ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: So the Prime Minister will meet newspaper editors on Tuesday to try to agree a deal on an independent regulator for the press without legal underpinning and one man who will be there and is banging the drum for self-regulation is the head of the soon to be replaced Press Complaints Commission, Lord Hunt and he joins me once again, very good to see you again Lord Hunt. Given what we saw in Parliament this week within a couple of hours of the publication of the Leveson Report, we’ve seen a divide, a political divide. Do you think that can be bridged between the Prime Minister on one side and the leaders of the two other parties?

LORD HUNT: Oh yes, I just wish people would spend their time reading the report. Now I know there are 1987 pages and I am probably one of the few strange people who has actually turned every page but what comes across is that Brian Leveson is urging the newspaper and publishing industry to get on with setting up this body.

DM: But in terms of the self-regulation, that’s agreed, it seems all parties agree on that, even Lord Leveson, what he’s saying is that to get people into this body you’ve got to offer them a carrot and that’s what the legislation is about in terms of arbitration and penalties if you stay out of the body and lose libel cases and things like that.

LORD HUNT: Yes, because he doesn’t think that they will sign up but I do.

DM: So what leads you to believe that then?

LORD HUNT: I have spoken to 120 publishers speaking on behalf of 2000 editors and they have all told me they will sign up.

DM: Okay, but these editors, these publishers, two or three years after this is set up, they get a decision, an entirely self-regulated body, they get a decision against them that they vehemently disagree with, they believe that their journalism was entirely justified, within the public interest and they refuse to pay the fine, they refuse to print the retraction. What can be done to them?

LORD HUNT: Well I agree they should be bound in law and as I explained last week, I think that’s contractual law. It doesn’t need great acts of parliament to…

DM: Just explain that again, contractual law in terms of joining the body.

LORD HUNT: Well sign up to a contract. I would make it a five year rolling contract so they cannot walk away, they have to accept that this model has now been approved by Leveson with three particular additions but it’s been approved, it’s there, he has endorsed the constitutional structure of it, it should be independent, it should have the power to fine, it should have the power to enforce and investigate.

DM: Okay, right, so that stays the same in terms of your prescription but what we’ve got as I said in my first question now is the political element. Do you feel that positions are becoming entrenched? You’ve got a public petition, you’ve got public opinion that says well we feel on behalf of the victims of press intrusion that Leveson should be implemented in full with that legislation as well.

LORD HUNT: I just urge people to calm down a little bit and read the report. They will then see, as Shami Chakrabarti has explained, it is not recommending a statutory regulator, it is in fact endorsing the model that was originally put forward, with some improvements and that’s what I’m going to discuss. I hope this time next week we’ll have an agreed timetable to set up this new body, make a fresh start by next June.

DM: If as you say it is more or less the same what is being proposed in terms of what the body is, it is the legislation as we discussed a little bit earlier is about getting people into that body, why would you have a problem with that in that it is self-regulation, there is going to be no further intrusion, there will be no intrusion by law makers.

LORD HUNT: This is regulation for the first time ever, I know some people say …

DM: So it’s the principle?

LORD HUNT: I know some people say the PCC was a regulator, I was parachuted in, in fact to move on to a new body and a fresh start which is regulation for the first time ever and I don't think people recognise that. Lord Justice Leveson recognises that and he has but forward that it must be truly independent. Now that’s something we’ve got to discuss. He doesn’t want editors on the adjudication board, he wants funding more open and transparent, these are three elements we have now got to discuss and if we can persuade the publishers to sign up then we’ll get the show on the road and there’ll be no need for any statutory back up or legislation.

DM: And do you agree with those who say however nauseous and reprehensible the intrusion into so many of the victims of phone hacking and other intrusions, that they mustn’t be allowed to lead this debate?

LORD HUNT: Oh I have had the opportunity of meeting most of the victims and my test for this new body is it would have prevented those terrible outrageous situations ever developing in the first place. This new independent regulator has got to make sure that the sort of things that happened in the past will never happen again.

DM: Okay, Lord Hunt thank you very much indeed for coming in here. Lord Hunt, head of the Press Complaints Commission.