Lord Hunt is new PCC chairman

The Conservative peer Lord Hunt, who served as a minister under Lady Thatcher and John Major, has been named as the new chairman of the Press Complaints Commission.

The lawyer succeeds Baroness Buscombe and takes over as the press faces intense scrutiny because of the hacking scandal. He hopes to bring about "wholesale regeneration and renewal of the system of independent self-regulation of the press", but promises to fight for press freedoms: "I have no desire to live in a country where the legitimate, lawful investigative activities of the press are fettered at the whim of politicians. That would not be freedom at all."