Houses of Parliament

The committee will ultimately make recommendations on the issue of privacy and injunctions to the House of Lords and House of Commons

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National newspaper and magazine editors for titles including the Sunday Times, Guardian and Private Eye are due to appear as witnesses before the joint committee on privacy and injunctions later today (31 October).

Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian, Ian Hislop of Private Eye, John Witherow of the Sunday Times and Jonathan Grun of the Press Association are all due to give oral evidence to the committee at 3.15pm, which will ultimately make recommendations on the issue to the House of Lords and House of Commons.

The committee, which was set up earlier this year by the Prime Minister to consider improvements to the law in this area, will first hear evidence from academic witnesses this afternoon from 2.15pm, including legal commentator and journalist Joshua Rozenberg, professor of communications at Westminster University Steve Barnett, and founder of Hacked Off and professor of journalism at Kingston University Brian Cathcart.

Prior to establishing the committee Cameron had previously said there was a need for the law to "catch up with how people consume media today".

This came after MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to name a footballer at the centre of a privacy injunction, which had prevented the press from doing so but had seen mass speculation on sites such as Twitter.

A report by the Master of the Rolls committee on super injunctions has already recommended that the media be informed prior to applications for injunctions and super injunctions being made.

The report from Lord Neuberger, who is the most senior civil judge in England and Wales, followed a year-long inquiry by a committee of judges and lawyers.

Today's committee session can be watched on Parliament Live TV.
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