The press, as we have known it since the days when papers took on the wartime government over rations and wages, faces a painful death if statutory regulation is brought in following the Leveson Inquiry.

That’s the bleak view of Professor of Journalism at Kent University Tim Luckhurst as he launched a scathing attack on the prospect of state-intervention into papers’ freedoms this week.

Launching a pamphlet ‘Responsibility Without Power’ in Westminster, the Medway-based former editor of The Scotsman made an impassioned plea to David Cameron not to succumb to an odd alliance of celebrities and activists wishing to censor the “fourth estate”.

He accepts that there will be stronger regulation as a result of the phone hacking scandal and the “abject failures” of the Press Complaints Commission but warns that even light touch interference would damage the delicate balance between those who rule and those who scrutinise.

He writes: “An officially regulated press is the glib, easy, dangerous solution. It would spell the slow painful death of a raucous, audacious and impertinent press able to speak truth to power on behalf of its readers...”

He is dismissive of those lining up to impose stricter controls, mainly under the Hacked Off campaign headed by actor Hugh Grant.

He describes them as the among the most incongruous pairings “since Quasimodo met Esmeralda.”

Importantly, he believes papers thrive when readers believe they are unfettered by state controls and are free to take on institutions. He said since the advent of the popular press in the 19th century papers had served the country admirably.

“Commercially successful, popular journalism has been a crucial bulwark of British democracy for over a century,” he writes. “Free by profit from reliance on state or parties, it has represented public opinion courageously and without deference.”

A former editor of Radio 4’s Today programme, he argues that broadcast media, which is state regulated, is often led by the printed press.

He highlights such examples as the now-defunt News of the World’s expose into cricket match-fixing, the Guardian’s long investigation into phone hacking and the Telegraph’s explosive revelations of MPs’ expenses as examples of when the press has “set the agenda”.

He sympathises with the victims of “atrocious journalism” but says all the major areas of concern raised at Leveson are covered by criminal law. He concludes we would all be the losers if any form of official regulation was introduced.