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.
Editor in Chief of Heat magazine and the Heat brand, spanning Heat radio, heatworld.com and Heat TV. Outlined procedures at the magazine for ensuring that high ethical standards were maintained.
Editor since 1999 of the Irish News, a daily newspaper based in Belfast. Told the Inquiry that the implications of the PCC were frequently discussed at editorial meetings and that the PCC had never ruled that the Irish News had been in breach of the Code. He firmly believed none of his staff had been involved in phone-hacking nor made any payments to private investigators.
English media executive and former newspaper editor. Editor of The Sun from 1981 to 1994, by then established as the British newspaper with the largest circulation in the UK. Answered questions on The Sun's use of private investigators ("never used them") and on paying public officials for information. He was in favour of public officials whistle-blowing to The Sun, he said, even if The Sun had to pay money.
Crime correspondent for The Independent at the time of giving evidence. Peachey told the Inquiry that his contacts with the police aimed to hold them to account for their actions. This would have been understood, he said. Asked about "hospitality", he said it was limited to tea and biscuits during briefings.
Born 1980. Scottish broadcaster, former editor of The Scottish Sun. Smart became Deputy Editor of The Sun before leaving in 2016 to follow a career in radio broadcasting. Gave evidence concerning two fake stories planted as a hoax on The Sun which he had published.
Journalist and radio and television executive, Forgan was editor of The Guardian's women's pages from 1978 to 1982 and a Guardian columnist from 1997 to 1998 before becoming a non-executive director of Guardian Media Group in 1998. She held senior director roles at both Channel 4 and the BBC, and in 2006 was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Radio Broadcasting. At the time of the Inquiry, Forgan was Chair of the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian, and gave evidence on its structure and aims.
Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) since 2008 with particular expertise in public-service broadcasting and media regulation both within the UK and in Europe. Before joining the Institute, he was Controller of Public Policy at the BBC and before that worked as a journalist, including for BBC World Service and BBC News and Current Affairs. Submitted evidence based on two Institute studies on rights to privacy and on News International.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published three reports of relevance to the Leveson Inquiry which can be accessed here:
Writer and broadcaster and at time of Inquiry a regular columnist for the Times; formerly a Conservative Member of Parliament. He had no knowledge of "phone-hacking", he said, but believed that all such activities and espionage should be seen in the context of press subterfuge over the past century.
Formerly known as UK Press Gazette, Press Gazette was first issued in 1965. A trade magazine dedicated to journalism and the press, it had a circulation of about 2,500, before becoming online-only in 2010. Dominic Ponsford, editor at the time of the Inquiry, gave evidence from journalists' tweets on "Why I am proud to be a journalist".
Editor of the London Evening Standard at the time of giving evidence. Formerly editor of the Sunday Telegraph (its first female editor) later becoming editor of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 in 2017. She was asked to give evidence about a controversial article that appeared in the Evening Standard under the headline "Full marks for the riot, say lecturers".
Journalist and media academic. Turner started his career as a teacher before turning to journalism with The Observer and making many appearances on radio and television. He is now a Senior Lecturer in Faculty of Media Humanities and Performance at Lincoln University.
British Barrister specialising in human rights, with a strong civil law background. Wagner founded the multi-award-winning human-rights charity Rights Info and the acclaimed UK Human Rights Blog. He spoke at the Inquiry of the “rough ethical system” emerging in respect to blogging and tweeting.
