Responding to a poll released by the newspaper industry-funded Free Speech Network, claiming to support the continuation of self-regulation of the press, Professor Brian Cathcart, Director of Hacked Off said:

Nothing in this survey contradicts recent findings in polls by YouGov and the Carnegie Trust that more than 75% of the public want an independent press regulator and two-thirds do not trust the press to police themselves.

The newspaper industry's poll also offers new evidence that a clear majority of the public are well aware of the failures of the self regulatory system. Asked what the biggest failing was that the phone hacking scandal has uncovered, 55% said ‘the failings of journalists to adequately adhere to their own codes of practice’.

This finding supports Hacked Off’s campaign for a new effective press regulator, independent of both politicians and the industry itself.