Patten: Self-regulation still has future

Lord Patten has defended the self-regulation of the press, arguing it still has a future despite the events of the phone hacking scandal.

Speaking at the 2011 Society of Editors lecture on Sunday, the chairman of the BBC Trust said statutory regulation would be "wrong-headed".

"It would pose a real danger to the public discourse that underpins our democracy," the Tory peer and former governor of Hong Kong continued.

"It would be wrong to try to import any model of regulation from the broadcast media to the press. Newspapers themselves need to find ways to rebuild public trust in what they do."