22 November 2011

Leveson Inquiry: Hearings - Day 5

LEVESON INQUIRY:CULTURE, PRACTICE AND ETHICS OF THE PRESS

"I want this inquiry to mean something", not end up as "footnote in some professor of journalism's analysis of 21 century history." LJ Leveson in reply to A Rusbridger's submission to Inquiry.

Lord Justice Leveson, Shami Chakrabarti, Sir David Bell, Lord Currie, George Jones, Sir Paul Scott-Lee, Elinor Goodman

Opening submissions began on Monday 14 November 2011.  The proceedings are shown here live on the Leveson Inquiry website. 

BBC Democracy Live Leveson Inquiry live-feed here.

Full list of Core Participants to be found here. (Guardian Website)

Relevant links from mainstream media, blogs and social media:

(Twitter feed for Leveson Inquiry on right of Home page of this (#pressreform) blog.) ->->->


Tuesday, November 22nd 2011 (Hearing 4 record of  Leveson Inquiry on this blog can be found here.)

Proceedings began with complaint by Mr. Sherborne about Mail Online's comment this morning on Hugh Grant's evidence as being 'mendacious'. 
From the Guardian Live Blog: 
"Leveson has now started. Not unexpectedly there is some criticism of Associated's instant rebuttal of Hugh Grant's evidence yesterday. It said Grant's allegations were "mendacious smears driven by his hatred of the media".
The QC for the Met Police Neil Garnham said he has a serious issue with Associated's statements on Grant last night.
"Has anyone who has the temerity to criticise the press is going to have to face this the following morning.
The alternative is that I must warn participants that they must anticipate this if they give evidence."
Just prior to lunch break : - Sherborne outlines complaint about Mail's rebuttal of Grant's statement. 
 Account from Guardian Live Blog of LJ Leveson's conversation with Sherborne and Caplan

1.48 p.m. From Guardian Live Blog:
"Jules Stenson, the former News of the World head of features, has been on Sky News talking about Hugh Grant and the Leveson inquiry.He says that "speaking as someone who broke the story about Hugh's relationship with Ting Lan back in April" (in fact, the archive story is bylined Tom Latchem) there is a member of Hugh's inner circle "that doesn't like him and gives information to newspapers".
Stenson was responding to Grant's claim yesterday that details of his relationship with Ting Lan could only have been obtained by illicit or illegitimate means.
He added: "What Hugh Grant was trying to do yesterday was put the Mail out of business. It is the most heinous accusation you can make against a paper at the minute [that they hacked phones]. You've got to think about the anger that that would have provoked at the Mail and they would have wanted to rebut that in the strongest terms they could." "
"Leveson warns in what appears to be a broadside against Associated:
'I would be unhappy if it was felt the best form of defence was always attack' "
Today's Participants: Steve Coogan, Mary-Ellen Field, Garry Flitcroft, Margaret Watson 


Steve Coogan








Steve Coogan - The Media Are Like the Mafia. It's Just Business - Marina Hyde - Guardian

Steve Coogan Claims Andy Coulson Set him Up - Video - Guardian

Video - Steve Coogan on Newsnight re Phone-hacking - via Left Foot Forward 

Zelo Street: Leveson is Served (3)


Steve Coogan Gives Evidence on Phone-hacking - Guardian

Steve Coogan Compares NI to a 'Protection Racket' - Guardian (18th November 2011)

Daily Mail article re friend's 'drug spiral' mentioned in Steve Coogan's hearing this afternoon

Daily Mail Article #2 

Steve Coogan Interview - GQ Comment (mentioned at length in the Coogan Hearing today) 


Mags W
Coogan name dropping.. re harrassment.. nasty stories.. Amanda Platell.. Melanie Phillips.. Andy Coulson.. Paul Dacre..


Peter Hunt
Coogan on Press Complaints Commission: the hacking scandal completely passed them by.


Ross Hawkins
Coogan at : says notw reporter warned him girl was about to try to entrap him via call from Coulson office


Ben Fenton
It's like the Mafia, it's just business. tells of the press model.


Mary-Ellen Field















Gary Flitcroft
















From the Guardian Live Blog:
11.37 a.m. : The hearing is now exploring some the Sun newspaper articles branding him a "love rat" in the immediate aftermath of the lifting of the injunction.
Another article in the Telegraph was headlined:
"Saga of the Love Rat footballer leaves one question, Garry who?"

BBC News - Leveson Inquiry: Ex-footballer Garry Flitcroft in Suicide Claim 

Video: Leveson Inquiry: Garry Flitcroft Suspected His Phone Was Hacked  - Telegraph

Article from The Sun on Garry Flitcroft 

Garry Flitcroft 'Strongly Suspects' People Hacked Phone - Press Gazette


Ben Fenton
admits he spent £190K on legal fees for injunction. shown Telegraph article saying "Garry who?" "I wasnt high profile".


james robinson
Neil Wallis was editor of the People, which obtained the story, at this time court is told

Stewart Joseph
Gary Flitcroft, giving evidence to the inquiry, implicates the Daily Mail.

Ben Fenton
In short, says marriage didn't survive.3 Kids teased by fans who chant about me."It's unfair. Unfair on wife Karen too"


Mr. and Mrs. Watson



Herald Apologises to the Watson Family - Guardian


Watsons Call For Libel Law Change - Press Association


Background to Margaret Watson's Case 

This is the background to the Watson's story. (From Guardian Live Blog)Margaret Watson is not a name that will stand out in the glittering cast of core participants to the Leveson inquiry. But her story is among the most pertinent. Watson and her husband have fought a 20-year campaign to reform defamation laws in Scotland in a challenge to the convention that the dead cannot be libelled. Watson's 16-year-old daughter, Diane, was stabbed to death in a playground row at her Glasgow school in 1991. The Glasgow Herald published a series of articles that played down the extent of Diane's injuries and suggested that she provoked her 16-year-old murderer, Barbara Glover. Diane's younger brother, Alan, committed suicide shortly afterwards. He was discovered with newspaper cuttings of the relevant articles in his hand. Watson's campaign to reform Scottish defamation law is ongoing.

Scotland Reassesses Law on defamation of the Dead - Guardian


Peter Reilly
"The Herald & Times Group deeply regrets any action which added to the Watson family's grief over the tragic loss."



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