EDITOR IAN Murray is right in his defence of the freedom of the press (Daily Echo, November 25). Whatever the Leveson Inquiry comes up with, it must not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Nevertheless, as Ian knows as a member of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), the standards of news gathering and press reporting needs reviewing.

As well as being a champion of our freedoms, the press is also a business, and in these challenging times, all too often, elements of the press have let the latter overtake the standards that underpin the former.

In Hampshire schools, the Local Education Authority is rolling out a programme of three Rs – Rights, Respects and Responsibilities, This has had a dramatic effect on children’s behaviour. Each R has to balance the other.

The press does not need to be regulated by the Government but a more independent PCC should change from merely handling complaints to a body with a power to regulate and to adopt a similar programme.

A programme that respects the right of privacy, that defines and upholds what is and what is not properly in the public interest, that strengthens the code of journalistic practice, sets standards for investigative journalism enforceable by the PCC that will enable it to set punitive financial sanctions against voyeurism, stalking, and eavesdropping and to ensure that an impartial, verifiable and equal balance is given to reporting to allow the public to make informed judgements on issues.

Also, where the press is judged to have made mistakes, or published inaccurate reports, it is required to give the same prominence to any apology or correction as that given to the original report.

This will not only strengthen the freedom of the press but will strengthen its credibility that recent events have so seriously undermined.

CLLR COLIN DAVIDOVITZ, Executive Member, Communication and Efficiency Hampshire County Council.