Harry Potter author ‘dismayed’ by Cameron on press

UK: Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling accused British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday of betraying victims of press intrusion after he opposed calls by a major inquiry for laws to regulate newspapers.

Rowling, who told the Leveson Inquiry last year that journalists had repeatedly invaded her children's privacy, said Cameron had let down people like her who had decided to testify about press misconduct. “I am alarmed and dismayed that the prime minister appears to be backing away from assurances he made at the outset of the Leveson inquiry,” the author said in a statement on the website of Hacked Off, a group for victims of press intrusion.

“Having taken David Cameron's assurances in good faith at the outset of the inquiry he set up, I am merely one among many who feel duped and angry in its wake,” the multimillionaire writer added. Senior judge Brian Leveson said in his long-awaited 2,000-page report released on Thursday that there should be a new independent self-regulatory body for the British press that is underpinned by new legislation.

AFP