Lord Hunt (pictured) replaced Baroness Buscombe last month, chairman of the PCC.
He will speak during the all-day debate on media regulation on Monday 14 November.
Dominic Grieve will speak at the black tie annual gala dinner on the evening of November 14. He has been at the heart of a renewed debate about contempt of court after launching the prosecutions of several newspapers.
The conference will open on Sunday evening November 13 with the Society of Editors’ annual lecture delivered by the chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten. It has already been confirmed that Secretary of State for Justice Kenneth Clarke, will give a keynote speech at 12.15pm on Monday 14.
The senior politicians who are or have been government ministers will join some of the biggest names in the industry, including national and regional editors, politicians and lawyers who will be debating the future of media relationships and regulation.
Monday will take the form of an all-day rolling debate facilitated by Steve Hewlett of BBC Radio Four’s Media Show, focusing on the future of self regulation and the relationship between the press, politicians, the police and the public.
Confirmed speakers including Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian, Chris Blackhurst of the Independent, James Harding of The Times, former editor of the News of The World, Colin Myler, John Kampfner of Index on Censorship, and Stephen Abell of the PCC, will discuss where the industry should be heading. Regional editors expected to contribute to the debate will be Neil Benson, Ian Murray, Gerry Keighley, Simon O’Neill, Neil Hodgkinson and Anthony Longden.
John Whittingdale and Tom Watson from the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham will also join the discussion.
Steve Auckland of Northcliffe newspapers, Peter Barron of Google and newspaper analyst, Jim Chisholm, will speak at the Tuesday morning traditional 20:20 Vision session.
The session which will be chaired by Alastair Stewart of ITV News, will have a new dimension in the form of a report on a special survey commissioned by the SoE exploring editors’ attitudes to the future of the industry.
The conference will wrap up on Tuesday with the incoming president’s address by Fran Unsworth, head of newsgathering at the BBC.
The conference is always a hub of media discussion and vision and has become one of the major events in the media calendar. It will take place on 13, 14, 15th November.
Current SoE president Robin Esser, executive managing editor of the Daily Mail said: “This could prove to be our most important conference to date.”
The venue, the Runnymede-on-Thames hotel at Egham, alongside the Thames near Windsor Castle – and the M25 and Heathrow – is near to where King John began to sign away his regal powers in the Magna Carta in 1215.
Book online at www.societyofeditors.org, by email (office@societyofeditors.org) or by telephone (01223 304080).
