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 |
From Guardian:
Here's a quick reminder of the four modules within this first year of the inquiry.
Module 1: The relationship between the press and the public and looks at phone-hacking and other potentially illegal behaviourModule 2: The relationships between the press and police and the extent to which that has operated in the public interest
Module 3: The relationship between press and politiciansModule 4: Recommendations for a more effective policy and regulation that supports the integrity and freedom of the press while encouraging the highest ethical standards.
Witness list for this week (30th January to 2nd February) to be found HERE
Video Recordings of each day's proceedings HERE
Live Feed From Leveson Inquiry Site HERE
BBC Democracy Live Feed HERE
Guardian Live Blog
BBC News Leveson Inquiry Page
#Leveson Twitter Feed
Dan Sabbagh (Guardian Journalist) Twitter timeline
Ben Fenton (Journalist FT) live Leveson tweets and comments
Live Blog - Hacking Inquiry - Hacked Off
Hackinginquiry on Twitter (Hacked Off)
BBC News Leveson Inquiry Page
#Leveson Twitter Feed
Dan Sabbagh (Guardian Journalist) Twitter timeline
Ben Fenton (Journalist FT) live Leveson tweets and comments
Live Blog - Hacking Inquiry - Hacked Off
Hackinginquiry on Twitter (Hacked Off)
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Today's links to articles, info and comments relevant to the Leveson Inquiry (frequently updated) :
- Mysteries of Data Pool 3 Give Rupert Murdoch a Whole New Headache - Guardian Media
- Law and Media Round Up - 30th January 2012 - Inforrm's Blog
- Police Raid on Whistleblower's Home Was 'Total Abuse of Power' - Independent
- Prescott Accuses Press of 'Conspiracy' - PoliticsHome
- News of the World's Andy Coulson 'Should Have Been Quizzed By PCC Over Hacking', Says Body's Former Director - Mail Online
- Legal Aid Bill: Why the Media's Silence? - Comment is Free - Guardian
- AMERICAblog News: Four Murdoch Reporters Arrested - But Don't Worry, No Phone-hacking, They Just Bribed Cops
- Google Clashes With British MPs Over Takedown Policy - FT.com
- Google and Twitter Are Dangerous, Claims Former NotW Editor Phil Hall - TJF
- Rupert Murdoch Cuts Off Wapping - Dan Sabbagh - Guardian Media
The idiot who led PCC whilst phone hacking was rife says self-regulation is "as good as you're going to get" http://bbc.in/A2IoZE
- Does This Implicate Sun Editor in Police Bribery? - Liberal Conspiracy
- The CMS Committee Publishes Further Correspondence from Met Police, Linklaters and James Murdoch re Phone-hacking Inquiry
- Meyer Takes No Prisoners - PoliticsHome
- Meyer Hits Out At PCC Critics - the Free Speech Blog
- News International Driver 'Gave Payments to Police' - News - Getsurrey
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Tuesday 31st January 2012
( Link to Hearing Day 33 HERE )
Today's Witnesses:
Lord Hunt (PCC)
Sir Christopher Meyer (PCC)
Lord Grade
Meyer is now finished. Lord [Michael] Grade who is now a lay member of the PCC, is up next.
Lord Grade was chairman of the BBC between 2004 and 2006
Journalism not chilled by statutory regulation, Grade says, but it would mean a slow process of justice.People want speedy redress.
Grade says he would also be worried about a statutory scheme which was able to prevent publication.
Grade says he'd be worried about possibility of a politically appointed statutory body having power to stop publication of stories
Provided PCC 2 entirely independent of govt&proprietors/publishers too, it will be a major step forwards. #leveson says he entirely agrees.
Guardian Live Blog:
Grade says he does not believe that statutory regulation would have a chilling effect on investigative journalism, pointing to investigative TV programmes which he describes as "heavily regulated".However, he says he has two objections to statutory regulation:
First, statutory regulation would raise the prospect of judicial review, and the complaints process would be slower. For example, the BBC Trust dealt quickly with the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand controversy, while statutory regulator Ofcom took months to issue a judgment.
Second, he has concerns over a statutory body taking over powers to intervene with newspapers pre-publication.
Leveson asks Grade to consider a framework that could allow an independent body to carry out its work.Grade is an advocate of "incentives" to encourage publishers to be part of a new regulatory body.
However, he says he worries about the parliamentary process and the ability to get legislation through without being mangled.
Grade: I think it's essential for a regime of quasi regulation or regulation to have visible, tangible, painful means of sanction
Grade says it's essential new body has teeth. Visible, tangible painful means of sanction, yes. #leveson [& did you bring yr CV, Lord G?]
Grade at #leveson : suggests 'carrot' to take part in new PCC could be membership to be taken account in defamation damages etc
Grade says has been surprised most by extent of ex-ante intervention by PCC to stop some of the worst excesses.
[that remark will have #leveson wondering if what he has seen isn't "the worst excesses", how much worse does it get.]
Grade: felt direction that Baroness Buscombe was taking the PCC in with independent appointments was something I could sign up to
Lord Hunt
- PCC Chairman Lord Hunt Puts the Case For Self-Regulated Media - Wales Online
- Witness Statement in Full
Lord Hunt of Wirral,current chairman of PCC, who it turns out went to school with #leveson They don't remember each other. Liverpool College
Serving PCC chairman Lord Hunt says new body should be regulator, unlike current PCC.
Hunt "Sir Christopher and I go back a long way and I can't recall a time where he has agreed with me". (So much for the past at the PCC)
Hunt at #leveson : (on opposing statutory regulation) the road to Parliamentary hell is paved with good intentions
Hunt name-checks McNae's Essential Law for Journalists
Hunt at #leveson : if bill to regulate press went through parl no telling what would come out the other side
Hunt at #leveson : tremendous opportunity for press to come forward with system Sir David Calcutt was asking for
Serving PCC chairman Lord Hunt: "We need a fresh start and a totally new body"
Admiral on the bridge should know what is going on in the engine room, new PCC chairman says of newspapers.
Hunt at #leveson : there's a wide consensus for radical reform as an urgent necessity
Guardian Live Blog:
Hunt says that a new press body should have two arms: one that deals with complaints and mediation; and one that audits and enforces standards and compliance with the editors' code. He adds that a named individual in each organisation should be responsible for compliance.
There should be an annual audit to ensure compliance.
The body would be underpinned by a commercial contract with publishers.
Hunt says it is encouraging that there is a "consensus for widespread reform". All media players "accept that radical reform is an urgent necessity".
Hunt suggests an independent review of the code of conduct.
He adds that the new system needs "formal legal underpinning" so that it can enforce sanctions, including financial penalties.
Hunt says the new PCC functions and powers could be set up without legislation, but with formal contracts.
He says the body should be "recognised by statute" rather than having its operation set out by statute.
Hunt sees real appetite for reform. [does #leveson see his inquiry being made redundant, though? Hunt seems to have put tanks on lawn.]
Hunt at #leveson - PCC being criticised for failing to exercise powers it never had in the first place
BREAKING: Hunt says Desmond has signed up for his vision of a new PCC
Jay "how will get people to join up". Hunt: "By asking them". Then he says that Northern & Shell have agreed to join it.
...if that is true, that is significant. But Richard Desmond did not indicate that he would sign up to new regulator at Leveson.
Hunt says his new PCC would have fines issued by standards and compliance arm. Jay:is appetite for reform actually a fear of #leveson?
[Hunt keeps saying: the advice I've received... He has obviously been talking to high-calibre lawyers. And he is one himself]
[I think if I was #leveson I wd be wondering if my inquiry wasn't being booted into long grass by an alliance of papers&pols]
Hunt:self-regulation has a huge advantage, that it can adapt to circumstances. That is possible without another act of Parliament.
[Sounds to me as if Hunt has been talking to some pretty serious law-drafters about this. Is this a govt-backed suggestion?]
Hunt: I think you have opened the window opportunity. I'd be keen to use the momentum your inquiry provided to press on with reform
[The inquiry has suddenly got all newsy. After a lot of bad will this morning, suddenly we are looking at real action.And soon.]
Hunt cites an article wrtitten about him by Edward Pearce - "David Hunt is a sponge" then adds "but even a sponge can be useful".
Hunt reminds #leveson that he was supported by a newspaper when he stood up against Enoch Powell on racism when in his 20s
Hunt: I've had more than my fair share of derision from press, but I'd fight to the death for their right to express their views
Guardian Live Blog:
Lord Hunt is asked whether there is anything to the point that the PCC has historically been led by Conservative peers.Hunt, a Tory peer, says he has had more than his fair share of "derision" from the press but would "fight to the death" for the industry's right to express those views.
"The press is a mixture, I suppose, buy the fact it is a free press is probably our nation's greatest asset," Hunt adds.
Leveson says that Hunt's contractual model "says absolutely nothing to the public".Hunt says the PCC would not stop a member of the public pursuing litigation instead of using the commission.
He adds that the new regulator should be built on an agreed definition of "the public interest".
Leveson says that Hunt's contractual model "says absolutely nothing to the public".
Hunt says the PCC would not stop a member of the public pursuing litigation instead of using the commission.
He adds that the new regulator should be built on an agreed definition of "the public interest".
Northern & Shell: "We are in touch with Lord Hunt. Things are looking encouraging."
Sir Christopher Meyer
- Biographical Notes from the PCC Website
- Speech - Nov 2008
- BBC News - Daily Politics Soapbox - Sir Christopher Meyer on the PCC - Video
- Sir Christopher Meyer's Twitter Feed
- Sir Christopher Meyer's 2003 speech to Newspaper Society
- CMS Committee - Sir Christopher Meyer on Max Mosley Case - Transcript
- Way of the World - Review Of Sir Christopher Meyer's Memoirs by Craig Brown for the Telegraph - 2005
From Sir Christopher Meyer's Twitter feed 13th October 2011:
Press already partly regulated by state via Data Protection Act, Human Rights Act, Regulation of Investigatory Practices Act, among others.
Comments on Today's Evidence by Sir Christopher Meyer from #Leveson Twitter feed:
Sir Christopher Meyer was chair of
Sir Christopher Meyer says PCC IS a regulator. There is such a thing as self-regulation but is unlike anything else, he tells
Never one to follow an overwhelming consensus - Meyer tells #Leveson he thinks the PCC *is* a regulator.
Meyer: PCC is a public service... for the 99% who come to the PCC for help who do not lay claim to celebrity of any kind
Sir Christopher Meyer has the answers to Robert Jay's questions before they've been asked. This should be good.
[Occasion never arose,
Meyer now questioned about 2003 speech about the "permanent evolution" of the press. He'd been in job 5 or 6 weeks only.
Jay: Wasn't this a bit precipitate? Meyer: "Mr Jay, I do not believe in hanging around."
Meyer: all through my 6 years at PCC I agonised over what type of regulation it could be called
Jay accuses Sir Christopher Meyer of flamboyance. Meyer says he's been wise.
Meyer at #Leveson: "I hate to call myself *wise*, but I think it was *wise*, very *wise*"
Myer at #leveson : still believes PCC shouldn't be able to fine, director yday suggested they should in some circumstances
Meyer says he would not accept the public wanted the PCC to posses sharper teeth
We asked people: What do you want - fast free and fair or to get bogged down? #leveson points out that is not a v fair poll question.
Meyer: I think when the question was put, it was done a with more sophistication and subtlety than I have just expressed. #leveson harrumphs
@benfenton Thanks for the RT. (We did some polling in 2009, which might be useful, too - from p39 http://bit.ly/xzRdQE)
Myer at #leveson : Guardian threatened to leave PCC in 2003 after ruling against paper
Meyer's era at PCC saw arguably worst of the press's excesses. His softly-softly chummy approach failed miserably
Myer at #leveson : no Any Questions audience member ever questioned him on press - Lev : maybe they didn't know what it was
Meyer: only the Advertising Standards Authority was better known than the PCC, I think, in successive polls.
Meyer:No point in duplicating police report.2 men had gone to jail.Editor had gone to jail.At the time, it seemed pretty draconian.
Meyer on Goodcaire jailings: was strongly of view that it wouldn't be useful or possible for PCC to try to duplicate police inquiry
Meyer, now: 'fanciful' idea of quasi-police invstgtn. PCC, 18/5/07: 'wide-ranging inquiry' into phone-hacking http://bit.ly/zJoZNz
Meyer at #leveson : entirely fanciful to suggest PCC could have sent quasi police investigative force into News of the World
Jay instantly challenges this.It might have played oddly if it came out as he was taking job with Cameron that he'd refused to talk to PCC.
From Guardian Live Blog:
Meyer says the decision not to interview Andy Coulson, after he left the News of the World, "was exactly the right one to take … although presentationally it has made things difficult for me".Meyer says the PCC had no powers to interview under oath, and in any case Coulson no longer worked for the paper.
He says it is "wholly improbable" that Coulson would have been able to tell the PCC more than Colin Myler "had been able to dig out of the system".
Coulson "would not have had anything of value to add to the reports that we published", says Meyer.
Meyer at #leveson : didn't think ex NOTW ed Coulson would have had anything of value to add to report on hacking
Jay forces Meyer to admit that there is nothing in PCC articles of association that sanctions editors for misleading it.
Meyer: Virtue for us in Colin Myler was that he was a fresh pair of eyes who knew his industry well.
Meyer at #leveson : says people were surprised at just how much the PCC learned from News of the World
"A giant criminal conspiracy in the belly of the beast" Meyer at #Leveson trying to defend the failure of the PCC
Meyer: PCC is a regulator unlike any other. Max Mosley had a choice of either coming to the PCC or going to law. He went to law.
[Meyer just lost his cool a bit, uttering a 'for pity's sake']
We might have found for him.I'm not sure where you are going with this,Meyer says to Jay. [Counsel for #leveson appears to be enjoying this]
Meyer: once you go to law the game changes. Possible the whole thing [Mosley] might've taken a different course if he'd come to us
If it had come to the PCC, the Mosley case would have pivoted on whether or not they had got the public interest right. Meyer tells
Phone hacking: Meyer #Leveson " there is a time for the law and a time for the PCC" what a COP OUT statement. No wonder they've done nothing
Sir Christopher Meyer is simply not credible. The idea that PCC cd have or wd have stopped Moseley story is just not real.
Meyer: I think when you mention the word collusion, even to dismiss it, there's a whiff of poodle or lap dog here...
Meyer: My policy was actually personal distance, but institutionally, obviously, the PCC had to be close to the industry
In no particular order, Sir Christopher Meyer being haughty, defensive, charming, unsettled and peeved in his evidence on the PCC
[Discussion within press room during break about whether Meyer is doing well or not. Some think he shd be standing up to Jay...]
[others that he is not sounding like the suave diplomat we know he has been]
Meyer at #leveson : Scottish paper ran headline 'assassination plot against Tony Blair' - body text said there was no such plot
Jay is moving on to misleading headlines. Meyer says he told industry they cdn't have misleading headlines on top of accurate copy.
Meyer says it was a balance between the two. I was out there all the time saying watch it with the headlines.
Meyer at #leveson : there were limits to what you could do to monitor the entire UK output of newspapers
Meyer: we ran series of seminars describing how code of practice works. Must write code of conduct into every journo's contract.
Meyer says he disagrees with Jay's idea that proactive statements of principle wd be more effective than "jurisprudence".
Meyer at #leveson arguing the rulings by the PCC helped set the rules, were noted and acted on by journos
Third party complaints not ruled out by PCC. That was a myth. It was case by case. But they were rare, Meyer tells
1st party was king. If they didn't want to proceed we wouldnt entertain a 3rd party complaint.
Meyer at #leveson : family of footballer who died on the pitch (& was photoed) didn't want PCC to act so they didn't despite oth complaints
Robert Jay QC to
Meyer: we didn't feel under the obligation to put under the code everything the select committee recommended.
Meyer at #leveson : "I'm going to have to be a bit slippery on this..." (on writing ability of journos to refuse jobs into code)
Meyer: we were constantly being asked by the NUJ to get into effectively contractual disputes between their members and managements
From Guardian Live Blog:
Meyer is asked about the Commons culture, media and sport committee's recommendation in its 2003 report Privacy and Media Intrusion that:
The code should explicitly ban payments to the police for information and there should also be a ban on the use and payment of intermediaries, such as private detectives, to extract or otherwise obtain private information about individuals from public and private sources, again especially the police.He says this was never implemented by the PCC because bribery was already covered by criminal law.
Meyer is asked about coverage of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.He says he made it "perfectly plain" to Gerry McCann that it was either the legal route or the PCC.
In July 2007, Meyer told McCann and his press handler what the options were if they believed they need to "take action" against a newspaper.
Meyer: we made particular efforts with the McCanns to make ourselves available
Meyer reminds #leveson that PCC acted to protect other McCann children from press scrums. But couldn't act ahead of them.
Meyer tells Jay PCC did help stop the media harassment, protecting their children #leveson
[Did we know that Meyer pushed Hill out of the PCC? Or that any editor has ever been told he has to resign by the chairman?
Hill told me something about Portuguese police sources. Meyer had "torn him off a strip" on Radio 4 after the libel settlements
Meyer says it is "very unfair" to say that he acted too slowly to condemn the Express's coverage of the McCann's
Meyer: am I to go out there and say "poor old Peter, he's taken a knock, but onwards and upwards, chaps?"
Some editors worried that Hill's departure meant it would be a precedent of having to resign from PCC if they lost libel case.
Meyer at #leveson : I am repeating (myself) Mr Jay because it doesn't seem to be sinking in
Former Press Complaints Com. Chair Sir Christopher Meyer getting rather testy as he defends PCC handling of McCann's complaint
Meyer: McCanns needed the press for publicity's sake... but in those circumstances it was a Faustian bargain and you could see why
You cd see journalists out in Praia de Luz under pressure from newsdesks to produce fresh stories so they started taking risks.
Meyer at #leveson : treatment of McCanns was abominable but doesn't need big inquiry or systematic review to see it
Meyer: if Dr and Mrs (sic) McCann don't want it (to pursue a complaint), you can't do it
Don't think I've seen a more combative (some would say arrogant) witness than the former PCC Chair, Sir Chirstopher Meyer
Meyer: one of successes of PCC was in containing media scrums. Ask Lady Newlove (widow of Gary Newlove, who was beaten to death)
"I wd refute your connection of the McCanns and the Jefferies cases" Meyer to Jay.
Sir Christopher at #Leveson: "You will forgive me if I push back from time to time, rather than sitting here like a coconut..."
Meyer is saying Thomas was unwilling to tell him who were the journalists procuring information from PI Steve Whittamore
Guardian Live Blog:
Meyer is asked about his dealings with the former information commissioner, Richard Thomas.He says that Thomas "laboured under the misapprehension" that the PCC had power to enforce the criminal law.
The PCC published guidance on the Data Protection Act in 2005, Meyer says.
Thomas told the PCC in December 2003 that "there are going to be journalists caught up in this; there are going to be court cases", according to Meyer.
Meyer says he wanted evidence on who was hiring inquiry agents "and he [Thomas] was unwilling to do that".
Meyer says PCC cdn't take early action on blagging because Info Commissioner wdn't say which journos/papers were misbehaving.
Jay showing Meyer a completely illegible note (it's up on the screen in the annex - impossible to read)
Meyer at #leveson on Jay's questioning (with infinite weariness) : Oh no, no, no...
It continues: "I wanted beef, I wanted red meat!". (This is Meyer on the PCC being unable to obtain names from
Phone hacking: Meyer "This is like interpreting the Rosetta stone" - QC Jay says "it's not quite that bad, its not in 3 languages"
Jay - it's not it's not in three languages. (Jay turns a light red and joins Meyer in giggles)
[Meyer showing all his contempt for the inquiry right there, laughing at Jay trying to show him evidence]
Meyer says Jay is expecting that he shd have supernatural powers because he didn't foresee the ramifications of Op Motorman
Meyer: we get into negotiation with the ICO to come up with a guidance note, and then it disappears into deep underground legals
Lunch break.
From Guardian Live Blog:
Here is a lunchtime summary of today's evidence so far:• Meyer said he told Peter Hill, the former editor of the Daily Express, he had to resign in wake of McCann libel payout.
• The former chairman of the PCC, Sir Christopher Meyer, has denied "inaction" over newspapers' Madeleine McCann coverage.
• Meyer warned against statutory involvement in press regulation and against fines for newspapers.
Meyer is asked about a meeting with the Information Commissioner's Office in January 2006.He said in the meeting that the PCC "could not be seen as a general regulator".
However, he says he repeatedly told the former information commissioner, Richard Thomas, that his office and the PCC could "complement each other" in their work.
Meyer and Jay still debating the reaction of the PCC to Operation Motorman
Meyer: I was not in the business to call in editors to explain actions which were perfectly legal
[Except that ICO's report says they were probably illegal transactions] #leveson
Meyer: I needed actionable information. That was never given.
From Guardian Live Blog:
Meyer is asked about an article in The Sun in 2003 that labelled former boxer Frank Bruno "bonkers", after he was taken to a psychiatric hospital.The PCC censured the Sun over the article, but the then Sun editor, Rebekah Wade, sent Meyer a terse reply.
Meyer describes the Sun's response to the criticism as "silly".
Jay points out that Meyer's note at the time said "lunch in the new year" and asks if this was a tough enough response.
Meyer responds that he met each of the editors once a year.
The
From Guardian Live Blog:
Meyer is asked about about an interview he did with the Guardian's Roy Greenslade in March 2009 titled "Watchdog or lapdog?".Asked in the interview what needed to be improved about the PCC, Meyer said: "Not a lot."
He added:
I think it's improved a great deal over the last six years. I am not saying that we've reached a state of grace but it's in a state of permanent evolution and it's done jolly well.He stands by that. "I think to have said a hell of a lot would have been perverse," Meyer says. "I would rest on those words even now".
Meyer admits he was criticised by Greenslade over the number of ajudications made by the PCC, but says it cannot "artificailly inflate" them.
"Sorry i don't want to sound arrogant, but i'm scratching my head to think of failures." Meyer talking about his time at the PCC
Meyer asked about remarks that Major govt "cringed" to the press in 1994-97.
An attempt to get alongside Rupert Murdoch failed utterly because Rupert thought John Major was a loser.
"Private contacts between pols and press are as old as sin itself," Meyer tells
Guardian Live Blog:
Meyer says the government attempted to "get in" with Rupert Murdoch, but it "failed utterly" because Murdoch thought Major was "a loser".
Jay says in his witness statement, Meyer talks about "the cringing of politicians to the press" when he was John Major's press secretary and government spokesman from 1994 to 1997."Enormous" attention was paid to national newspaper editors in the early 1990s, Meyer says, adding: "It came down to an exaggerated belief of the influence of front-page stories."
Meyer was sceptical about the power of newspapers, he says, referring to his time in John Major's government.
"There was a natural courting of those who supported the prime minister to keep them on board," he says.
Utterly surreal RT
Guardian Live Blog:
Meyer admits editors try to influence government policies and appointments. He adds that contacts between politicians and the press "are as old as sin itself".Jay notes: "We may be in the realms of sin because private contacts are anti-democratic."
Jay asks Meyer a concrete example of private contacts between a prime minister and a proprietor in an attempt to influence policy.
Meyer says he needed notice of this question "but I can remember people coming in".
Jay concedes that he should have given Meyer notice of the question.
Meyer says a privacy law was drafted by the Major government before his time as press secretary. He adds that it was redrafted several times, then shelved, partly because the government did not wasnt to antagonise the press.
Meyer at #leveson : (on press / pol relations) politicians are grown up, they know with whom they are supping
Meyer says he was lobbied against a privacy law by a News Int person in Washington before he took up his job in Downing Street.
