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IPSO chairman to deliver Society of Editors Lecture

This year’s Society of Editors lecture is to be delivered by Independent Press Standards Organisation chairman Sir Alan Moses, it has been announced.

Sir Alan will deliver the prestigious address at the start of the year’s biggest industry gathering, to be held in the Grand Harbour Hotel, Southampton.

The former Court of Appeal judge was recently appointed to chair IPSO, the new industry-backed self-regulator set up in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry.

He will follow a distinguished list of SoE lecturers which has included Lord Grade, Alexander Lebedev, Lord Hunt of Wirral, Paul Dacre, Andrew Neil, Gavin O’Reilly, Sir Christopher Meyer and Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post in the Watergate era.

A Court of Appeal judge for nine years, Sir Alan presided over the Soham murders trial and the prosecution of the MI5 officer David Shayler for passing classified information and documents to the press in breach of the Official Secrets Act.

The lecture will take place on the evening of Sunday 9 November with the main conference sessions taking place on Monday 10 November and continuing throughout the morning of Tuesday 11 November.

This year’s programme will also include sessions on new press regulation in action, attempts to restrict freedom of the internet and the future for broadcasters.

It will also be a chance to put pressure on the politicians in advance of the General Election and question them on policies for the media.

Ian Murray, President of the Society of Editors and editor of the Southern Daily Echo said: “With his unique experience as a court of appeal judge, the Society has no doubt that Sir Alan’s Lecture will look to the future of press regulation under IPSO and set out the changes and work that the new regulator will undertake.

“It will also be an opportunity for those who are already criticising the new regulator to hear first-hand how it is working in its first few months.”