Private Eye editor Ian Hislop has said he is "worried" by proposals to limit the use of juries in some libel trials.

Mr Hislop told a parliamentary committee he felt juries often came to the right conclusion - while judges "have summed up the wrong way".

He also backed a suggestion that costs in libel cases should be capped at a proportion of final damages.

The committee is scrutinising a draft bill which aims to shake up libel laws in England and Wales.

The draft Defamation Bill removes the presumption that defamation trials will be heard by a jury - instead the judge will be given discretion to order a jury trial when it is "in the interests of justice".

The government says the right to trial by jury is rare in civil cases and there are concerns that it can mean issues which could have been resolved by a judge early on instead cannot be resolved until the trial.