Future of press watchdog financed by late Formula One tycoon thrown into doubt amid bitter funding row
The future of a controversial state-approved Press watchdog has been thrown into doubt amid a bitter funding row, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Impress, backed by money from the late Formula One tycoon Max Mosley, was established after the Leveson Inquiry into Press standards and regulates more than 200 small publications and websites.
But no national newspapers have joined because of objections to any form of state interference.
Now Impress has warned that the entire state-approved Press regulation system faces collapse due to the absence of major titles and because of the 'crippling' fees it has to pay an obscure quango called the Press Recognition Panel (PRP).
The PRP, set up by a Royal Charter to oversee any state-backed Press regulators, charged Impress more than £276,000 last year.
That is equivalent to about a quarter of the annual funding Impress receives indirectly from the estate of Mr Mosley, who made it his personal mission to muzzle the Press.
In a damning submission to the PRP, Impress highlighted how it has repeatedly urged the panel to reduce its fees.
'Despite being aware repeatedly of the crippling effect of its charges upon Impress, the PRP has not minimised its own costs,' it said.
'Independent Press regulation will not survive if two problems are not addressed: the absence of all high-turnover publishers from the regulatory system, and the requirement for the regulator to finance the PRP.'
Granted state recognition in 2016, Impress has faced criticism for accepting millions of pounds from Mr Mosley, whose violent and racist past was exposed by the Mail.
Almost all national and local newspapers, including the MoS, are members of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), which is free of state control.
Meanwhile, the PRP, which reviews Impress every three years, was given £3 million by the Treasury when it was set up in 2014 – but it was then supposed to fend for itself.
However, the MoS has learned that, on top of the fees it charges Impress, it is also still receiving £430,000 of public money each year.
It received its most recent tranche of taxpayers' cash in April – despite accounts showing the quango was sitting on more than £1.5 million in reserves last year.
Impress insisted its warning related to the survival of 'independent Press regulation more broadly' rather than its own organisation.
It said its staff 'have taken steps to ensure the financial viability of the organisation and our ability to deliver on our mission is maintained for the foreseeable future.'
The PRP says under the terms of the Charter it cannot alter the fees.
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