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PPA Hacked Off Press Regulation

PPA deputy chair Kevin Hand to join inaugural Ipso board as press industry pushes on without Royal Charter

By Angela Haggerty, Reporter

May 28, 2014 | 5 min read

Deputy chair of the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), Kevin Hand, is among the 12 names on the new press regulator board of Ipso, the organisation has announced.

Board: PPA deputy chair Kevin Hand

Hand, who took on the deputy chair role this year after serving a term as chairman of the PPA, will along with fellow board members, appoint the Ipso Complaints Committee, a chief executive and oversee the creation of an arbitration service.

Ipso was due to launch next month but has pushed the date back to September while details are finalised. The outgoing Press Complaints Commission (PCC) will continue to operate until Ipso launches.

The Ipso Board

Ros Altmann: Pension policy analyst and former director general of the Saga Group. Regular media commentator.

Kevin Hand: Deputy chair of the PPA and vice-president of the European Magazine Marketing Association (EMMA). Media consultant.

Rick Hill: Chair of Northern Ireland’s General Consumer Council. Formerly a member of the BBC Audience Council and BBC Broadcasting Council for Northern Ireland. Former minister of Garnerville Presbyterian Church, Belfast.

Anne Lapping: Vice chairman of the Council and Court of the London School of Economics. Former non-executive director of Channel 4 who began her career as a reporter for New Society and the Economist.

Charles McGhee: Former editor of The Herald in Glasgow and honorary professor in journalism and media at Glasgow Caledonian University. Former member of the Press Complaints Commission and president of the UK Society of Editors.

William Newman:Former managing editor of the Sun with time spent at the Guardian, Sunday Times and Observer. Trustee of the Journalists’ Charity.

Keith Perch: Senior lecturer in journalism at University of Derby with 30 years’ experience in regional newspapers. Served as editor of the Leicester Mercury, the Derby Telegraph and the South Wales Echo.

Tom Phillips: Former UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Appointment to Ipso board subject to government clearance.

Richard Reed: Co-founder of Innocent smoothie brand who now runs JamJar Investments. Patron of Peace One Day.

Clare Tickell: Chief executive of Hanover Housing Association. Formerly chief executive of Action for Children.

Charles Wilson: Former managing editor of Mirror Group Newspapers and former editor of the Times, Independent, Scottish Sunday Standard, Glasgow Herald and Chicago Sun Times.

The board will be chaired by Appeal Court judge Sir Alan Moses, who took part in the selection process for the board with Sir Hayden Phillips, chair of the selection panel, after being announced as chair of the board last month.

Moses said: “I am delighted to have the chance to work with such a talented group of independent-minded people, committed to provide rigorous and strong regulation.

“Now we must start our work of preparation. We plan to use the coming period to listen and engage with the public, experts and the industry before Ipso’s formal launch in September. This will be a new era of self-regulation of our newspapers, ready to provide the independent regulation to which the public is entitled.”

While most of the UK’s national publishers have signed up to Ipso, the Guardian and Independent titles are yet to make a decision. The Financial Times recently announced plans to break away from the press pack and create an internal system of regulation.

Ipso is staunchly opposed to government plans to underpin press regulation with a Royal Charter following the Leveson Report into press ethics and the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

However, campaign group Hacked Off has slammed the creation of Ipso and warned it will be a small departure from the criticised PCC.

Responding to the board announcement, Hacked Off director Brian Cathcart said Ipso would not meet the needs of the public and repeated the organisation’s support for the Royal Charter.

“The big newspaper companies have spent two years carefully designing Ipso to serve their own interests before those of the public – just like the discredited PCC did before it – and these board members are powerless to change that even if they want to.

“If Ipso really wants the trust of the public there is a simple test it can take to show whether it is independent and effective: it can seek recognition under the Royal Charter. That is the test recommended by Leveson, endorsed by every party in parliament and backed by victims of press abuses, hundreds of prominent people in the world of free expression – and the overwhelming majority of the public.”

Last month, Tory peer Lord Black, who was heavily involved in the creation of Ipso, vowed the press industry’s legal battle against the government’s Royal Charter – which he said was tantamount to handing the state power over the press - would continue.

PPA Hacked Off Press Regulation

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