The government is to ban payments to witnesses by newspapers seeking to buy up people involved in prominent cases________the trial of Rosemary West.
In a significant________of legal controls over the press, Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor, will introduce a________bill that will propose making payments to witnesses________and will strictly control the amount of________that can be given to a case________a trial begins.
In a letter to Gerald Kaufman, chairman of the House of Commons media select committee, Lord Irvine said he________with a committee report this year which said that self regulation did not________sufficient control.
________of the letter came two days after Lord Irvine caused a________of media protest when he said the________of privacy controls contained in European legislation would be left to judges________to Parliament.
The Lord Chancellor said introduction of the Human Rights Bill, which________the European Convention on Human Rights legally________in Britain, laid down that everybody was________to privacy and that public figures could go to court to protect themselves and their families.
"Press freedoms will be in safe hands________our British judges,"he said.
Witness payments became an________after West was sentenced to 10 life sentences in 1995. Up to 19 witnesses were________to have received payments for telling their stories to newspapers. Concerns were raised________witnesses might be encouraged to exaggerate their stories in court to________guilty verdicts.