Phone-hacking inquiry may need more time, says Lord Justice Leveson

Judge appointed by David Cameron to look into phone-hacking scandal says terms of inquiry have expanded considerably Lord Justice Leveson, appointed by David Cameron to look into the fall-out from the phone-hacking scandal, has warned that the expansion of the terms of reference of his inquiry has been so broadened that he may not be able to complete the first part of the inquiry within the planned timescale of a year. He was speaking as his inquiry team met for the first time in London to discuss how it would proceed. He said “in the first instance the inquiry will focus primarily on what I am calling the relationship between the press and the public and the related issue of press regulation”. He said he would have powers to compel named witnesses to attend and would be discussing with the DPP the extent to which he will be able to look at the scale of specific media wrongdoing before the criminal inquiries have been completed. In a prepared statement, he said: “It may be tempting for a number of people to close ranks and suggest that the problem is or was local to a group of journalists then operating at the News of the World but I would encourage all to take a wider picture of the public good and help grapple with the width and depth of the problem.” He said it was critical that the inquiry concentrated on “the central and most important issue”, adding the “focus of the inquiry is the culture practices and ethics of the press in the context of the latter’s relationship with the public, the police and politicians.” He said in September he would be holding in the first instance “a series of seminars on the ethics of journalism and the practices and pressures of investigative journalism”. He added: “At some stage there needs to be a discussion of what amounts to the public good, to what extent the public interest should be taken into account and by whom”. He added he would later hold seminars on press relationships with the police, politicians and the political process. In one of his few specific commitments he said one aspect of the inquiry may look into why “no action was taken in 2006 following a report by the information commissioner” into the use of private detectives and eavesdropping. He stressed the 2005 Inquiries Act under which he is operating gave him powers to require witnesses to attend and provide documentation. He said he would not at this stage be seeking to invite editors or proprietors to provide files on which they had based stories into “the utterly inappropriate behaviour of small sections of the press”. Leveson’s aides stressed that the Lord Justice of Appeal’s repeated references to the press in his statement should not be taken to mean that he would be ignoring the role of broadcasters or social media. The terms of reference were widened by a group of select committee chairmen determined to look at the role of the BBC in seeking to dominate the broadcasting and websites . Leveson also addressed concerns that he may be seen as close to News International due to the fact that he has attended two parties at the home of Matthew Freud, the publicist and husband of Elisabeth Murdoch, the daughter of News Corps chairman, Rupert Murdoch. He said he had met Freud by chance at a dinner in February 2010 when Freud had offered to do some work free of charge on the issue of public confidence in sentencing. Leveson is chair of the Sentencing Council. With the knowledge of the Lord Chief Justice, Leveson attended two large evening events at Freud’s London home in London in July 2010 and January 2011 to discuss these issues. He said he had not spoken with anyone from Freud Communications since January 2011. Another inquiry member Lord Currie said although he was a past chairman of Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, that did not mean he favoured statutory regulation. In a statement he said: “That is not the case. I believe self regulation with good governance in place, can be superior. Each case needs to be judged on it merits.” Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines David Cameron National newspapers Newspapers Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.