Newspaper and magazine publishers will make a last ditch attempt at the high court on Wednesday to prevent the government's plan for a new press regulation regime getting the royal seal of approval.
Industry bodies representing the publishers have been granted an emergency high court hearing for an injunction at 10.30am, just hours before the government's press regulation royal charter – backed by the three main parties and Hacked Off campaigners – is set to go before the privy council for sealing by the Queen on Wednesday afternoon.
They are seeking to get an injunction to get a "stay" on the privy council sealing the government's royal charter until a decision on their application for a judicial review of the government's rejection of the industry's rival plan for a new press regulator has been taken.
Publishers are also seeking a legal ruling that any decision to seal the cross-party charter can be automatically overturned if their judicial review succeeds.
The case for an injunction, which is being heard by Lord Justice Richards and Justice Sales, could take several hours to be heard.
A decision on whether the judicial review can proceed is likely to take a couple of weeks.
Applications for the injunction and judicial review were filed at the high court in London on Monday.
Earlier this month the culture secretary Maria Miller announced that ministers were not going to consider the industry's royal charter, sticking instead with the charter agreed by the three main political parties and Hacked Off, which campaigns on behalf of victims of press intrusion, in March. This charter is due to be ratified by the privy council on Wednesday.
Miller has offered some concessions aimed at addressing publishers' concerns with the cross-party royal charter, but these have been dismissed as inadequate by the industry, which is also moving ahead with setting up its own new press self-regulator.
The case is being brought by four trade organisations representing newspapers and magazines – the Newspaper Publishers Association, the Newspaper Society, the Scottish Newspaper Society, and the Professional Publishers Association – through the Press Standards Board of Finance (PresBof), the funding body for the existing industry regulator, the PCC. PresBof made the industry's original royal charter application.
Last week, newspaper and magazine publishers presented their final plans for their own regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), which would include a contract binding publishers to the watchdog's decisions. They said the new watchdog would have greater powers of investigation, enforcement and sanction than the discredited Press Complaints Commission, which it will replace.
Those supporting the injunction, judicial review and the creation of Ipso include the publishers of the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Mirror and Rupert Murdoch's News UK, publisher of the Sun and the Times.
Some newspapers have taken a neutral position on the legal challenge. The Guardian is part of the NPA, in common with all other national newspapers, but is neither supporting nor rejecting it.
