Paul Lashmar, Brunel University I view the phone hacking scandal and the Leveson inquiry through a narrow lens, as an investigative journalist in the ‘serious’ national media for thirty years.  Narrow as my viewpoint may be, I do hold an overarching belief that quality journalism is crucial for democracy and that without serious investigative journalism …Continue Reading

Pat Holland, Bournemouth University Watching television last year was a strange experience for me. As the Leveson Enquiry was unfolding around me on various screens, big and small, public and private, I was also immersed in the programmes of the 1980s. On my home television set, Leveson and his witnesses were interspersed with Margaret Thatcher, …Continue Reading

Judith Townend, City University London The public was supposed to be at the heart of the Leveson Inquiry. When it was announced, David Cameron described how the ‘whole country has been shocked by the revelations of the phone hacking scandal’.[1] Of course, establishing exactly how the public feels is a notoriously difficult exercise, but what …Continue Reading

Julian Petley, Brunel University In the early hours of Monday 18 March an agreement was reached by the Tories, the Liberal Democrats and Labour to set in motion the machinery for creating a royal charter which would underpin the effective self-regulation of the British press and guarantee the independence of the new regulatory system from …Continue Reading