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Chairman of the BBC Trust Lord Patten yesterday argued that the press should continue to be regulated differently from the UK broadcast media.

Patten said it was proper that the BBC was jointly regulated in statute and by Ofcom but argued that a similar model would be inappropriate for newspapers

'Newspapers have to be given the chance to find their own solution,' he said.

The comments were made in Patten's speech for the Society of Editors Conference 2011 and come as the Lord Justice Leveson inquiry in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal opens.

The aim of the inquiry is to examine the 'culture, practices and ethics of the press' and look at whether self-regulation of the media works. 

'Statutory regulation of the press would, in my view, be more than wrong-headed. It would pose a real danger to the public discourse that underpins our democracy,' Patten warned.

Patten's speech, entitled 'Ethics and journalism after the News of the World', also dealt with the BBC's commitment to impartiality

'Perfect impartiality is difficult, perhaps impossible,to attain,' he said. 'I think most people understand that and understand that the BBC is not perfect.

'As for newspapers, I don't imagine people buy them because they think they are impartial. That is not what most newspapers set out to be,' Patten argued.

'But the BBC is in a different position. Balance and accuracy are the qualities that licence fee payers seek in BBC output - telling things as they really are, not as this or that political or interest group might wish them to be.'

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