Lord Hunt PCC

Lord Hunt of Wirral, the new PCC chairman, who said today he was anticipating 'wholesale regeneration and renewal' of self-regulation

Credit: Max Nash/PA

Conservative peer and former MP Lord Hunt of Wirral has been confirmed as the new chairman of the Press Complaints Commission.

Hunt, 69, is currently chairman of the Financial Services Division at the law firm Beachcroft, where he specialises in regulatory affairs. He was previously MP for Wirral and later Wirral West.

He will take up the role on 17 October, succeeding Baroness Buscombe who announced in July that she would not seek to continue as chair after the end of her term. Although that term was due to expire in March 2012, the PCC said at the time that she would only stay on until a replacement was found.

Acknowledging an "appetite for change" in press regulation, Hunt said today in a statement that he expected to oversee "wholesale regeneration and renewal" of the system of self-regulation. He also indicated that statutory regulation of the press was not on the agenda as far as he was concerned.

"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."

Hunt also stressed, after a turbulent period for the PCC in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, that news organisations were bound by the law both in print and online, and indicated he thought that the law would continue to be complemented separately by the editors' code of practice.

"Those who work for newspapers or their digital off-shoots are, however, 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."

Lord Black of Brentwood, chairman of PressBoF, the organisation responsible for collecting funds for the PCC, said: "On behalf of my colleagues in the national and regional newspaper and magazine industry, I am delighted that Lord Hunt has accepted our invitation to become chairman of the PCC. His appointment follows a rigorous selection process, including for the first time an independent assessment, which identified an extremely strong field of candidates.

"David Hunt's wide-ranging experience in politics, in the law and in regulation and above all his unshakeable commitment to the principles of press freedom and self-regulation make him the ideal person to lead the process of renewal and regeneration which is now essential. His commitment to making those changes is clear, and he will have the full support of the industry as he sets about this urgent task."

Hunt replaces Baroness Buscombe, who steps down from the PCC in the wake of severe criticism of the regulatory body for its handling of the phone-hacking scandal, which has resulted in a public inquiry led by Lord Leveson into the format of press regulation.

Earlier this year, the PCC was forced to apologise and pay damages to lawyer Mark Lewis after Buscombe accused him of misquoting a police officer in claiming that 6,000 people may have been victims of phone hacking.
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