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By Joanne Cash, Barrister And Human Rights Campaigner

PUBLISHED: 18:33 EST, 17 March 2013 | UPDATED: 04:06 EST, 18 March 2013

Joanne Cash, a former Conservative candidate and free speech advocate, says proposals to limit the power of the press are worrying and says not one press violation investigated by Leveson was not covered by existing laws

The last time I spoke publicly about the Press was in the early hours of May 11, 2010. I was the newly defeated Conservative parliamentary candidate in the marginal seat of Westminster North and I was devastated to have lost the electoral battle into which I had poured my heart and soul for three-and-a-half years.

When I stood up that night it was not to call for free schools or any of the other issues I had campaigned on. Far from it.

It was to let rip at the Press for the many lies they had published about me, my family and my team during the last six months of my parliamentary campaign.

Yet I have never advocated greater regulation of the Press, not then nor any time since. Because, despite my outburst, I knew that, just as with the issues raised by the Leveson Inquiry, the existing laws covered my every grievance. I could have sued but it was my choice not to.

Before I stood as a parliamentary candidate, I was a barrister practising in media law for 15 years. I have seen the arguments from both sides.

I have watched newspapers with nothing to go on but the word of an aggrieved ex force people through torturous libel claims when all they wanted was a five-line apology.

But I have also watched newspapers take courageous, principled, high-stakes decisions to publish and change the course of history as this paper did when it named the murderers of Stephen Lawrence.

Read more:
I've been vilified by the Press . But a law to shackle it chills my blood