With only a few hours to go before the 3 pm deadline Guido is hearing that Lord Lucas is putting down an amendment to exclude small independent bloggers from the regulatory burden of the Royal Charter. The amendment is based on the wording proposed by BigBrotherWatch (see here).

The aim is to insert a new Schedule into the Crime and Courts Bill:

‘Exclusions from definition of “relevant publisher”

“A publisher who does not exceed the definition of a small or medium-sized enterprise as defined in Section 382 and 465 Companies Act 2006.”

This effectively takes out all small independent bloggers and re-calibrates the legislation to only cover what Tom Watson rightly calls “Big Media”. Hopefully this will command cross-party support…

A free and open world increasingly depends on a free and open internet. The internet empowers everyone — anyone can blog, create, learn, and share. It is controlled by no one — no single organisation, individual, or government. It connects the world. Today, more than two billion people are online — about a third of the planet. Hacked Off supporter Max Mosley told parliament he wants the government “to cut off the wires” to websites he thinks should be censored. Millionaire celebrities like Hugh Grant want to regulate free speech on the internet. They want laws to force dissident refusenik bloggers to risk paying exemplary fines if they refuse to submit to the regulator. The Hacked Off-drafted press control Royal Charter aims to regulate any blog that carries news-related material aimed at readers in the United Kingdom. Tell Max Mosley we will not be cut off, tell Hugh Grant we will not be regulated, we will not be fined. Keep the world wide web open and free. 

Click to sign the petition and tell them to Blog Off!

Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4′s The World at One went over the arguments with Guido about press regulation. It ain’t happening…

Before the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee this morning, representatives from Hacked Off  refused to comment on Guido’s exposing of their donors. They got a comprehensive kicking from most of the MPs present though:

The champions of openness that is Hacked Off refuse to name large private donors in non-answers to my questions—
Conor Burns MP (@Conor_BurnsMP) March 19, 2013

The elite club of multi-millionaires with an axe to grind have confirmed however that they are “due to receive soon a grant from the Journalism Foundation of over £20,000″. The Journalism Foundation was former Indy editor-in-chief Simon Kelner’s £600,000 vanity project bankrolled by billionaire Russian oligarchs and Indy owners Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev. The former KGB agent set up the Foundation to promote “free and independent journalism”, pulling the plug on it after less than a year. Seemingly not before they channelled a chunk of the cash to those freedom lovers Hacked Off…

Deputy Editor of the Telegraph, Ben Brogan, though writing in a personal capacity, has said this morning:

“I’ve concluded that we should note the outcome, thank the politicians for their engagement, and quietly but firmly decline to take part. I suspect time will be allowed to let the dust settle, but it is far from certain that this scheme will fly.”

The clearest sign yet that at least one major media organisation is planning on thumbing their nose at the whole thing.

Fourteen Tory rebels said no to exemplary damages in the Commons last night:

• Richard Bacon
• Christopher Chope
• Tracey Crouch
• Philip Davies
• Nick de Bois
• Andrew Percy
• Mark Reckless
• John Redwood
• Andrew Turner
• Martin Vickers
• Charles Walker
• Sarah Wollaston
• Richard Drax
• Jacob Rees Mogg

And here is what has been dreamt up by Hacked Off and politicians in the middle of the night. It’s all very simple and straight forward:

Got that?

Graphic via Mail.

Last but not least of the cabal of millionaires who have donated to Hacked Off is Lord Sainsbury. A life peer with a net worth of £1.3 billion, Sainsbury has been a major financial backer of the Labour Party, forking out many millions to Blair. He acted through his Gatsby Foundation to finance the Media Standards Trust through which his money help set up and support Hacked Off. In passing it should be noted that he was a big backer of the SDP and also has his fingerprints on other politcal organisations such as the Social Market Foundation, Progress, David Miliband’s Movement For Change and the Institute for Government, the last of which Guido thinks is the most serious threat to freedom in Britain since the Communist Party. Through Hacked Off, Sainsbury has surpassed himself…

Here are the other Hacked Off donors Guido has revealed today:

• Hacked Off Donors: #1 Lady Annabel Goldsmith
• Hacked Off Donors #2: Jeremy Clarkson Gave Hacked Off £1,000
• Hacked Off Donors: #3 City Tycoon Shagger Arpad Busson
• Hacked Off Donors: #4 Celebrity Hairdresser John Frieda
• Hacked Off Donors: #5 Millionaire Ex-Journalist Alain de Botton

Next on the list of super rich celebs who have bunged cash to Hacked Off is philosopher of love Alain de Botton. He is another ex-journalist donor, having penned a column for the Sindy in the late nineties. The son of Swiss financier Gilbert de Botton, estimated fortune £234 million, De Botton inherited millions in a trust fund left for him by his father.

A few quid to regulate the press would be a drop in the ocean…

Poor old John Frieda. While Lulu’s ex cuts all those celebrity clients’ hair, just imagine all the moaning and bitching he must have to endure about the tabloids and photographers.

He must be sick of it by now, which would explain why he donated to Hacked Off.

Another millionaire paying for the problem to go away…

A hedge fund plutocrat with a taste for super-model girlfriends? Donate to Hacked Off and stay out of the gossip columns. Well that is what Arpad Busson will be hoping. The financier ex of both Uma Thurman and Elle Macphereson threw money at Hacked Off. It’s an élite club – by Guido’s maths the net worth of just six donors to Hacked Off is over £1 billion. Remember that when they pretend to be on the side of powerless.