After a high-profile and long-running inquiry chaired by Lord Leveson which saw celebrities, media moguls and tabloid editors paraded in front of the cameras to debate the behaviour of the national press, the findings were finally published at the end of last year.

It is difficult to argue with some of the complaints that certain sectors of the national press had overstepped their boundaries when it came to intrusion on the public – particularly victims of crime and their families – and with regards to chequebook journalism.

But perhaps lost in all the furore were Lord Leveson’s comments about the local press.

In the report, Lord Leveson said: “I must make a special point about Britain’s regional newspapers. In one sense, they are less affected by the global availability of the biggest news stories, but their contribution to local life is truly without parallel.

“Supported by advertisements (and, in particular, local proper-ty, employment, motor and personal), this source of income is increasingly migrating to the internet; local councils are producing local newsletters and therefore making less use of their local papers.

“Many are no longer financially viable and they are all under enormous pressure as they strive to re-write the business model necessary for survival.

“Yet their demise would be a huge setback for communities (where they report on local politics, occurrences in the local courts, local events, local sports and the like) and would be a real loss for our democracy.

“Although accuracy and similar complaints are made against local newspapers, the criticisms of culture, practices and ethics of the press that have been raised in this inquiry do not affect them: on the contrary, they have been much praised.

“It is clear to me that local, high-quality and trusted news-papers are good for our commu-nities, our identity and our democracy and play an important social role.”

That, however, appears not to have stopped local newspapers suffering from the Leveson fallout.

According to a study carried out for the Newspaper Society for Local Newspaper Week, which runs all this week, almost half of all local newspaper editors believe the Leveson Inquiry has negatively affected their titles’ relationship with readers.

The wide-ranging survey was conducted in the weeks before the Government’s Royal Charter for press regulation was published, prompting widespread concern about its impact upon the industry. At the time the survey was conducted, 46 per cent of editors believed their papers’ relationship with readers had been negatively affected by the Leveson Inquiry and connected events.

One editor commented: “There are readers – including local councillors, for instance – who have failed to make the distinction intellectually between national and local press, and we have therefore been tarred with the same brush.”

Another said: “The proposal for an arbitration arm for any new regulator is a clear and present danger to the future of the local press and is a sure-fire way of lawyers making money out of us.”

Forty-three per cent of editors said the current legislative and regulatory framework affecting the press had a negative effect on press freedom, while just 16 per cent said it had a positive effect. Forty-one per cent believed it had no effect.

Data protection (24 per cent) was cited as the single biggest obstacle to press freedom followed by libel (22 per cent), privacy constraints (22 per cent), self-censorship in the wake of Leveson (19 per cent), court reporting and contempt restrictions (11 per cent) and self-regulation (three per cent).

NS president Adrian Jeakings said: “Local newspapers’ ability to hold authority and the powerful to account on behalf of their readers underpins local democracy in Britain and we are in serious danger of seeing this become irreparably damaged.”

More than a quarter (27 per cent) of local newspapers have received a threat from a public body to suspend advertising as a result of journalistic activity such as a story being published, a query being made or a reporter attending a meeting. Of those who had been threatened, 40 per cent had seen the threat carried out, the survey found.

But Perry Austin-Clarke, editor of the Telegraph & Argus, says he is sure that the readers of this newspaper and its website can make the distinction between the activities of the tabloid press and the long tradition of community journalism which the T&A upholds.

He said: “We deplore the activities such as phone hacking which led to the Leveson Inquiry and we do worry there is a serious risk of people lumping us in with the tablod press.

“But we do believe our readers know and appreciate the work of the Telegraph & Argus and recognise our staunch support of the Bradford district, and that our mission to inform, entertain and sometimes educate – taking public bodies and big companies to task when needs be – is a world away from the behaviour that was criticised during the Leveson Inquiry.”