It’s true that Britain is not Zimbabwe. And the new Royal Charter won’t turn Britain into a police state. But as the concerted attack on the Guardian reveals, political interference in investigative journalism is a real threat. Indeed, if press freedom is under such pressure now, how much more will it be under when new, more coercive, regulations are introduced?

At the same time liberals are confusing the legal and the moral issues involved. The Leveson inquiry set out to investigate the “culture, practice and ethics of the press.” From passing off gossip as news, to not respecting privacy, to failing to hold to account those in power, there are clearly major problems with the culture and ethics of the British newspaper industry.

Certain practices, such as phone hacking, are, and should be, treated as criminal offenses. But most of the issues that the Leveson inquiry addressed cannot be remedied through tighter regulation or prosecution; they require shifts in social attitudes and practices, and not just within the newspaper industry.

Partisan loyalties are, however, blinding both sides to the real meaning of press freedom. Commentators on the left who defend the Guardian’s right to publish uncomfortable truths about those in power seem oblivious to the dangers posed to such journalism by the Leveson proposals. Meanwhile, many on the right fail to understand that the reason to oppose greater press regulation is precisely so that the Guardian can have the freedom to publish what it did.

As a result, the very newspapers that have denounced the British government’s regulatory proposals as an unacceptable infringement upon press freedom have lined up with politicians and the security forces to lead the charge against the Guardian.

The conservative Daily Mail, for instance, among the fiercest of opponents of the Leveson proposals, has condemned the “lethal irresponsibility” of what it called in a headline “The paper that helps Britain’s enemies.” Far from defending the press from state interference, it has all but demanded the arrest of Guardian journalists.

What we have today in Britain is a tribal view of press freedom. Both sides want to defend freedom for the journalists they like while silencing the journalists they despise. Neither side seems to understand that the moment you invite politicians or the police to determine what is and is not acceptable journalism, freedom is eroded for all of us, whatever our political beliefs.