Press inquiry ‘at risk of being a show trial’

THE Leveson inquiry has become a mixture of ‘show trial, seminar and truth commission’, according to a former ambassador.

Sir Christopher Meyer said there was a ‘whiff of totalitarianism’ about the inquiry into press standards and warned of the dangers of censoring newspapers.

The attack from the former head of the Press Complaints Commission is the strongest so far from an influential name outside the newspaper trade.

He said the tribunal’s remit was too ambitious and suggested that Lord Justice Leveson had already made up his mind to abolish the PCC and replace it with a new system of regulation.

The inquiry, set up by David Cameron last July in the wake of allegations that the News of the World hacked into the phone messages of murder victim Millie Dowler, is charged with examining the culture, practices and ethics of the press.

Sir Christopher, who served as UK ambassador in Washington, said: ‘Is there any proposal for press regulation which has come before Leveson, short of appointing a commissar in every news room with X-ray eyes and telepathic powers, that would have nipped phone-hacking in the bud?’

In a speech to the Worshipful Company of Stationers he said: ‘The Leveson inquiry, with its elements of show trial, seminar and truth commission, is a curious beast.

‘It runs in parallel with at least three police investigations looking into similar matters. No wonder there are anxieties among the police and those arrested that the proceedings of the inquiry might damage or prejudice their respective interests.’

The PCC gives satisfaction to more than 80 per cent of those who use it, Sir Christopher said, adding that it should be strengthened, not abolished. The former diplomat appeared as an inquiry witness in January.