"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.
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| Lord Justice Leveson |
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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 behaviour
Module 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 politicians
Module 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 (9th - 12th January) to be found HERE
Video Recordings of each day's proceedings HERE
Live Feed From Leveson Inquiry Site HERE
BBC Democracy Live Feed HERE
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Links gathered throughout the day:
Wednesday 11th January:
Appearing in person:
Liz Hartley (Associated Newspapers)
Peter Wright (Associated Newspapers)
Paul Silva (Associated Newspapers)
Witnesses whose evidence statements will be read:
Kevin Beatty (Associated Newspapers)
James Welsh (Associated Newspapers)
Liz Hartley
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| Liz Hartley |
Head of Editorial legal services at Associated Newspapers
The Mail on Sunday and patients' rights campaigners claimed the public has a right to be informed about any threats to their health.
The newspaper believes it is vital that patients who may have been exposed to the risk of HIV should be told so they can be tested.
Solicitor Liz Hartley of Reynolds, Porter, Chamberlain for the Mail on Sunday, said: 'This raises very important issues of Press freedom and the privacy rights afforded to individuals.
'In this case there can be no justification for not naming the health authority which has no right to privacy.'
BBC News article on Raoul Simons HERE
Guardian Live Blog:
Associated has conducted enquiries into Raoul Simons, a former sports reporter who was last year arrested under the Met police's Operation Motorman investigation into phone hacking. These enquiries found that Mulcaire was a contact of Simons, but found no payments made from Simons to Mulcaire.
Guardian Live Blog:
Robert Jay QC asks Hartley about the Information Commissioner's Office's Operation Motorman investigation.
Hartley says the meeting between the ICO and the Mail was in July 2011. Before July last year the ICO was not making available the evidence from its inquiry to journalists, she says.
Four representatives from the newspaper group went to the ICO's headquarters to look at the evidence in August.
Guardian Live Blog:
Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, asks Hartley about a supplementary statement in her written evidence.Jay say it contains "a lot of hearsay", but we do not know what exactly he is referring to.
Continues in Guardian Live Blog HERE
Jay asks how the papers learned that Tin Lan Hong was booked into the Portland hospital, when she did so under a false name. He says he is attempting to show that Grant's allegations were reasonable given what he knew at the time.
Peter Wright
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| Peter Wright |
Witness Statement in full
From Guardian Live Blog:
Peter Wright, editor of the Mail on Sunday, will give evidence on the third day of a week devoted to newspapers.Wright has been editor of the Daily Mail's sister paper since 1998. A long-serving employee of publisher Associated Newspapers, Wright previously served as Paul Dacre's deputy at the Daily Mail and as editor of that paper's Femail section. Wright is widely tipped to take over Dacre when he relinquishes his editorship of the Daily Mail.
The Mail on Sunday benefited along with rival tabloids from the closure of the market-leading News of the World in July, inheriting its mantle of the biggest-selling Sunday paper. After an initial boost of more than 320,000 copies in July, Wright's paper slipped backed to an average weekly sale of about 2m, less than 100,000 above where it was at in June 2011, and about 200,000 ahead of the Sunday Mirror.
Mail on Sunday Page from Guardian
Daily Mail and General Trust page from Wikipedia
From
Guardian Live Blog:
Wright is explaining the difference between daily and Sunday newspapers.He says Sunday titles have more time to investigate stories and "you are looking for stories that the daily papers won't cover and haven't covered but will set the agenda for the following week."
The job of a Sunday editor is "more what you don't put in, what you don't select," he says.
Editing a paper is not like hearing a case in the court of law, Wright tells Leveson. There is only partial information available and a judgment has to be made on Saturday afternoon."The full array of information on which you are going to make that judgment [whether to publish or not] you don't always have until that point," he says.
"If you are a newspaper or journalist you don't have the benefit of being able to question people under oath," he says, adding that subjects will often dodge questions or avoid giving full and truthful answers.
Guardian Live Blog:
Wright adds: "Whittamore didn't supply stories. He was used primarily to find names and addresses of people we needed to speak to in the course of researching stories."
Paul Silva
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| Paul Silva |
Daily Mail Picture Editor
Video - BBC News - Daily Mail defends Hugh Grant Baby Photos
From
Guardian Live Blog:
Silva says there have been "a handful" of complaints by celebrities over the past few years.
The Daily Mail receives about 30,000 pictures a day from agencies all over the world, including paparazzi photographers. Silva describes paparazzi photographers as freelancers who are not attached to a particular newspaper.
Lord Justice Leveson questions Silva on what he says are the "rather arbitrary" distinctions between public and private places in the PCC code, relating to where celebrities can be photographed outside their home. Silva says that the pavement is a public place – where celebrities can be legitimately photographed – but not their driveway."We are only talking about a matter of yards," Silva says.
Silva says
Mailonline use a different picture editor.
Daily Mail Picture Editor Grilled at Leveson Inquiry - the Free Speech Blog
Mailonline Fakes Austrian Snowstorm Picture - Angry Mob Blog
'Up to 400 Pippa Middleton Pictures a Day Submitted to Daily Mail' - Guardian
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| Via Angry Mob Blog |
From
Guardian Live Blog:
Robert Jay QC asks Silva about photographs on Mail Online. He says he only deals with pictures for the newspaper.Jay asks about a picture on Mail Online today of picture of Simon Cowell on his yacht, and whether that would be a private place. Jay says the pictures is from Matrixpictures.co.uk. which Silva describes as "one of the paparazzi agencies".
Silva says he hasn't seen the picture as he was off-desk yesterday preparing for the inquiry.
Jay asks Silva about pictures on Mail Online of Sandra Bullock and her son in a park.
"I'd have to see the picture. We wouldn't put it in the paper... But I don't know the circumstances so I can't really comment," says Silva.
"What's disturbing about these photographs is that the faces of the children haven't been pixiellated ... would you like to see the pictures?" says Jay.
Silva says he doesn't know the circumstances around the pictures. "All the questions I've listed would all be asked in relation to those pictures," Silva says.
On a picture of Bullock trying to shield her child from photographers, he says: "If that was a British celebrity taken in a British park we'd be asking a lot of questions, yes."
From
Guardian Live Blog:
Silva is being asked why the paper's normal policy on pictures of children did not apply to the McCanns."It was the most intense story I've ever worked on," he says. "One of the most difficult I've ever had to work with."
Asked if he has any recommendations, he says the PCC and NPA should get involved were there another situation like the McCanns.
"If you take the McCann situation, if we are unfortuately in that situation again, an organisation like the PCC should be stepping in."
He suggests a PCC training scheme for freelance photographers "where they're aware of their responsibilities".
Witnesses whose evidence will be read: Kevin Beatty
James Welsh
