Amnesia
Charleston Farmhouse, Thursday, May 21

AS a High Court judge, Alan Moses presided over some of the most headline-grabbing trials of recent times, including the Soham murders. He is said to have once thrown a pile of newspapers across a courtroom in anger over coverage of the trial.

But as head of the new Independent Press Standards Organisation, he says he believes firmly in press freedom - however wild and unruly.

“But freedom has no meaning unless there are boundaries,” he says. Which is where IPSO comes in.

Sir Alan took over what some may see as the poisoned chalice last September. But it is a job he obviously relishes - because he believes in the future of the British newspaper industry and the vital democratic role of a free press in a free society.

“The skill is to have a wild and unruly press operating within the rules of the Editors’ Code which allows any opportunity for an investigative irreverent press, but should prevent abuse, lies and distortion,” he says. “That does not inhibit anything.”

The words “wild, unruly and irreverent” pepper his conversation when he speaks about the industry and the organisation which took over from the Press Complaints’ Commission. “This is the first time the press has had a regulator and the first time that the vast majority of newspapers have signed up for anything like this,” he says. “We are monitoring and examining standards and we have the power to enforce the rules.”

He believes the English press is totally different from its counterpart in Europe and the even wilder Australian papers.

He also speaks up for the importance of local papers as part of the democratic process and in recent months has travelled the country visiting newspaper offices.

And have standards dropped in the past fifty years? “Not really,” he says. “It is no more unruly than it ever was.”

Moses will be discussing double Booker Prize winning author Peter Carey's new novel Amnesia which deals, not surprisingly, with the trials and tribulations of crusading journalism.

Starts 8pm, tickets £16. Call 01273 709709.

Carole Buchan