IPSO chair Edward Lord Faulks KC will serve a second three-year term in the role.
Faulks has chaired the regulator since 2020, a period that has covered an Editors’ Code review and the ten-year anniversary of the Leveson report.
His re-appointment was overseen by IPSO’s appointments panel, a body which includes Telegraph editor Chris Evans, Iliffe Media Group director Geraldine Allinson and Labour peer Lord Triesman.
Lord Triesman said: “Edward Faulks has led IPSO over a tumultuous three years. He has guided IPSO as it has responded to the challenge of the pandemic and the changes to the media landscape we are witnessing.
“With IPSO-regulated publications now reaching more people than ever across a growing number of platforms, the responsibility of the press regulator to uphold freedom of expression and protect the public has never been more crucial. Edward is an excellent and principled leader to meet this challenge.”
Faulks said: “Independent regulation can support the public and freedom of expression by raising editorial standards and providing a means of redress for editorial shortcomings, when they happen…
“The media landscape is transforming. The adoption of digital technologies has had a fundamental impact on journalism. Online competition is now a significant challenge to editorial standards. I am confident that IPSO’s new strategic approach will ensure it is flexible and relevant to address the complex challenges facing us in the years ahead by being more accessible, responsive, and transparent.”
In a rare intervention last month Faulks commented to BBC Radio Four‘s World At One that Prince Harry may have made it harder to defend his privacy in future by writing his autobiography Spare – but that he had at times felt uncomfortable with press coverage of the royals.
A KC since 1996, IPSO said Faulks “has a long career as a barrister specialising in claims arising from the Human Rights Act, professional and clinical negligence, personal injury, education, police claims and public law”. Once a justice minister in David Cameron‘s government, Faulks left the role in 2016 in protest at the appointment of Liz Truss as lord chancellor, saying the appointment of a third consecutive politician without professional legal experience risked damaging the justice system.
Faulks now sits as an unaffiliated peer in the House of Lords.
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