At the time of the Inquiry, Battle was Head of Compliance at Independent Television News (ITN), having worked as a lawyer in broadcasting since 2001. He previously worked at the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Today newspapers.
In-house lawyer at Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL), publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times, for 33 years (1977-2010), becoming head of The Times’ Legal Department. He was questioned at the Inquiry on his knowledge of Nightjack, an anonymous police blogger whose identity The Times had revealed. It later emerged that the identity was discovered via phone hacking and a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal later ruled that Alastair Brett knowingly allowed the high court to be misled over the hacking of Nightjack's email account.
Born 1971. British lawyer and writer. Green is a former legal correspondent for the New Statesman, a columnist on law and policy for the Financial Times and also blogs as Jack of Kent. Has written on legal matters for The Guardian, The Lawyer, New Scientist and other publications. Gave his views to the Inquiry on regulation and self-regulation, and asked the Inquiry not to interpret the phrase “freedom of the press” as referring just to the rights and privileges of the press.
London-based lawyer specialising in media law, in particular defamation, privacy and harassment. Joined board of lobby group “Hacked Off” and has represented a substantial number of phone-hacked claimants since 2007. She also gave evidence to the Inquiry as a victim of phone-hacking herself.
Lawyer specialising in defamation and privacy law, who represented a large number of victims of intercepted voicemails. Gave details to the Inquiry of the unravelling of information about extensive phone-hacking of celebrities and others known to the police. Represented the Dowler family in their financial claim and undertook the first hacking claims against both the News of the World and Mirror Group.
Thomson represented Hugh Grant and his partner Tinglan Hong in the phone-hacking and harassment cases against the News of the World. Thomson represented numerous other victims of the phone-hacking scandal who were subsequently awarded damages for media intrusion and invasion of privacy. Told the Inquiry that it was his strong view that the PCC had failed to enforce improved press standards and, significantly, had no power of "prior restraint".
Chief Operating Officer in Europe of Microsoft search engine Bing at the time of the Inquiry. Gave evidence on the feasibility of pulling down links in cases of invasion of privacy and on protection, licensing and litigation of intellectual property rights. Also answered questions from Lord Leveson on whether systems were able to filter defamatory material.
Lawyer, partner and Head of Media and Information Law at Bindmans LLP. Represented around 70 Core Participants in the Leveson Inquiry, including Hugh Grant, Jude Law, Charlotte Church and Gerry and Kate McCann. Specialises in defamation and privacy law, information and data protection law, copyright and human rights law.
Media lawyer, barrister and former Editorial Legal Director for the Telegraph Media Group. Cannon went on to be Senior Legal Counsel for the Sun Newspaper specialising in crisis management, reputation issues and related issues.
British lawyer and partner at Payne Hicks Beach since 2014. Crossley is known for handling disputes for high-profile actors, business people, politicians, musicians and sports people. He represented all 53 “Core Participant Victims” during the Leveson Inquiry including the families of Madeleine McCann and Milly Dowler.
Group general counsel and company secretary of the BBC and, at the time of the Inquiry, the BBC's most senior lawyer.
Solicitor representing News International at the Leveson Inquiry. Experienced in a broad range of commercial and financial-services litigation, having worked on a number of high profile cases including advising the administrators of the Lehman Brothers companies following the bank's collapse in September 2008.
Founded 1992. Equality Now is an international charity founded by lawyers Jessica Neuwirth, Navanethem Pillay and Reryal Gharahi. The charity acts to protect women's rights and fight against the discrimination of women and girls. Gave evidence with similar charities on recommendations for a new regime with respect to women's rights.
British lawyer and member of Doughty Street Chambers in London, practising criminal law since 1986 and appointed Queen's Counsel in 2010. Writes a blog, Nothing Like the Sun, subtitled "an occasional blog on legal and other matters that interest me", and gave evidence on the ethics of blogging.
Born 1959. Australian lawyer and, until 2014, Deputy Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission. During her time at the IPCC was responsible for many high-profile criminal and misconduct investigations and decisions involving the police. Told the Inquiry of the IPCC’s role in relation to police response to events such as the phone-hacking scandal, the death of Ian Tomlinson during the London G20 protests in 2009, and the decision to launch an independent investigation into the aftermath of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster.
Lawyer and former Group General Counsel at The Independent and Evening Standard, a role she held for 17 years. Gave evidence on how legal issues were identified and dealt with on those papers.
Solicitor and Head Counsel at Sky at time of Inquiry, having joined in 2010 as a legal advisor. Gave information on training materials, guidance and practice for journalists working at Sky.
In 2012, as Treasury Solicitor, the Government's principal legal official, he gave written evidence to the Inquiry. At the time of News Corporation's BskyB bid, Sir Paul's advice had been sought on comments made about the bid by Vince Cable, the then Secretary of State for Business. Sir Paul told the Leveson Inquiry that he had informed the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, that in his view Cable's comments could put his impartiality in question and that Cable's duties in the matter should therefore be transferred to another Secretary of State. Sir Paul died in February 2018.
Lawyer specialising in competition law in the UK broadcasting and telecommunications sector. Gave evidence of working for three UK companies who believed themselves negatively impacted by the power of BSkyB. Lord suggested that attempts to have the issues investigated were frustrated by a real or perceived threat that newspapers controlled by News Corporation could harm the individuals or businesses seeking intervention.
British lawyer, judge and academic. Sir Stephen was appointed a High Court judge in 1992, serving in the Queen's Bench Division. In 1999 he was appointed to the Court of Appeal as a Lord Justice of Appeal. In written evidence, he told the Inquiry that Britain could boast some of the best investigative journalism in the world and also some of the most intrusive and foul-mouthed newspapers in the world. He proposed for consideration a statutory printed-media regulator governed by Parliament and designed to be inquisitorial rather than adversarial. There was now, he said, a powerful case for regulation and that litigation and self-regulation were not working.
