Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre (pictured: Reuters) has appealed for press unity in the face of what he said were wide-ranging threats to the future of the industry.

Threats to journalistic sources through police use of RIPA legislation, the EU's "right to be forgotten" ruling and suggestions from some politicians that they will "finish what they began with Leveson" after the General Election were all issues cited by Dacre.

Describing a "rumbustious free press" as one of the factors behind Britain's relatively low level of corruption, he also appealed to politicians and police to "drop hostilities" that developed in the wake of the hacking scandal and the Leveson inquiry.