Following on from Rupert Murdoch’s widely reported comments to The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers last night, the Liberal Democrat Leader in the House of Lords, Lord (Tom) McNally, will today say:

“Last night Rupert Murdoch said that the technology revolution now underway had the power �to build and destroy not just companies but whole countries�.

“Given the importance of a free and diverse press to our democracy, is it not time to take on board Mr. Murdoch’s warnings and ask a Royal Commission on the Press to look at how the new technologies, media convergence and other factors are impacting on the freedom of the press and the integrity of journalism?

“Such a Royal Commission could also look at the dangers of media censorship by governments or pressure groups, concentrations of ownership - particularly by the global media conglomerates, and the need to promote and protect high ethical standards in the reporting of news and the treatment of the individual citizen.

“It is thirty years since the last Royal Commission on the Press. That was a different world and, if anything, today’s world poses even more threats to press freedom and diversity than existed thirty years ago.”