Lord Wakeham has paid tribute to the Newspaper Society for its defence of the freedom of the press.

Writing for the Newspaper Society's newsletter, Lord Wakeham - Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission - also thanked the regional press for its role in establishing the Code of Conduct and the PCC.

He pointed out that at the end of this year the PCC will have completed its first decade - "there were some who feared this new arrival would never reach its first birthday, let alone its tenth".

He pledged that the PCC would continue to be vigilant against threats to press freedom, and added: "We will continue to play our part in proving that controls on newspapers, in whatever shape they may come, are not just wrong in principle but unneccessary in practice - because, thanks to you all, we have in place a system which is far stronger and more effective than any laws could ever be."