Episode 10

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:00:03. > :00:13.came to the conclusion that a fresh start was needed with a new body

:00:13. > :00:16.

:00:16. > :00:20.It was a major mistake... Yellow beef, I wanted red meat. -- I

:00:20. > :00:30.wanted beef. We had to resort to calling the police to arrange for

:00:30. > :00:30.

:00:30. > :00:35.this journalists to leave. -- this journalist. A former News of the

:00:35. > :00:39.World reporter jailed for phone hacking. Alongside a private

:00:39. > :00:46.detective. An editor resigning. That was how the truth began to

:00:46. > :00:49.emerge. A newspaper scandal doesn't get much bigger. So what was the

:00:49. > :00:56.Press Complaints Commission, the newspaper watchdog, doing about it

:00:56. > :00:59.at the time? The key question on day 33 of the inquiry. There was a

:00:59. > :01:03.report by the PCC after the convictions of Clive Goodman and

:01:03. > :01:08.Glenn Mulcaire, but that didn't mean, according to its director at

:01:08. > :01:12.the time, that there had been an investigation. Instead they ran

:01:12. > :01:17.what they called an exercise. Was it in any sense an exercise in

:01:17. > :01:24.seeking to ascertain what had happened at the News of the World?

:01:24. > :01:28.We weren't going over the facts of the Goodman/Mulcare case which had

:01:28. > :01:34.been exposed by the court. There were questions about that situation

:01:34. > :01:39.and how it had arisen in terms of culture and so on. If the PCC

:01:39. > :01:46.wouldn't go over facts that left the jailing of the reporter and the

:01:46. > :01:53.resignation of an editor, what sort of body was it? Is this the truth?

:01:53. > :01:57.Is the error that everybody has made, in calling the PCC a self-

:01:58. > :02:03.regulating body, it has believed it is a regulator when in fact it

:02:03. > :02:08.isn't. Yes. When in 2009 the Guardian revealed the news of the

:02:08. > :02:13.world had made payouts to victims of phone hacking, including Gordon

:02:13. > :02:17.Taylor, the PCC looked back at that original exercise. The commission

:02:17. > :02:22.decided that there was no evidence that any body other than that

:02:22. > :02:25.reporter and detective who went to jail had been responsible for

:02:25. > :02:29.mobile phone hacking. And they were pretty dismissive of the Guardian's

:02:29. > :02:35.story as well saying it did not quite live up to its dramatic

:02:35. > :02:40.billing. The PCC view on that report has changed. It was a major

:02:40. > :02:48.mistake and a hostage of fortune. But the board of the commission, so

:02:48. > :02:56.far as I can certainly attest, these were people approaching this

:02:56. > :03:00.matter in good faith to use it. BPCC later withdrew its 2009

:03:00. > :03:05.Berdych -- the PCC. The current director of the commission accepted

:03:05. > :03:13.the system did not work as it should -- the verdict. The key

:03:13. > :03:16.question that has come out, not only the precise nature of the PCC,

:03:16. > :03:21.but they needed a proper mechanism for stopping it happening in the

:03:21. > :03:27.first place. On day 40 for a more defined tone from the man who was

:03:27. > :03:33.chairman of the PCC when the phone hacking broke, who argued the

:03:33. > :03:38.current system works -- on day 44. Today the press is quite closely

:03:38. > :03:42.hemmed in by the statute and the code of practice. It is a situation

:03:42. > :03:48.which is as good as it's going to get. This is a witness who did not

:03:48. > :03:52.accept BPCC had failed to deal with hacking. -- of the PCC. The idea

:03:52. > :03:59.that we should work on the assumption that the police inquiry

:03:59. > :04:04.was inadequate and we needed to add to the efforts that they had made

:04:04. > :04:09.by sending some kind of quasi police investigative force into the

:04:09. > :04:14.News of the world, I have to say it is entirely fanciful.

:04:14. > :04:18.commission's initial report into hacking was monumental, he said. So

:04:18. > :04:22.why didn't they interview Andy Coulson? The News of the World

:04:22. > :04:29.editor during the hacking and press secretary to David Cameron after he

:04:29. > :04:34.resigned, rather than just his successor, Colin Myler. At the time

:04:34. > :04:39.the decision not to interview Andy Coulson, by that time he was no

:04:39. > :04:44.longer editor of the News of the World and had no powers over him at

:04:44. > :04:49.all, was exactly the right one to take. Although it has made things

:04:49. > :04:54.difficult for me. It seems to me whole the improbable that at that

:04:54. > :04:59.time he would have told us more than Colin Myler. And he insisted

:04:59. > :05:09.he had been independent. I think when you mention the word collusion

:05:09. > :05:12.

:05:12. > :05:16.even to dismiss it, with a kind of whiff of flat. Here -- lap dog here.

:05:16. > :05:21.He knows I had my conflicts with editors on all kinds of things. If

:05:21. > :05:26.you think I was sitting in my pocket not daring to do things that

:05:26. > :05:30.they dislike, think again. Press Complaints Commission had not

:05:30. > :05:35.been inept when this man, who was then the information commissioner,

:05:35. > :05:40.warns that journalists might be prosecuted for breaking data

:05:40. > :05:45.protection laws but he would not give any details. I was saying

:05:45. > :05:49.please give me the evidence. He was the only person who could supply it.

:05:49. > :05:55.How could you possibly deduce from that that I wasn't interested? I

:05:55. > :06:00.really wanted to know. Otherwise I wouldn't have gone, "Do you think I

:06:00. > :06:05.would have spent good money on taking him out to lunch at that

:06:05. > :06:10.restaurant in Wellington Street just to hear him burbling away?"

:06:10. > :06:20.unwanted beef, I wanted red meat and he didn't give it to me -- I

:06:20. > :06:20.

:06:20. > :06:24.wanted beef. They struck this pair as rather comic as well. It is like

:06:24. > :06:30.interpreting the Rosetta Stone, it is impossible. Not quite like that

:06:30. > :06:40.because it is not in three languages. If you look at the

:06:40. > :06:41.

:06:41. > :06:46.second document in to have 10 -- tab 10. It sounded like there

:06:46. > :06:50.wasn't that much time for levity in the PCC today according to one

:06:50. > :06:54.current member of the commission, a former chairman of the BBC and ITV,

:06:54. > :07:04.who said the complaints commission hardly have the funds it needed to

:07:04. > :07:19.

:07:19. > :07:23.do its job. It has been start of They are getting calls from night

:07:24. > :07:28.editors at 11pm across the weekend, it is extraordinary what they do,

:07:28. > :07:33.they are unpaid, overworked, overstretched and the newspapers do

:07:33. > :07:37.not recognise the work that they do and the budget is ridiculous.

:07:38. > :07:41.current chairman of the PCC may have been expected to announce

:07:41. > :07:47.another El-abd group defence, lots of tales of how things went wrong

:07:47. > :07:51.in the past -- elaborate defence. Instead he set out the case of the

:07:51. > :07:55.abolition of his own organisation in its current form. I have come to

:07:55. > :08:01.the conclusion that we do urgently need a fresh start and a totally

:08:01. > :08:06.new body with substantially increased powers to audit and

:08:06. > :08:11.enforce compliance with the code, to require access to documents, to

:08:11. > :08:16.summon witnesses where necessary and also to impose fines, all

:08:17. > :08:23.backed by commercial contract. newspaper industry was backing the

:08:23. > :08:28.idea, including Richard Desmond who publishes the start and the Express

:08:28. > :08:38.newspapers, and to pull out of the PCC -- the Start. How are we going

:08:38. > :08:46.

:08:46. > :08:51.to get people to join up? By asking them -- the. -- the Star newspaper.

:08:51. > :08:58.Everyone who I have asked have agreed so far. While the press are

:08:58. > :09:04.willing to embrace change, they must fight off one thing that will

:09:04. > :09:08.be regulated by a new law for all stop there are very strong views in

:09:08. > :09:14.Parliament that there must be stronger if it's on the power of

:09:14. > :09:18.the press. -- strong limits. This would open a Pandora's box. It

:09:18. > :09:24.would be for many of my colleagues in Parliament a wonderful moment if

:09:24. > :09:32.they were given the opportunity to debate a Bill regularly to the

:09:32. > :09:38.press. I just do not know what would emerge the other side, but we

:09:38. > :09:44.are determined that what would emerge the other side would be 2005

:09:44. > :09:51.-- in the 2005 Act would be independent judiciary. You think

:09:51. > :09:58.that Parliament might seek to use any form of legislation, how

:09:58. > :10:04.whether it was cast, as a way of controlling the press. Yes. They

:10:04. > :10:08.have told me so. Many of them. In both houses. On day 35 another

:10:08. > :10:13.voice from inside the world of press regulation. A chair of the

:10:13. > :10:19.body that both finances and chooses the chair of the PCC itself

:10:19. > :10:22.insisted that the old system had its merits. I think that in the

:10:22. > :10:30.areas that are reference there, such as harassment, the treatment

:10:30. > :10:34.of children and hospital patients, has improved in standards over the

:10:34. > :10:39.years. But he accepted a new regulator should be able to levy

:10:40. > :10:46.fines, something he once opposed. Something we have seen laid bare

:10:46. > :10:51.for the first time is the very real lack of powers that exist within

:10:51. > :10:56.the self-regulatory system to conduct regulations. It probably

:10:57. > :11:03.took a scandal like that to show us that we needed a new body which

:11:03. > :11:08.could enforce the terms of the code. So it is that which has led me to a

:11:08. > :11:13.change of opinion. Although Lord Black, a Conservative peer himself,

:11:13. > :11:18.did not accept the suggestion that too many Tories are on the

:11:18. > :11:23.Commission and the body he led. am not asking this question

:11:23. > :11:31.disparagingly, it is just an observation, we see a preponderance

:11:31. > :11:37.of Conservative Peers wherever we look both in the PCC and also in

:11:37. > :11:40.the press corps at the moment. That doesn't necessarily create for

:11:40. > :11:46.public confidence in an independent system. Would you accept that

:11:46. > :11:51.observation? No. I would point out the joint chairman of the

:11:51. > :11:56.commission was a Liberal Democrat peer. This is not a political

:11:56. > :12:01.appointment. All this talk of great change begged a question, though.

:12:01. > :12:07.It's the press push on with her own regulatory reforms, where did that

:12:07. > :12:11.leave Lord Justice Leveson -- if the press pushed on with their own.

:12:11. > :12:15.I made a comment contrary to the press reports overnight, I don't

:12:15. > :12:20.for a moment think that I can just sit back and consider myself

:12:20. > :12:25.redundant. I am going to press on with the inquiry that I am

:12:25. > :12:33.conducting. That is not to say that you shouldn't equally press on.

:12:33. > :12:42.Things are rather different for Ofcom came to the inquiry to

:12:42. > :12:50.explain that while editors make the decisions... We have people who are

:12:50. > :13:00.engaged a very actively in the industry. That did not mean the

:13:00. > :13:05.

:13:05. > :13:13.broadcaster has always got things right. Of confined �150,000 --

:13:13. > :13:23.Ofcom find the BBC �158,000 for the messages Russell Brand and Jonathan

:13:23. > :13:24.

:13:24. > :13:29.Ross left on someone's phone. had a prodigiously egregious case...

:13:29. > :13:35.The BBC themselves confirmed relatively quickly there was

:13:35. > :13:41.substantial editorial failure. There was editorial misjudgement.

:13:42. > :13:46.There were procedural compliance issues as well. In addition to the

:13:46. > :13:56.fact the BBC Trust said, this was a truly unacceptable breach of

:13:56. > :13:57.

:13:57. > :14:07.privacy. The complaints were not all serious. A view a court last to

:14:07. > :14:09.

:14:09. > :14:14.complain that someone set fire to joey... -- called us. Some cases

:14:14. > :14:24.are quite easy to roll out. Press regulators do not have to deal with

:14:24. > :14:26.

:14:26. > :14:30.complaints about animation at the moment. When I was growing up, I

:14:30. > :14:35.knew there was a printing press, I knew what that was and I knew what

:14:35. > :14:41.it produced. There was a television transmitter, I knew what that was

:14:41. > :14:46.and what that did. Today, when I am consuming media, I have no idea

:14:46. > :14:51.where it comes from in digital form. I know what a newspaper is and I

:14:51. > :14:58.knew what broadcasting is, but that is not where the future is. The

:14:58. > :15:03.future is in digital form. In digital form you do not have these

:15:03. > :15:08.fixed, separate physical digital media to which we can adopt

:15:08. > :15:17.separate regular Tory structures. Security or lack of it was central

:15:17. > :15:21.to the phone hacking saga. These mobile phone companies said 270 of

:15:21. > :15:25.their customers for victims of phone hacking. Listening to mobile

:15:25. > :15:30.phone calls was difficult but possible. It is reasonable to say

:15:30. > :15:35.that it is possible to do that. Doing it live is incredibly

:15:35. > :15:41.difficult. You have got to have a lot of technical skill to do it.

:15:41. > :15:47.You would have to have significant financial resources behind you to

:15:47. > :15:52.buy the equipment needed to do it. Of course, it is illegal. Illegal

:15:52. > :15:58.activity by private investigators sparked this scandal. Groups

:15:58. > :16:04.representing them told the inquiry about the problems they face.

:16:04. > :16:09.2009 we had a very unfortunate experience where someone who had

:16:09. > :16:19.been granted provisional membership was brought to our attention by

:16:19. > :16:23.

:16:23. > :16:30.police that he was actually a convicted sex offender. His

:16:30. > :16:34.activities was consistent with the job they were trying to do keeping

:16:34. > :16:39.an eye on him on the sex offenders' register. He had lied on his

:16:39. > :16:46.application form. He had not declared his conviction. We needed

:16:46. > :16:53.to expel him. It then became apparent that the clarification

:16:53. > :17:03.system was insufficient. Things just had to change. There are so

:17:03. > :17:12.

:17:12. > :17:14.many associations... It needs regulation. The man who already

:17:15. > :17:24.regulates the Security Industry said those involved in private

:17:25. > :17:29.

:17:29. > :17:37.investigation should be licensed Darfur we have failed -- licensed...

:17:37. > :17:41.We have failed to implement that so far. There are a number of issues,

:17:41. > :17:44.concerning the availability of training, issues around the

:17:44. > :17:49.availability of parliamentary time to get the order through. Then

:17:49. > :17:59.there are more issues at an organisational level. Nothing I

:17:59. > :18:04.have heard in the last three months persuades me that this is an

:18:04. > :18:12.industry that requires regulation. Beyond the inquiry the Labour MP

:18:12. > :18:16.Tom Watkins reveal the Metropolitan Police had written to him informing

:18:16. > :18:20.him they were investigating the now hacking. The editor of the Times

:18:20. > :18:24.and the editor of the Sun were called back to give evidence.

:18:24. > :18:34.Plenty of people have been in touch with Lord Leveson asking whether

:18:34. > :18:35.

:18:35. > :18:39.they can give their evidence. On the last afternoon he had

:18:39. > :18:48.disturbing details of what can happen when the media becomes

:18:48. > :18:52.crime. She was attacked in front of her son, stabbed in the neck and

:18:52. > :19:00.paralysed in 2005. Once that news became public the media attention

:19:00. > :19:09.was immense and immediate. We did now by newspapers, we did not

:19:09. > :19:15.collect articles about her. People gave us articles. It was just shoot

:19:15. > :19:22.the amount of coverage. It was incredibly intrusive. On the first

:19:22. > :19:28.day the police had to ordered journalists out of the garden where

:19:28. > :19:33.my daughter was living. They were upset about being asked to move.

:19:33. > :19:39.They were camping in the garden of her house. A journalist who arrived

:19:39. > :19:49.at my mother-in-law's house, she was terminally ill at the time. She

:19:49. > :19:53.was 200 miles away. One journalist arrived and said he would not leave

:19:53. > :19:58.until he received a photograph. We had to revert to calling the police

:19:58. > :20:03.to arrange for the journalist to leave. The family got used to

:20:03. > :20:08.telling reporters to go away. Four days after the attack, the News of

:20:08. > :20:18.the World was able to reveal that Abigail was pregnant, something

:20:18. > :20:21.

:20:21. > :20:28.those closest to her only just learned. Hospitals routinely do

:20:28. > :20:34.pregnancy tests on women admitted to hospital. This was news to the

:20:34. > :20:39.family. It was very intimate and very sensitive information. There

:20:39. > :20:44.was no way that information should have been in the public domain.

:20:44. > :20:52.time passed she grew stronger, but when she went on a pilgrimage press

:20:52. > :21:02.photographers were waiting. On this occasion... They took photographs

:21:02. > :21:03.

:21:03. > :21:09.of her children without their knowledge. This is not a picture

:21:09. > :21:19.taken close-up with their knowledge. Years later, when she had another

:21:19. > :21:25.child, she found her home was staked out. We took what evidence

:21:25. > :21:30.there was in the car. We had a laptop. There was the Daily Mail on

:21:30. > :21:40.the back seat and on the front seat. It was not the same car every day.

:21:40. > :21:45.

:21:45. > :21:52.It was a journalist who had to be leave. It was a journalist,

:21:52. > :21:58.uninvited, trying to take photographs. They followed them

:21:58. > :22:05.when they went out. BPCC said it would need the journalist names