The general public support a reform of the Press Complaints Commission, according to a MORI survey commissioned by the Media Standards Trust.

While only 17% supported proposals that the government establish a new state-controlled regulator for the press – presumably a new strand within OfCom, which already regulates broadcast media - the majority of those surveyed felt there was a need for a body which more actively monitored press output in the context of the voluntary code that editors and publishers already theoretically sign up to.

One common criticism of the PCC is that it only investigates a newspaper’s conduct if someone accuses a specific title of violating the Commission's code, and only then if the complainer has been personally impacted by the violation.

So that when thousands felt that rubbish Mail hack Jan Moir had breached PCC rules by speculating that Stephen Gately's slightly mysterious death was probably down to him being gay, the day before the late Boyzoner’s funeral, technically the PCC wasn't able to launch a proper investigation until the singer's widower lodged a complaint.

The MORI survey says that the PCC should be mandated to follow up all complaints and, more than that, should be monitoring press output as a matter of course picking up on and investigating code violations on its own initiative.

The PCC is neither mandated nor resourced to do that at the moment, and some reckon the newspaper owners who fund the body prefer it that way because it means much of their Code breaking goes unnoticed and unreprimanded.

The Commission, which has been increasingly dubbed as a powerless token gesture regulator in recent years, is already undertaking a review of its operations and remit. A spokesman for the Commission said that the Media Standards Trust poll would be considered as part of that review.

He told the Press Gazette: "I might point out that most of the results in what is quite a simplistic poll actually support the PCC's present role as an independent self-regulator, raising press standards through thorough enforcement of the code and acting in the public interest. We are not complacent, however, and the recommendations of the independent governance review will hopefully enable us to improve our service further".