Former Downing Street Press Secretary's evidence to media inquiry

Описание: (30 Nov 2011)
1. Mid of Robert Jay QC, Counsel for the Leveson Inquiry
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street press secretary:
"But what's happened is a very very small number of people have actually completely changed the newspaper industry so that, frankly, they've now besmirched the name of virtually every journalist in the country."
3. Mid of Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street press secretary:
"There comes a point with some people in public life or the entertainment industry where they are deemed to be such big figures that actually you can do or say anything and it kind of doesn't matter. I think the Princess of Wales before she died, you can put her certainly in this category, and some showbiz people as well."
5. Mid of Jay
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street press secretary:
"With Cherie Blair in particular, she was turning up at places and the press were finding out about it."
7. Close of Leveson
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street press secretary:
(Speaking about media coverage of the Amanda Knox murder trial in Italy) "I mean I'd ask, I'd like to ask Mr Caplan (Jonathan Caplan QC, the counsel for Associated Newspapers) whether, if I was covering a court case, and I went to him and said 'can you give me a quote for guilty and a quote for innocent?', I would be very, very surprised if Mr Caplan would do that. But we are being led to believe by the paper that he's representing, that a prosecutor has said 'I'll give you a quote for guilty and a quote for innocent'. It's absurd."
9. Mid of Jay
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street press secretary:
"Do they (newspaper editors) ever stop and say, why are we spending all this money on private detectives? Probably not 'cause they know the answer."
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Jay QC, Counsel for the Leveson inquiry:
"You know of no evidence which indicates that the (Daily) Mail were involved in phone hacking, but by way of observation or comments, you're not prepared to say that the Mail were not involved in phone hacking."
(Campbell off camera: "Correct.")
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street press secretary:
"All sorts of stuff got out. Some of it may have got out because people who were within the government were putting it out there, perhaps, that does happen. But equally there were all sorts of situations where you just sit there scratching your head thinking 'how the hell did that get out?'. And given what we know now, I have revised my opinion in several regards as to how some stuff may have got out."
13. Mid of Jay
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street press secretary:
"I know the French government are looking at whether there is some way of kind of regulating journalism on the internet. I think it's a very, very difficult thing to do but I think we have to think about it."
15. Mid of Jay asking about the Press Complaints Commission (PCC)
16. SOUNDBITE ( English) Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street press secretary:
"They (the PCC) tend to make judgements that favour the press, and they put the press interest ahead of the public interest, and I think they've done that virtually through the entirety of their existence."
17. Mid of Leveson
STORYLINE
Tony Blair's former spin doctor told Britain's media ethics inquiry on Wednesday that a minority of journalists have tarnished the entire industry.

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