Tulisa Launches Fix the Press Campaign, Paramount+ Doc
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- Tulisa Contostavlos has launched "Fix the Press," a petition calling for an independent press regulator "one the press does not control, fund, or appoint" with powers to investigate and fine newspapers; the petition had nearly 25,000 signatures at time of writing
- Paramount+ is producing a three-part documentary following Contostavlos's life and her press reform campaign
- In 2013, Mazher Mahmood — the "Fake Sheikh" — posed as a film producer dangling a £3.5m movie role; the Sun on Sunday front page alleged Contostavlos had arranged to sell him cocaine, but the trial collapsed after Mahmood was found to have lied in pre-trial evidence and he was later sentenced to 15 months for conspiring to pervert the course of justice
- Contostavlos lost her house and her X Factor judging job in the sting's aftermath; she argues Ipso — the regulator set up after the Leveson inquiry — is "marking its own homework" because it is funded by member publications and staffed by former journalists and editors
- Hacked Off is calling for the second part of the Leveson inquiry — cancelled in 2018 by then-culture secretary Matt Hancock — to be reinstated; Andy Burnham, who previously called it "non-negotiable" as a shadow minister, has not yet met Contostavlos
- Beyond press reform, Contostavlos is writing a fantasy novel, starting a property company, and told the Guardian her "greatest self" plan led her to give up smoking, start therapy, and travel to Egypt and Peru
- The campaign comes after Prince Harry and other celebrities lost their High Court legal battle against Associated Newspapers Limited — publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday — last month, with Contostavlos arguing regulation, not litigation, is the answer
Why it matters: Contostavlos's campaign adds celebrity weight to the long-running push to revive Leveson Part 2, cancelled by Matt Hancock in 2018. The timing is pointed: with the Prince Harry-led litigation route against Associated Newspapers just failing in court, Contostavlos is pitching statutory-style regulation as the alternative — and Hacked Off's Hugh Grant is already an explicit ally.
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