Editors urged to act to avoid statutory regulation 'back-up'

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The press must work to create an independent system of self-regulation with "real powers" or else face statutory regulation of some form, editors were warned today. Speaking at the Society of Editors conference, media lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC said the idea of an enhanced PCC Two "strikes me as a complete non-starter" and instead suggested

"a voluntary system" featuring some form of

"statutory back-up". "If instead of the media you put to people that idea that judges or MPs should regulate themselves it would be laughed at by the press. Why is the press in a different position? "MPs play a crucial role in our democracy, as judges and lawyers also do. They are all subject to statutory regulation." He said his proposed system would reward those within the system with extra protections, such as public interest defences, providing "a stick and carrot system". "It seems to me the idea you can have a 'PCC Plus' which commands public confidence and no statutory back-up is fantasy." "I would tempt people in and make it hard for them outside it," he added. John Whittingdale, who chairs the culture, media and sport select committee currently investigating phone-hacking allegations, added that while he did not support statutory regulation, "if a PCC [Two] is created it must be seen to be very independent of the press with real powers". "That is the very least you will get away with," he said. Lawyer Charlotte Lewis, who has represented a number of individuals who claim their phone was hacked, added that while she would like to see an evolved PCC, this may appear to the public as if the press "got away with it". "Most things can be sorted out without a fight, but things go wrong. I would love it if there could be evolution but think it has got to the stage now where people will think they've got away with it. The public might want a hanging, they might not trust anything."