Abell was deputy director of the Press Complaints Commission at the time of giving evidence, having previously acted as one of two assistant directors at the Commission. Abell provided extensive information on the background of the PCC, its guidelines regarding conduct, and desirable ways of balancing the interests of editors and the public. He also argued in favour of pre-publication consultation. If a person knew something was to be written about them, the PCC could represent the person to the paper "and give advice to the editor, while letting the editor retain the decision about publication. But the effect is very often that stories are either not published, or that the inaccurate and untruthful parts of stories are not published." Now a radio presenter and editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Abell was also Managing Editor of The Sun from 2013 to 2016.
Professor and Head of Journalism at City, University of London at time of giving evidence. Prior to this appointment in 2009, Brock had worked at The Times for 28 years. He gave examples of how ethics was taught within the Department of Journalism courses.
