Former chairman of both the BBC and ITV Lord Grade has said that swift introduction of the new Independent Press Standards Organisation presents the best way for the UK press to restore confidence in the wake of the hacking scandal.

Delivering the Society of Editors lecture at the group's annual conference today he delivered a robust condemnation of the Royal Charter on press regulation signed into law by the three main political parties.

And addressing the main "stick" encouraging publications to sign up to the regulator, the threat of exemplary damages, he quoted an opinion from Lord Pannick QC suggesting that such damages would be against European law.