Paul Dacre, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail, is to stand down as chair of a committee that governs journalists’ code of conduct before a government review of press regulation.

His departure after eight “turbulent” years for the industry comes after an external review of the press regulator Ipso recommended that no member of the highly influential committee should serve more than two three-year terms. The committee is also to conduct a public consultation on how the code can be further improved.

In announcing his decision to stand down, Dacre could not resist a swipe at “so-called liberals” who have backed state-enforced regulation, which has policed the code since the fallout from the Leveson inquiry into press misbehaviour, as well as the rival regulator Impress.

Last month, the culture secretary, Karen Bradley, launched a 10-week consultation into press regulation, specifically whether to commence a controversial bill that would introduce legal costs protection for phone-hacking victims.

Calling Impress a “joke body”, Dacre criticised its financial backer, Max Mosley. “I still have to pinch myself that we live in a country in which the government’s press regulator is financed by Max Mosley and that papers who refuse to sign up to it will not only face punitive damages in libel courts but could be forced to pay a claimant’s costs even if the article concerned is entirely true and the paper wins its case.

The culture secretary, Karen Bradley. Photograph: Tory Ho/Getty Images

“Which is why my contempt for those so-called liberals who insidiously conspire to manacle press freedom is only matched by my admiration for those in our industry who strive to preserve it.

“Those manacles apart, it’s a bitter irony that while print media, which is declining, is more tightly policed than ever, rampant internet journalism is utterly unregulated – unless of course a website belongs to a newspaper group,” continued Dacre. “Resolving this contradiction will be a considerable challenge for those who believe in a responsible, independently self-regulated, press.”

Heaping praise on the committee, he added: “I think it best that I now concentrate on the exciting but exacting challenges facing [the Daily Mail publishers’] print and digital journalism.”

During Dacre’s tenure, the industry has been put under the scrutiny following the phone hacking revelations. Lay members were appointed to the committee and the code itself was amended to include a specific requirement that editors should not publish headlines not supported by the text of the article beneath.

Other changes to the code included strengthening the clauses on the reporting of suicide, discrimination, complaints resolution and the public interest.

Alan Moses, the chair of Ipso who has long faced questions over the independence of the regulator when the code committee is dominated by powerful editors, thanked Dacre. He added: “The code cannot stand still and needs to evolve. A trusted, thriving and free press is vital to our national discourse and I encourage anyone with a view on how the press is regulated to respond to the consultation.”