New PCC chairman Lord Hunt has told local journalists at Newsquest’s South London Guardian series that he favours the creation of a separate standards body to sit alongside a PCC-style organisation with a complaints and investigation function.
The new body would deal with broader problems of media conduct and standards which were not directly referred to the PCC.
Hunt made the comments on a visit to Newsquest’s office in Sutton yesterday to discuss journalists’ views on media regulation.
He told them:
There should be a new body with two key roles; complaints and standards
He added:
There must be the standards to which everyone adheres that must be continually tested.
Hunt also reiterated comments made in an interview with the Liverpool Echo last month, telling journalists: ‘I don’t think in my 35 years in Parliament I personally came across any instance where anyone working in the regional press fell below the highest standards.”
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