Actor, comedian, victim of phone hacking by the News of the World and a leading figure in legal actions against the newspaper. He told the Leveson Inquiry that "lurid" details of his private life appeared in the News of the World after he was set up by that paper's former editor. Coogan gave extensive evidence of intrusive stalking and photographing by the Daily Mirror and Sunday Times. He said he had witnessed journalists rummaging through his rubbish bins. He had also been the victim of several kiss-and-tell stories and detailed how the women in question had been fooled and sometimes bribed into giving stories. At the heart of the problem, he thought, was the lack of accountability on the part of the editors and owners.
Organisation formed to promote a positive and more truthful representation of children and young people in the media. Suggested to the Inquiry that the media and regulatory processes were discriminatory against children and young people, with 76 per cent of coverage of young people negative in a survey undertaken in 2009. Cited headlines such as "'Feral' children run wild in the streets of UK cities" and "Yob Rule". Recommended that "age" be included as a classification of discrimination in the Editors Code and NUJ Code of Conduct.
