Leveson Inquiry: Witness Lists - January 9th - 12th

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

The Panel : 

Top row (left to right)

• Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty
• George Jones, former Daily Telegraph political editor
• Sir David Bell, former chairman of the Financial Times

Bottom row (Left to right)

• Elinor Goodman, former Channel 4 political editor
• Lord David Currie, former chairman of Ofcom
• Sir Paul Scott-Lee, former West Midlands chief constable

• Videos of Hearings From Leveson Inquiry Website

• Leveson Inquiry Witness Statements

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Inquiry resumes Monday January 9th 2012

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.

Witnesses 

Monday:

Appearing in person: 

Duncan Larcombe (The Sun)

Kelvin MacKenzie (formerly with The Sun)

Dominic Mohan (The Sun)

Gordon Smart (The Sun)

Justin Walford (The Sun) 

John Edwards (The Sun)

Witnesses whose evidence statements will be read:

Stuart Higgins (The Sun)

Simon Toms (The Sun)

David Yelland (The Sun)

Tuesday:

Appearing in person:

Lionel Barber (FT) 

Chris Blackhurst (Independent)

Tony Gallagher (Telegraph)

William Lewis (formerly Telegraph)

Murdoch MacLennan (Telegraph)

Manish Malhotra (Independent)

Andrew Mullins (Independent)

Finbarr Ronayne (Telegraph)

Witnesses whose evidence statements will be read:

Tim Bratton (FT)

Benedict Brogan (Telegraph)

Adam Cannon (Telegraph)

Alison Fortescue (FT)
Stefano Hatfield (Independent)

Wednesday:

Appearing in person:

Liz Hartley (Associated Newspapers)

Peter Wright (Associated Newspapers)  

Witnesses whose evidence statements will be read:

Kevin Beatty (Associated Newspapers)

James Welsh (Associated Newspapers) 

Thursday:   

Appearing in person:

Paul Ashford (Northern and Shell)

Richard Desmond (Northern and Shell)

Peter Hill (Northern and Shell)

Dawn Neesom (Northern and Shell)

Nicole Patterson (Northern and Shell)

Robert Sanderson (Northern and Shell)

Hugh Whitlow (Northern and Shell) 

Witnesses whose evidence statements will be read: 

Martin Ellice (Northern and Shell)

Gareth Morgan (Northern and Shell)

Martin Townsend (Northern and Shell)

Labour 'Big Beast' mauls the Sunday Times!

 There is no definite dawn on Twitter. Today seemed perfectly ordinary until this tweet appeared on my timeline at about 8 a.m.:

@johnprescott John Prescott

I see there's a quote purporting to be from me in the Sunday Times. It's completely made up. An absolute lie. Let me explain what happened..

Thus began a very interesting, very gratifying morning!

As the morning wore on, more and more 'tweeters' became involved in an attempt to put right an inaccuracy in the Sunday Times featuring John Prescott in particular.

The article was part of what seemed to have been a veritable and sudden onslaught by much of the press against the Labour leadership, beginning on Thursday in the Daily Telegraph :

 

"Labour coup: Ed Balls and his five fellow plotters

Ed Balls is exposed in the documents uncovered by The Daily Telegraph as the key figure in the plot to oust Tony Blair and replace him with Gordon Brown."

The story was taken up by most of the papers but without the 'secret' documents, written five years ago and 'given' to the Telegraph by an unnamed donor. These were said by Ed Balls to have been taken from his desk when he left the Education Department after the general Election. There is now an investigation, headed by Gus O'Donnell, underway to see if there has been any breach of security and in an attempt to find whoever was responsible for removing the papers.

Since the Telegraph's 'bomshell', the media have run with similar stories including one from the Guardian of the acceptance speech David Miliband would have given had he won the Labour leadership election, and a 'Brothers at War' frontpager today in the Independent:

Independent on Sunday - 12th June 2011

Little wonder, then, that by this morning many Labour supporters were feeling jittery and wondering what had hit them! Once most of the articles had been read and discussed on Twitter and those wide-awake enough had written their thoughts in their blogs, the general consensus was that most of the content was supposition, guesswork and ill-informed trouble-making! 


Quotations were not, on the whole, attributed to anyone in particular, but gathered from a great many anonymous 'friends', 'senior MPs', 'frontbench' sources. Some of the least convincing were from well-known Conservative political pundits.....

John Prescott had been credited with a comment about Ed Miliband in this morning's Sunday Times. He said:

@johnprescott John Prescott

Sunday Times called our home in Hull on our ex directory number. No journalist has it. Caller told Pauline she was Deputy Editor...

@johnprescott John Prescott

When pressed she admitted she was from The Sunday Times. It was Political Editor Isobel Oakshott. I spoke to her & asked how she got number

@johnprescott John Prescott

Oakshott had no opportunity to ask a question as I told her never to call the number again and put the phone down on her.

Sunday Times - 12th June 2011

 

 

@johnprescott John Prescott

I know Murdoch's News International doesn't like me, having admitted hacking into my phone messages. But his papers are now making up quotes

@johnprescott John Prescott

It's pointless going to the PCC so I thought I'd share it with you to show what Murdoch papers and their journalists are really like

Finally, at around midday, came the following:
 

@ST_Newsroom Sunday Times News

Due to a prod error a quote was wrongly attributed to @johnprescott. We apologise for the confusion & are happy to set the record straight

 To  which John Prescott responded, adding a link to the part of the article where his name is clearly shown:

@johnprescott John Prescott

@camillalong @hugorifkind You'll see the quote is attributed to me. It's'hilarious' you don't read your own paper http://twitpic.com/5aiq01

@johnprescott John Prescott

@ST_Newsroom Typical of Murdoch newspaper to blame a production worker not the journalist. My name was used to justify big beast headline..

Hopefully, the Sunday Times will also print an apology to John Prescott in a prominent place in next week's edition. What will be much more difficult to put right is the damage done to a newspaper's credibility. If a misattributed quote has found it way into one article, how many others have slipped through and caused damage in the wider world?

If the 'victim' in this case hadn't been a well known politician with a great many 'followers' on
Twitter, would an apology have been forthcoming without recourse to the courts?

One last point, why are so many people convinced that to report a case like this to the PCC would be a futile exercise?

Update #1

An article has appeared on the Guardian's online site: Sunday Times Apologises to John Prescott Over Wrong Quote  

('Wrong quote'?- He didn't give one at all to the Sunday Times...)

"He added: "I refuse to accept this mealy-mouthed apology. I want a front page retraction – due prominence – in next week's Sunday Times."
Prescott, a potential victim of phone hacking by an investigator working for the News of the World, another Rupert Murdoch paper, has been one of the most vociferous critics of the handling of the hacking scandal by News International and the Metropolitan police."

Perhaps the 'mauling' hasn't ended quite yet...? 

Update #2:

13th June 2011:-

PCC should investigate Sunday Times

'John Prescott' quote

13 June, 2011 - 12:44 -- Will Moy

                                                       The following is a letter sent by Full Fact to the PCC today:

Letter to PCC from FullFact.org

No Panic, Daily Mail.

Since last Friday, 11th March 2011, the majority of the world 's media have rightly focused their attention on the terrible plight of hundreds of thousands of Japanese people. 

Visited at 2.46 p.m. by a very powerful earthquake, magnitude 9.0, the Eastern seaboard of Japan was then almost obliterated by a tsunami which destroyed many towns and villages along the coast, killing an, as yet, indeterminate number of people. 


Representatives of the media descended on the areas affected. From the UK, most of the well-known 24 hour news stations' anchor men and women as well as countless journalists from the press are there, relaying moving stories , painting vivid pictures of the scenes they are witnessing and enabling readers, listeners and viewers alike to see for themselves the extent of this disaster.


Most of the reporters, thankfully, are producing high-quality, truthful and effective columns and pieces to camera . We are able, through the thoughtful, intelligent and honest accounts from journalists like Channel 4's Jon Snow and Alex Thompson, to see and hear for ourselves the dignity and sheer tenacity of fellow human beings trying to cope with extreme danger and its aftermath. These journalists are often in dangerous situations themselves.


Now added to earthquake and tsunami, we are watching a nuclear power plant seemingly rapidly running out of control and which may affect the health of many of those lucky enough to survive the earlier events.


Most News outlets have been reporting, and we have been able to see for ourselves, how marvellously stoic and forbearing the Japanese people have been and continue to be. Reporters constantly refer in admiration to the way these people are kind to those in need, thoughtful to strangers and work together to make the best of what most of us would find only in our worst nightmares.

As Channel 4 News' Alex Thomson says in his blog:

 Over here there is no chaos. No mayhem. There is a nuclear power station with some heating issues. There is a forest fire, a blizzard tonight and coastal obliteration on an unimaginable scale.

But this is Japan. They do not panic. They do not do mayhem. They don’t litter and they don’t loot.

Further examples of the sheer forbearance of the Japanese people can be found here in this video sent by George Alagiah from BBC News: here


Most of the media have been restrained and accurate in their reporting of events in Japan. Some have not. The Daily Mail today, tells us in banner headline on the front page that Japan's people are 'in the grip of nuclear panic' and includes the word 'apocalypse' in the same headline. 

The purpose of this hyperbole is no doubt to ratchet up the drama of the piece and sell more copies, but what it does do, in actual fact, is a disservice to many thousands of human beings behaving in a way many of the rest of us doubt we would be able to emulate.

How much more effective and honest, then, is this style of front page and headline -

No unwarranted exaggeration, no hype and more importantly, no lack of respect for the victims of this tragedy.


Rosie Robertson