The Government is chipping away at press freedom and damaging democracy, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission has claimed.

Sir Christopher Meyer said the problem stemmed from politicians overestimating the influence of the press, and that it was now harder to find out what is going on in Government than it was ten years ago.

His comments came during a lecture Protecting the Press or the People?, organised by journalism think-tank POLIS at the London School of Economics, in which he explained why he doesn’t believe that Britain’s newspapers need tougher controls.

He said: “I believe the boundaries of freedom of expression seem to be closing in a bit on newspapers and magazines in a way which may not be healthy.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I don’t believe in Government plotting to curb freedom of expression.

“But when you read that after two years, there are proposals to make it more difficult to obtain information under the Freedom of Information Act, you have to worry.”

He also said he was worried about the changes in the culture of Government media relations as well as changes to the law.

He said departments like the Foreign Office used to give daily “on the record” briefings to journalists, but now they only hold press conferences when the Foreign Secretary has something to say.

Sir Christopher said: “In 2006 it is harder to find out what is going on in Government than it was ten years ago.

“Hundreds of years of press freedom are being blown away in a decade.”