PCC chairman unveils plans for new watchdog at Leveson inquiry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/31/pcc-chairman-watchdog-leveson-inquiry

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The new chairman of the Press Complaints Commission has unveiled a blueprint for a "totally new" newspaper watchdog which he hopes will eradicate "bad journalism" and practices that have brought "shame" on the industry.

Lord Hunt told the Leveson inquiry on Tuesday that he was, however, flatly opposed to statutory regulation of newspapers, arguing that it would "open a Pandora's box" which would give the opportunity to unscrupulous politicians to try to curb the freedom of the press.

The new regulatory body proposed by Hunt would have real powers to investigate allegations such as phone hacking, illegal computer hacking or general press intrusion by reporters or paparazzi.

It would also have the power to impose fines and award compensation to victims of the press, he said, with newspapers signing binding contracts to adhere to its rulings for five years at a time.

The new body would be far more robust than the PCC and be independent of influence by present editors, according to Hunt, with a three-pronged structure involving units providing a swift complaints resolution service, a standards arm and an arbitration operation which would assess damages.

"We do urgently need a totally new body with substantial increased powers to audit, enforce compliance with the code [of practice], to require access to documents, to summon witnesses when necessary and also to impose fines, all backed by commercial contract," Hunt told Lord Justice Leveson.

He said he had widespread support within the industry for the new watchdog and that Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell group, which walked out of the PCC last year, had told him it would consider signing up "if the formula was right".

A spokesman for Northern & Shell, owner of the Daily Express and Daily Star, later said: "We are in touch with Lord Hunt. Things are looking encouraging."

Leveson challenged Hunt on the workings of the arbitration mechanism and questioned whether his proposed body would have the legal powers to compel the wealthy to "go down the arbitration route" when they could afford to use the courts with expensive libel or privacy claims.

Lord Grade, who was also giving evidence to Leveson, said he too was opposed to statutory regulation of the press. The former chairman of the BBC Trust was made a commissioner at the PCC last May and said the "public want swift redress" which would not be available through the kind of statutory regulation in place for UK broadcasting.

He was in favour of fines that were a "visible, tangible, painful means of a sanction" against errant newspapers, but said this "stick" should be accompanied by a "carrot" such as reduced risk of damages for libel.

Earlier in the day Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the PCC when phone hacking and other controversial newspaper practices being scrutinised by the Leveson inquiry were taking place, gave a defiant and combative performance during a tough grilling that lasted nearly four hours.

A former UK ambassador to the US, Meyer defended his record and denied the PCC had acted as a newspaper industry "poodle" during his reign between 2003 and 2009, or that he had been beholden to "overweening editors" such as the Daily Mail's Paul Dacre.

He flatly rejected virtually every suggestion that the PCC had failed to use its powers to investigate dubious and in some cases illegal newspaper practices, such as the defamatory coverage and invasion of privacy suffered by the parents of Madeleine McCann or phone hacking at the News of the World.

Several times Meyer remonstrated with counsel for the inquiry, Robert Jay QC, accusing him of putting words into his mouth and taking pot shots at him like a "coconut" in a shy.