What? The Leveson Inquiry continued in force in November, with victims of the phone-hacking scandal taking the stand.
So What? The two-part inquiry was announced by the Prime Minister in July and aims to examine the culture and ethics of the media. The inquiry will look specifically at the phone-hacking scandal as well as the press' relationship with the public, the police and politicians.
Issues raised
Lord Justice Leveson opened the hearings by stating: "At the heart of this Inquiry...may be one simple question: who guards the guardians?"
Tales of bad-behaviour exhibited by the press were rife – Sienna Miller was allegedly spat at by the paparazzi, while the mother of Hugh Grant's child was repeatedly "door-stepped" following the birth. Charlotte Church was told to waive her performance fee at Rupert Murdoch's wedding in order to receive positive coverage in the newspapers owned by News International. Perhaps most shocking was the testimony from Sue Dowler (mother of Milly Dowler), that she believed her daughter was still alive after being able to access her previously full voicemail. It was later revealed that the phone had been hacked and messages deleted. All victims were made to feel paranoid and many suspected that their close and friends and family were betraying them by leaking stories.
Several victims complained that the existing, self-regulating, monitoring body, the Press Complaints Commission ("PCC"), was ineffective and that its rulings were not taken seriously. Author JK Rowling referred to the PCC as "toothless" for its inability to impose strong sanctions for breach of its Code of Practice with Alistair Campbell stating it had "utterly failed". General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Michelle Stanistreet, a former journalist, highlighted the pressure journalists were under to deliver stories that would sell, particularly given the endless cutbacks and redundancies the industry is facing. She also stated that complaints made to the PCC by her and fellow journalists resulted in "absolutely nothing" being done – not even an investigation.
Freedom of the press
Despite the damning testimonies, the need for investigative journalism was still acknowledged. Rowling for example stated that despite "illegal and intrusive" press behaviour she still believes "very very strongly in freedom of the press and freedom of expression" and that there is "truly heroic journalism". Lord Justice Leveson himself commented during the opening of the inquiry that "freedom" of the press is fundamental to democracy and that there is "much to applaud" in the British Press.
Lord Justice Leveson's task is great. He must find a way to prevent a repeat of the phone-hacking scandal, he must write privacy rules that protect the individual, but also allow duplicity to be exposed and he must create a new body to "guard" it all.
Witness statements continued until early December. The inquiry's initial recommendations are due in September 2012.
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