Chris Blackhurst:
10 January
The editor of The Independent told the Inquiry that he was "worried" that its outcome could curtail the industry's ability to continue investigative journalism, even though the PCC needed "substantial reform".
Blackhurst suggested any new regulator could operate in the way the Law Society or the General Medical Council governed the practices of lawyers and doctors. However, Lord Justice Leveson said this could be problematic because the state decides who can practise as a doctor or a solicitor, but journalists essentially practised the right to freedom of expression.