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Associated News editors and legal director grilled at Leveson - Round up

11/01/2012

An additional witness has been added to the Leveson Inquiry line-up this morning.Paul Silva, picture editor at the Daily Mail, appeared to give evidence on the paper's use of paparazzi photographs. He was questioned over complaints made by Hugh Grant, that he and Tinglan Hong, the mother of his baby daughter, had been harassed by photographers.He told the inquiry the actor should have publicly issued a picture of the child to avoid being pursued by the press and interest in the birth was "normal".Silva was asked about celebrities including Sandra Bullock and Sienna Miller, and said the Mail's picture desk received 300-400 images of Pippa Middleton, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, every day. He said the desk received over 300,000 images a day in total and explained the process of selection, also used by the Mail Online picture desk, in deciding whether photographs intrude on an individual's privacy.In response to this Leveson replied: “I understand where the line is drawn, the question is whether it’s reasonably drawn.”Silva also commented on pictures taken of the McCann family outside their home in Leicestershire. He said paparazzi were continuing to photograph Madeline's twin siblings in line with consent granted by the family in Portugal.He said "a change in culture" was responsible for increased checks on how pictures are obtained and added: “I always want to satisfy myself that they are taken in the proper way".Questions directed to Mail on Sunday editor Peter Wright revolved around the paper's use of private investigators. Jay, counsel to the inquiry, asked the editor about Steve Whittamore who was still used by the Mail on Sunday following his arrest in 2003.In his witness statement Wright said managing editor John Wellington was "rebuked" for misfiling invoices from "inquiry agents":“Early in 2004 we discovered from the Operation Motorman inquiry that we were regularly using the services of the inquiry agent, Steven Whittamore," he said. "We issued an instruction to all staff in February that year that inquiry agents were not to be used without clearance from department heads, who had to be satisfied that other means of obtaining information had been exhausted.”Wright was further questioned on Operation Motorman and the Information Commissioner's Office 2006 report 'What Price Privacy?'. He defended Wellington, sent by Associated News to examine Motorman evidence at the ICO, not someone who would "deliberately hide things".'What Price Privacy?' showed 266 transactions for allegedly illegally-obtained information between Whittamore and the Mail on Sunday, who was commissioned by 33 journalists.Whittamore continued to work for the paper until late 2004 and was paid a total of £20,000.Leveson told Wright: “[There was] something going on in your newsroom that you clearly weren’t aware of”.He ended with a discussion of press regulation and said: “I think there is a strong indication that all major publishers will join a reformed PCC.”Liz Hartley, head of editorial legal at Associated News, was last to give evidence. She was heavily questioned over a statement issued by the company following Hugh Grant's evidence to the inquiry in November 2011.She revealed Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, appearing before Leveson in February, was partly responsible for the statement accusing Grant of "mendacious smears".Grant had speculated that Associated News titles hacked his phone and obtained information about the birth of his daughter from a hospital source.Hartley told the inquiry that Associated News already had communication from Grant on phone hacking when the Hacked Off campaign was launched in July 2011. He alleged that his voicemails had been hacked when the Mail on Sunday reported the breakdown of his relationship with Jemima Khan, after receiving phone calls from a "plummy-voiced woman", in 2007.Hartley repeated the Mail on Sunday's claimed that their source was a "freelance journalist who had been told by a source who was regularly speaking to Jemima Khan". Khan flatly denied this on Twitter at the time and wrote: "The "source" close to me must be psychic. The MoS claim that he/she gave them a story I knew nothing about till it was in the paper".She added Grant should have issued a statement that the mother of his child did not wish to speak to the media, and the Mail "held off" publishing a story about the birth to get direct confirmation from the actor. Hartley said she believed the medical information to have come from Westminster Registry Office rather than being leaked from the hospital.Lord Justice Leveson wanted to know whether information passed by the hospital to the registry office is public and added: "Because if it isn't, it would be rather interesting to know how the information is obtained".He questioned whether it was fair to characterise Grant's evidence as "knowingly dishonest".When Hartley pointed out he had accused Associated News of phone hacking, he replied: "And you're responding by accusing him of perjury".Caplan QC, representing Associated News in the inquiry, told Leveson that he blamed himself for the lack of witnesses from the group, and said he had been trying to fall in line with the judge's request for a broad approach.Barrister David Sherborne then asked for Mail on Sunday showbiz journalists Sharon Feinstein and Katie Nicholl to be called before the inquiry, and pressed Associated News to provide evidence promised on "Plummygate".

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