Lord Black rethought his views of the PCC after the phone hacking scandal was laid bareUrgent reform of the Press Complaints Commission is needed, the chairman of the body which funds it has said.
Lord Black told the Leveson Inquiry that after the phone hacking scandal, he became aware of the regulatory system's lack of investigative powers.
"It took a scandal like that to show us we needed a new body to enforce the Editors' Code of Practice," he said.
Lord Black, an ex-PCC director, chairs the Board of Finance which collects levies from newspapers to fund the PCC.
He said he had believed the PCC had "real bite" within the industry but the hacking scandal had forced him to rethink those views.
He said he had always opposed imposing fines on newspapers, as "a matter of principle".
"I certainly now believe that some form of fining system would be appropriate," he told the inquiry.
He added that the PCC had changed in every year of its existence and the code of practice more than 30 times, but it was now time to look at it again and start from scratch.
Lord Black went on to deny that the Board of Finance exerted any control over the PCC.
"While there is a perception in some quarters that some form of control exists, that does not exist," he said.
He also denied that Tory peers exerted a superior influence on the bodies.
Lord Black, a life peer who was press secretary to former Conservative leader Michael Howard, added that the new appointment of Lord Hunt, a Tory peer, to the post of PCC chairman was not a political one.
Later, senior figures from Ofcom outlined the communications watchdog's working practices, and explained the code they used to regulate broadcasters.
Ed Richards, its chief executive, said Ofcom did not intervene before the broadcasting of programmes because it could lead you into the "area of censorship and suppression".
The inquiry expects to also hear evidence from the Advertising Standards Agency.
'Pandora's box'On Tuesday, chairman of the Press Complaints Commission Lord Hunt acknowledged the need for a fresh start, saying he wanted to see the "participation of the whole industry in its own regulation".
He warned against any parliamentary move to regulate newspapers as it would "open a Pandora's box" and stifle freedom of speech.
The Leveson Inquiry was set up by Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2011 amid new revelations of phone hacking at the now-closed News of the World newspaper.
The first phase is examining the practices and ethics of the press.
The second will focus on unlawful conduct by the press and the police's initial hacking investigation, only after a police investigation into phone hacking at the NoW is complete.
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