The Chartered Institute of Journalists has lodged a legal challenge with the Privy Council over the proposed Royal Charter for the regulation of the press.

The Newspaper Society has already said that it believes the Charter, agreed in a cross-party deal last month, may be unconstitutional because it is being imposed on a largely unwilling industry. The NS, backed by the PPA and most of the national newspaper publishers, has lodged a rival Royal Charter for consideration at the next meeting of the Privy Council on 15 May.

Now the CIoJ has warned that Parliament's press regulation plan may impinge on its Charter – which was granted by Queen Victoria in 1890.