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BBC ITV Press Regulation

Come and get me: Lord Grade suggests he would be willing to head up press regulation deal at The Drum Live

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By Cameron Clarke, Editor

July 3, 2013 | 3 min read

Lord Michael Grade today gave a clear indication that he would be willing to act as a figurehead for the establishment of a new regulatory body for the press in the UK.

The former BBC and ITV chairman, who started his media career as a cub reporter on the Daily Mirror, shared his views on press regulation – and the effects of the Leveson Inquiry – during a wide-ranging interview at The Drum Live event in London.

When asked about suggestions that he could help to get a new regulator off the ground by acting as a mediator between the press, public and politicians, Lord Grade said: “If anybody asks me to do it I’ll have to have a look at it.

“I think what needs to happen is we need to get a new regulatory structure up and running as fast and possible.”

Grade said the new regulator should implement the bulk of Lord Leveson’s recommendations for the press, but insisted the new body should be voluntary and publishers should be compelled rather than coerced to sign up.

But he warned that whatever the structure of a new regulator, it would provide no guarantees that journalists go about their jobs in an ethical – and lawful – manner.

“Hacking telephones is illegal activity. These reporters – alleged reporters - that decided to hack people’s phones for fun, for money, they risked prison to get a story. If prison isn’t enough to deter them then what is a regulator to do? Perhaps give them the power of summary execution?"

Despite calling into question journalists’ ethics, Grade told interviewer Jason Stone that, in some exceptional circumstances, phone hacking could be justified in the public interest to uncover corruption by those in power.

He said: “I would be quite prepared to hack a phone if it was in the public interest and that was the only way to get a story – not as a short-cut. No jury would convict you [for that].”

Grade added that the “cathartic” Leveson Inquiry would “change the culture of newspapers” in the UK.

“[Leveson] was the first time in my lifetime that in a very public way the press was called to account.

“Newspapers are so fond of calling people to account. But where’s their transparency? They will have to become more compliant.”

You can read the full interview with Lord Grade in the 19 July edition of The Drum magazine.

BBC ITV Press Regulation

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