Born 1957. Journalist and author and former press secretary to Tony Blair as Leader of the Opposition (1994-97) and as Prime minister (1997-2000). From 2000-2003, he was director of communications for the Labour Party (2000-03). Before 1994, he had been political editor of Today newspaper and the Daily Mirror. Campbell gave detailed testimony on the political media and what he saw as the decline of genuine investigative journalism and the increasing tendency of owners, editors and senior journalists to wish to be political players. Embellishment and pure invention were tolerated and encouraged by some editors and owners, he said.
Conservative MP for Surrey Heath and Education Secretary at the time of the Inquiry. A former journalist at the Aberdeen Press and Journal, the Times, the BBC and the Spectator. Told the Inquiry that sometimes "individuals reach for regulation in order to deal with failures of character or morality, and sometimes that regulation is right and appropriate but some of us believe that before the case for regulation is made, the case for liberty needs to be asserted as well".
John Mulholland was editor of the The Observer at the time of the Inquiry, having worked for the Guardian Media Group since 1994. He gave evidence that all staff were obliged to abide by the PCC code of conduct as well as the more rigorous GNM editorial code. Contributors were similarly expected to abide by the codes. There were strict procedures in place for any journalist wishing to go undercover or use any form of subterfuge. The Observer had, he said, used the services of a private investigator under an earlier editor.
Dutch Press Council News responsible for the examination of complaints against violations of good journalistic practice. Submitted evidence on its work and of its belief in press self-regulation.
TV critic of the Sunday Mirror for six years at time of Inquiry and for the Daily Mirror for eight years before that. He had never engaged in or asked others to engage in computer hacking, he told the Inquiry, adding that to the best of his knowledge neither had anyone at the Sunday Mirror or Daily Mirror.
