Monday 9 January 2012

Leveson Inquiry: Ex-editor says Sun 'more cautious'

Former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie has told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that the newspaper became "more cautious" after his departure.
Mr Mackenzie said he had taken the view during his 1981 to 1994 editorship that most things should be published, but he became "less bullish" as times changed.
"If the atmosphere towards what you're doing is different than before, then you must change with it," he said.
The Sun's showbiz editor and royal editor have also given evidence.
Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry has resumed at London's Royal Courts of Justice after a Christmas break.
Mr Mackenzie told the inquiry he stood by a comment he made at a seminar ahead of the inquiry on summing up his policy on checking out the truth of a story as "if it sounded right, it was probably right and therefore we should lob it in".
"There is no certainty in journalism," he said.
"I basically took the view that most things as far as I could see, should be published."
But Mr Mackenzie said that attitude changed at the Sun after his departure.

"The editors were more cautious and were probably, in a changing world, more right to be cautious," he said.
"In the end of the day you're a commercial offering and if the atmosphere towards what you're doing is different than before, then you must change with it.
"Even towards the end of my time with editing I was less bullish."
Mr Mackenzie said the perception of what was in the public interest differed depending on which newspaper published a story.
"If you publish it in the Sun you get six months' jail and if you publish it in the Guardian you get a Pulitzer prize," he said.
"There is a tremendous amount of snobbery involved in journalism."
Mr Mackenzie there was "no absolute truth in any newspaper".
"It's so hard in life, in the press, in the law, to get things 100% correct."
'He was no Thatcher' Counsel to the inquiry Robert Jay QC asked Mr Mackenzie about the Sun's publication of an image of a funeral held for presenter Anne Diamond's son Sebastian, who died of cot death.
Ms Diamond has previously told the inquiry that she begged Fleet Street editors to stay away from the funeral. In her evidence, she said Rupert Murdoch's editors had waged a vendetta against her.
Former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie said the tabloid did ''not really'' have a regard for privacy

Mr Mackenzie said Ms Diamond was a "devalued witness".
"If she felt as strongly as she appeared to feel at Leveson you would have thought 20 years earlier she would have been massively hostile to us, and she wasn't," he said.
Mr Mackenzie said in 13 years working with Rupert Murdoch the News Corporation chairman never told him to "go after" anyone.
"I've never heard him say go after somebody in any circumstances - whether it's the PM or a failing breakfast show host."
Mr Mackenzie described his relationship with politicians, saying he saw Margaret Thatcher about twice a year when she was prime minister, and other cabinet ministers about six times annually.
Mr Mackenzie confirmed that he told John Major that he was going to throw a bucket of waste over him in the next day's edition of the newspaper after the UK's exit from the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
He told the inquiry newspapers were commercial entities and financial penalties could keep them in line.
"I would be in favour of fines - and heavy fines - for newspapers that don't disclose the truth to the Press Complaints Commission [PCC]," he said.


Gordon Smart, the editor of the Sun's "Bizarre" show business column, followed Mr Mackenzie in giving evidence to the inquiry. He said he had no knowledge of any phone hacking at the newspaper.
Mr Smart said that the advent of social media had put reporters under more deadline pressure. "One thing we have now with showbiz reporters is that we are accountable straight away with Twitter, as soon as the paper hits the newsstand."
Royal editor Duncan Larcombe also told the inquiry that he had seen no evidence of phone hacking at the Sun. He said that there was an "obsession with getting stories right" at the newspaper.
He said he had never had direct contact with the Press Complaints Commission. "On the royal beat it doesn't kind of get that far," he said.
"If I've got an exclusive story about the royals I will always try to notify them before we publish," he said. "We speak pretty much daily with the palace."
Mr Larcombe said the Sun was a pro-royal paper and this meant it was particularly important that stories about the Royal Family were accurate.
The Sun's current editor Dominic Mohan, the newspaper's picture editor and legal manager are also set to give evidence on Monday, while witness statements from former editors Stuart Higgins and David Yelland will be read.
On Tuesday, the inquiry will hear from journalists from the Financial Times, Telegraph and Independent newspapers.
On Wednesday, representatives of newspaper publisher Associated Newspapers, including Mail on Sunday editor Peter Wright, will give evidence.
They will be followed on Thursday by representatives from Northern and Shell - including Daily Express and Daily Star owner Richard Desmond and two of his editors.
BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins says until now newspaper editors' ability to respond to criticism has been limited.
He says they will have to make the case in their evidence not just for the quality of their journalism, but for the state of their industry.
Opening Monday's hearing, Lord Justice Leveson said that his inquiry would continue regardless of the outcome of the investigation into how messages on murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone were deleted.
Allegations that News of the World deleted messages from Milly's phone when she was missing prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to launch the inquiry. However, in December, Scotland Yard said it was "unlikely" that News of the World journalists had deleted the messages.
The paper was shut down by its owner News International in the wake of the scandal.
The first part of Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry is examining the culture, practices and ethics of the press and is due to produce a report by next September.
The second part, looking at the unlawful activities by journalists, will not start until the police investigation into alleged phone hacking and corrupt payments have been concluded.

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