'Mail' editor derides privacy law plans

Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, has condemned as "repugnant and impractical" the plans for a statutory ombudsman to regulate Britain's newspapers.

He launched a trenchant defence of the press to a committee of MPs, despite claims by the publicist Max Clifford that Britain has "the most savage media in the world".

Mr Dacre, the editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers and a member of the Press Complaints Commission, told the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee that press self- regulation had improved standards and reduced intrusion into ordinary people's lives.

He also insisted that readers would not buy a newspaper that overstepped the mark, adding: "I stand for election every day." Mr Dacre attacked plans for statutory regulation, insisting it would be a "government-sponsored censor".