no desire to limit the freedom of the press, which he acknowledged plays a "vital" role in safeguarding the public interest, but that changes were needed to tackle abuses.

The British press has ignored its own code of conduct on "far too many occasions over the last decade," causing "real hardship" and sometimes wreaking "havoc with the lives of innocent people," Leveson said.

He said the relationship between the press and politicians is mostly "robust," but sometimes the links can be "too close."

He highlighted as a concern "relationships between policy makers and those in the media who stand to gain or lose from the policy being considered."

This risks undermining public confidence in the press and politicians, he said.

Prime Minister David Cameron will make a statement to lawmakers later Thursday, in which he is expected to spell out what action the government plans to take.

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Leveson described his inquiry as "the most concentrated look at the press this country has ever seen."

It heard from hundreds of witnesses during eight months of hearings.

Those testifying included politicians -- Cameron and former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown among them; police and media players such as News Corp.'s Murdoch; and victims of press abuses.

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The inquiry was first announced by Cameron in July 2011 in response to public outrage over a newspaper phone-hacking scandal.

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The trigger was the allegation that in 2002, the voice mail of a missing 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler, had been hacked by an investigator working for the News of the World newspaper before she was found murdered. Compounding the anger was the claim (later dismissed by police) that messages were deleted by him from the schoolgirl's full voice mail box, giving her parents false hope that she was alive.

The furor forced the closure of the 168-year-old News of the World, owned by News International, a branch of Murdoch's News Corp. media empire.

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It also prompted a new appetite among Britain's public and political establishments to see the sleazy underbelly of (often tabloid) reporting exposed and steps taken to clean up the media's act.

Leveson's long-awaited report was the subject of much speculation before its release. Freedom of expression groups warned of a potential impact on freedom of speech, while campaigners for greater controls said regulation was essential.

Timeline of the UK phone hacking scandal