Phil Hall

Phil Hall, who will discuss pressures on editors, was editor of the News of the World from 1995 to 2000


Phil Hall, a former editor of the News of the World, is to present to a seminar of journalists later this week about the pressures facing editors, as part of the Leveson Inquiry.

The seminar, on the competitive pressures on the press and the impact on journalism, will take place on Thursday (6 October). It will be followed later in the day by a second seminar on the rights and responsibilities of the press.

Hall was in charge of the News of the World from 1995 to 2000, when he joined Hello as editor-in-chief. He is now chairman of London PR agency PHA Media (also known as Phil Hall Associates).

Also presenting in the first seminar is Richard Peppiatt, the former Daily Star reporter who wrote a letter to the title's owner, Richard Desmond, criticising the paper's alleged approach to stories and admitting to making up stories himself. He also leaked a copy of the letter to the Guardian for public viewing.

According to a seminar schedule, Peppiatt will be talking about the "day-to-day effect of competitive pressures on working journalists".

According to the inquiry website the seminars are to "enable consideration of the central public policy issues in the Inquiry’s terms of reference to be enriched by and examined from across a range of informed perspectives".

The inquiry is currently in in part one, which looks at press standards as a whole, and looking at the first module, which covers the relationship between the press and the public.

"It would like to obtain information and evidence about this from a wide variety of sources, not just the witnesses individually identified, and to understand a wide variety of views and perspectives," the inquiry website says.

"These seminars start the process of that engagement with the wider community of relevant professionals and also the general public, all of whom have a legitimate interest in the matters that the Inquiry is considering.

"Each of the seminars will be chaired by one of the Inquiry’s assessors, and to ensure that the seminars are informed by professional opinion in the field, Lord Justice Leveson has invited a very small number of influential experts and key people in the area to make a personal contribution by presenting brief papers to stimulate debate among an invited audience of opinion-formers."

The inquiry website also lists those who have been invited to attend the first two seminars on Thursday, which includes director of the Press Complaints Commission Stephen Abell, editor of the Daily Mail Paul Dacre, Guardian journalist Nick Davies and editor of the Sun Dominic Mohan.

Members of the home affairs select committee, culture media and sport select committee, Lords communications select committee and joint select committee on privacy have also been invited to the seminars this week.
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