The Metropolitan Police's head of media has said today the Leveson Inquiry is presenting a “partial picture” of his press office.

Ed Stearns, a former Daily Mail journalist who heads the newly renamed Directorate of Media and Communication, volunteered evidence to the inquiry.

He said: “I felt it is important to give really a full picture of the work of the directorate that I work for, and the environment and the context that the press officers that work under me work in.”

He contradicted evidence given to the inquiry by Times crime reporter Sean O’Neill, who complained about inaccurate briefings from the press office. Stearns said details on a case involving an assault on a 14-year-old boy by a police officer were contained in a statement from the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

He denied the Crime Reporters Association were a “privileged clique”, saying the journalists were experts in their field.

Stearns said the job of his colleagues was to negotiate between “cautious officers and an insatiable media”, and said there were often operational reasons for holding information back.

Chief Superintendent Derek Barnett, president of the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales (PSAEW), said it was important officer training focused on ethics and integrity when dealing with the media.

He added: “It is a question, I think, particularly with the new police professional body that will be in place in November this year, of making integrity and ethics core in all police training, and particularly in the early parts of a police officer’s career.”

“We have to be careful that we don’t introduce guidelines that constrain people’s normal relationships. It is very subjective as to what stage something becomes inappropriate, and my sense is that we should actually leave that to people’s common sense and judgment, and their professionalism but based on a very clear code of ethics and guiding principles. I think that’s the right way to hold people to account.”

The PSAEW represents the majority of the 1,170 superintendents and 268 chief superintendents in the country.

Another witness, Dr Rob Mowby, a crime specialist from the University of Leicester, described a “constant tension” between police officers and journalists.

He said: “That tension operates within a healthy framework, where the police are trying to be open and accountable and the media are trying to hold them to account, and where there’s clear channels to pass information.”

He said informal contact was now minimal and not part of the previous relationships where reporters would meet officers in “smokey pubs”.

Lord Justice Leveson said he had a “distinct impression” this was different in a local context to relationships between the Met and national media.

Mowby added: “I think it’s essential that communication – including through the media but not just through the media – is supported and championed by ACPO. “