SOUTH Hams MP Dr Sarah Wollaston has backed Prime Minister David Cameron in urging caution over calls for the statutory regulation of newspapers after the publication of the Leveson report into the culture, practice and ethics of the press.

Lord Justice Leveson has suggested an independent self-regulatory body for the newspaper industry, backed up by legislation as one of the main points in his report.

The report has split the political parties, with Labour and Liberal Democrats calling for the report to be implemented in its entirety while Prime Minister David Cameron says that he has 'serious concerns and misgivings' about any legislation to regulate the press.

However, Dr Wollaston said: 'The British press may have enjoyed the longest pub crawl in history through last chance saloons but they have also protected our freedoms, entertained and informed us.

'I wouldn't want to live in a country where the press are at risk for criticising the powerful.

'The report from the Leveson inquiry runs to nearly 2,000 pages yet its glaring central omission was the role of online journalism.

'If our newspapers are over regulated we will simply drive more people to seek their scandals from the internet with almost no accountability at all. If newspapers become irrelevant who will buy them in any case?

'Leveson's most controversial recommendation is for legislation to recognise or "underpin" a new self-regulatory body.

'The question is whether this represents statutory regulation of the press?

'Once that is written into Law it is all too easy for the lines to be redrawn to regulate what the press can or cannot say or to exclude those whose views are unsympathetic to the Government of the day.

'While Leveson explicitly states that he does not feel this would be the case and also suggests that we could legislate for the independence of the press, it should concern us that once a line has been crossed to 'underpin' the regulator in law, it may result in a press that is directed or restricted.

'In my opinion, it is right that we should be wary.

'Any compulsion to join a regulator would amount to state regulation, threatening free speech and democracy and that would be a high a price to pay.

'The clamour for action has been driven by activities which were already illegal.

'There are those who point to Ireland and say that their regulatory underpinning has not gagged their press, but neither has it provided protection against the innocent victims.

'Only this summer the Duchess of Cambridge suffered a gross intrusion through publication of photos taken with a snooper's long lens published in an Irish paper.

'Cameron is right not to rush to accept Leveson. We need a full debate about the wider implications not a rush to change the law on the say so of a single judge.

'For Labour to accept all the recommendations before even reading the report was in my opinion an extraordinary misjudgement.'

In his report, Lord Justice Leveson praises the role of local newspapers saying: 'In relation to regional and local newspapers, I do not make a specific recommendation but I suggest that the Government should look urgently as what action it might be able take to help safeguard the ongoing viability of this much valued and important part of the British press.

'It is clear to me that local, high-quality and trusted newspapers are good for our communities, our identity and our democracy and play an important social role.

'I should also, perhaps, make it clear that the regulatory model proposed later in this report should not provide an added burden to the regional and local press.'

However, Adrian Jeakings, president of the Newspaper Society and chief executive of media group Archant, has warned that local newspapers will still have to adhere to any new system of press regulation.

Mr Jeakings said: 'The UK's local media had nothing to do with the phone hacking scandal which prompted the Leveson inquiry but we have been all too aware that hundreds of responsible regional and local newspapers would inevitably be caught up in any resulting new system of press regulation.

'We therefore welcome the Leveson Report's praise for the important social and democratic role played by the local press, his acknowledgement that the criticisms of the culture, practices and ethics of the press raised in this inquiry were not directed at local newspapers and his recommendation that the regulatory model he proposes should not provide an added burden to our sector.

'However, local newspapers have always been vehemently opposed to any form of statutory involvement or underpinning in the regulation of the press, including the oversight by Ofcom proposed in the report.

'This would impose an unacceptable regulatory burden on the industry, potentially inhibiting freedom of speech and the freedom to publish.

'Newspapers are ultimately accountable to their readers and must abide by the laws of the land.

'But, as the Prime Minister has acknowledged, a free press cannot be free if it is dependent on and accountable to a regulatory body recognised by the state.'