[00:03.09]2001

[00:06.36]The government is to ban payments to witnesses

[00:08.89]by newspapers seeking to buy up people involved in

[00:12.62]prominent cases (1)such as the trial of Rosemary West.

[00:16.86]In a significant (2)tightening of legal controls over the press,

[00:20.68]Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor,

[00:22.80]will introduce a (3)draft bill

[00:24.71]that will propose making payments

[00:26.53]to witnesses (4)illegal and will strictly

[00:28.85]control the amount of (5)publicity

[00:30.91]that can be given to a case (6)before a trial begins.

[00:34.33]In a letter to Gerald Kaufman,

[00:36.65]chairman of the House of Commons Media Select Committee，

[00:40.09]Lord Irvine said he (7)agreed with a committee report this year

[00:43.92]which said that self regulation

[00:45.53]did not (8)offer sufficient control.

[00:48.36](9)Publication of the letter came two days

[00:50.57]after Lord Irvine caused a (10)flash of media protest

[00:54.30]when he said the (11)interpretation of privacy controls

[00:57.83]contained in European legislation would be left to judges

[01:01.35](12)rather than to Parliament.

[01:03.57]The Lord Chancellor said introduction

[01:05.39]of the Human Rights Bill,

[01:06.91]which (13)makes the European Convention

[01:08.72]on Human Rights legally (14)binding in Britain,

[01:11.26]laid down that everybody was (15)entitled to privacy

[01:14.28]and that public figures could go to court to

[01:16.10]protect themselves and their families.

[01:18.61]"Press freedoms will be in safe hands

[01:21.10](16)with our British judges," he said.

[01:23.83]Witness payments became an (17)issue

[01:25.49]after West was sentenced to 10 life sentences in 1995.

[01:30.22]Up to 19 witnesses were (18)said to have received payments

[01:33.56]for telling their stories to newspapers.

[01:36.30]Concerns were raised (19)that witnesses

[01:38.01]might be encouraged to exaggerate their stories

[01:40.21]in court to (20)ensure guilty verdicts.