Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said he will not back a campaign to stop The Sun publishing topless photos of women on page three saying it would be “deeply illiberal" for the Government to become involved in the issue.
According to this report in The Guardian, Clegg was asked by Radio 5 presenter Shelagh Fogarty if he would support the ban in an interview on Friday, and replied:
No, no, no. I've got three little sons so I don't have page three showing on my kitchen table. But I don't think it is for the Government to start telling the Sun editor what they put [there].
If you don't like it, don't buy it … you don't want to have a moral policeman or woman in Whitehall telling people what they can and cannot see.
He added:
We have got to make sure there is proper independent scrutiny and accountability for people in the press, just as there should be in any other industry where things go wrong. But let's not try and think it is for politicians or governments to tell people what they stick in newspapers. That is deeply illiberal.
The petition, called 'Dominic Mohan: Take The Bare Boobs Out Of The Sun', has so far been signed 46,785 people.
According to the latest ABC figures, The Sun has an average daily circulation of 2,445,361, making it by far the most popular newspaper in the UK.
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