Commenting Hacked Off Director Kyle Taylor said,

“Allegations that Piers Morgan actively engaged in illegal news-gathering while Editor at The Daily Mirror were made in court today, an accusation Morgan has repeatedly denied. Major James Hewitt is said to have been subjected to a campaign of demonisation by certain sections of the media that, it is alleged, illegally invaded his privacy to the point of publishing details of his bank records. “Rather than getting to the bottom of phone hacking and press illegality by completing the Leveson Inquiry, the Government chose to betray victims of press abuse by suppressing the second half of that inquiry following extensive lobbying from newspaper editors and executives. “The Government must stop seeking to curry favour with newspaper publishers and stand up for the thousands of people across the country who have been the victims of illegal or otherwise abusive press behaviour by establishing Part Two of the Leveson Inquiry and implementing the recommendations of Part One without further delay. The Government’s do-nothing approach is simply not tenable. The same public revulsion at press behaviour which resulted in the Leveson inquiry’s establishment in the first place remains. Unless Part two of the Inquiry is established to investigate abusive and allegations of illegal behaviour by certain sections of the media, more and more details of the unethical activities of some newspaper groups in the last two decades will emerge.

Victim of phone hacking and Hacked Off Board Director Jacqui Hames said,

"I and other victims of phone hacking were made a cast iron promise by leaders of all parties in Parliament that the Leveson Inquiry would be allowed to finish its work. This Government's disgraceful decision to cancel Leveson Part Two, against the wishes of the victims of press abuse and the wider public, was cowardly and wrong. The Government must honour its word and get on with Leveson Part Two, no matter how their friends in the press feel about it."

ENDS

For press enquiries contact: sara@hackinginquiry.org 07554 665 940

NOTES

Hacked Off is the campaign for a free and accountable press, and we work with the victims of press abuse to achieve those aims.