Patten ‘no’ to Press regulation

In a speech entitled Ethics and Journalism after the News of the World, he said proper reform could only be achieved by journalists.

Lord Patten said: “Statutory regulation of the press would in my view be more than wrong-headed, it would pose a real danger to the public discourse that underpins our democracy.

“So the responsibility to ensure high standards of professionalism rests with journalists, their editors and their proprietors.”

The former Conservative Party chairman asked how self-regulation could work and said the current Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice was “not understood or trusted in the same way,” as doctors’ Hippocratic Oath which everyone understands.

The politician asked the assembled media executives at the conference in Runnymede, near London: “If it is to be replaced, are there some clear and simple principles that we could all look to as a guide.”