The man charged with safeguarding free speech – and taming the tabloids

FORMER Conservative Cabinet minister Lord Hunt has promised to continue to fight for freedom of expression after being named as the new chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).

Lord Hunt, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, will take up his new role within the next few days, succeeding Baroness Buscombe, who stepped down in the summer.

The appointment comes amid ongoing controversy about the self-regulation of the UK’s press following the phone hacking scandal involving the News of the World.

Lord Hunt, a former secretary of state for Wales and employment, said a free press was “indispensable”, but added that there was “a real appetite for change”.

The appointment was announced a day after Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mail, launched a robust defence of press self-regulation and attacked at the government for undermining the PCC, which was heavily criticised for its failure to tackle phone hacking.

Lord Hunt said he would work towards the creation of a “reinvigorated and respected standards body” and regain the “overwhelming respect and support” of the public.

He said: “I am delighted I shall be leading the crucially important process of wholesale regeneration and renewal of the system of independent self-regulation of the press.

“My job is to ensure we create in due course an effective, genuinely independent standards body, which enjoys the overwhelming respect and support of the media, our political leaders and the general public.

“Throughout my political life I have fought for freedom of expression, and a free press is the distinctive and indispensable hallmark of any truly free, civilised society. I have no desire to live in a country where the legitimate, lawful investigative activities of the press are fettered at the whim of politicians. That would not be freedom at all.”

Those who worked for newspapers or their digital off-shoots were, he said, rightly bound by the law of the land, just like everyone else. “They should also abide by recognised standards of professionalism, consideration and common decency.

“The PCC already plays an invaluable role, delivering fast, free and fair treatment of complaints from members of the public, as and when a newspaper has overstepped the line.

“There is a real appetite for change, however, and it is my intention to drive forward the creation of a reinvigorated and respected standards body, funded by the industry but operationally independent from both the industry and the state.”

Mr Dacre, addressing a hearing of the Leveson Inquiry, set up by the Prime Minister in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, accused Mr Cameron of a “cynical act of political expediency” when he declared that the commission had “failed”.

He said over-regulating the press would “put democracy itself in peril” and talked about “rank smells of hypocrisy and revenge in the political class’s current moral indignation over a British press that dared to expose their greed and corruption”.