Evgeny Lebedev believes the British press is under-regulated but over-legislated, which damages genuine investigative journalism while allowing scandals like phone hacking to go undetected.
That's what the proprietor of The Independent and London Evening Standard said to a parliamentary committee yesterday.
He told MPs and peers on the joint committee on privacy and injunctions that the Press Complaints Commission must be fundamentally reformed to restore public confidence in newspapers.
The PCC has not worked, he said, adding that the industry "is under-regulated because the PCC is not independent, it is not transparent and it is not understandable to the public how it works.
"It hasn't managed to hold those responsible for phone hacking to account."
But Lebedev, who chairs Independent Print Ltd, also criticised Britain's "draconian" libel laws for stifling important investigative journalism in the wider public interest.
"There is too much legislation that prevents newspapers from carrying out investigative journalism.
"We have got a few cases in our newspaper at the moment that are legitimate investigative cases that we cannot progress with because of the libel laws in this country."
Lebedev said a new press complaints body should have the power to fine newspapers and in certain circumstances even force papers to take out advertisements in rival publications to apologise.
Lebedev pointed out that he was raised in Russia "where there was no press freedom whatsoever" had made him acutely aware of how important a vibrant and free press was to democracy.
The Indy's editor, Chris Blackhurst, told the committee that a PCC replacement should have a far smaller role for editors.
"I think there is recognition among editors, including myself, that the PCC as it is currently set up is not fit for purpose," he said.
"There is a recognition that the PCC is too much under the influence of serving editors and one way to restore trust would be to have a newly constituted PCC where the majority of people taking decisions were lay members who are not serving editors."
Source: The Independent
