The man wrongfully accused of murdering Joanna Yeates in December 2010 on Sunday urged lawmakers to implement all the findings of the Leveson report into media standards in a letter to parliament.
Christopher Jefferies told MPs that failure to follow Leveson’s advice would leave journalism open to abuse.
Judge Leveson on Thursday unveiled his key report, conducted in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, and recommended a tough new independent regulator backed by the state.
But lawmakers are deadlocked about whether to implement the findings over concerns it could infringe free speech.
“I believe it must be implemented in full if we are ever to have a press that works in the public interest, and make sure the abuses we have seen never happen again,” wrote Jefferies.
“Over the months that Leveson has been sitting it has become clear that the vast majority of the public do not want the present self-regulation of the press, by the press, to continue.
“The way I was treated by the newspapers in that period was without doubt the worst time of my life,” he said in the letter, which was written on behalf of campaign group Hacked Off.
Jefferies calls on MPs to honour Leveson findings
