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24 November 2012 Last updated at 18:50 ET By Nick Higham BBC News

As Lord Justice Leveson puts the finishing touches to his recommendations for a new method of regulating the press in Britain, could the Danish model of so-called co-regulation be an option for the UK?

It is many British newspapers' worst nightmare: A system where complaints from readers are handled by a press council set up by Act of Parliament, whose members are government-appointed, and which has the power to demand that erring titles be fined.

How can you possibly have that kind of government oversight and a free press?

Yet that's exactly what they have in Denmark, a fully functioning democracy which values press freedom highly.

What's more, Danish newspapers have enthusiastically embraced the system - while some Danish MPs say that, however draconian it may sound by British standards, it still isn't tough enough.

Britain's existing Press Complaints Commission, set up, financed and run by the newspaper industry, is due to be wound up.

The question Lord Justice Leveson is pondering is what should replace it.

The Danish Press Council was formed in 1991 and oversees journalism, not just in newspapers but on Danish TV and radio and, increasingly, in online media.

Half its members are drawn from broadcasting, newspapers, and journalism trade unions; the rest are independent.

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Press regulation: Lessons from Denmark?