Leveson warns reporters over jumping the gun on conclusions

Lord Leveson has warned news organisations against reporting his comments in court as "emerging findings" of the Leveson inquiry.

Several news organisations picked up on statements Leveson made yesterday in relation to press regulation reform, in which he said that he would be "very surprised if government regulation ever even entered my mind".

"I'm not committing myself to anything, I have to hear everybody’s views," he said yesterday, "but I have said more than once that freedom of expression and freedom of the press, which are different concepts, are to my mind a fundamental bedrock of our society."

His comments were widely reported as an early but clear indication of what he will recommend at the close of the first part of the inquiry this year, but the judge told the court today: "They are not in fact that. I am testing possibilities and one of the ways of doing this is asking those who are likely to be affected for their view.

"It is for that reason that I have engaged them to respond immediately or consider it and respond later.

"I wouldn't want it to be reported that I had reached conclusions, for I have not."

Leveson also rebuked former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie for expressing personal views about another inquiry witness, likely to be former TV presenter Anne Diamond, who MacKenzie called a "devalued witness".

"He expressed his personal views on the credibility of a witness, but he should not have done so," Leveson said. "His views on that are neither here nor there and do not affect me in any way.

"He was entitled to give evidence of fact, although I think his evidence was more opinion that fact."

The inquiry heard from editors and executives from the Financial Times, Independent, and Telegraph yesterday. FT editor Lionel Barber gave evidence on the newspaper's own internal code of conduct, which he called "a model for journalism".

Former Telegraph editor Will Lewis refused to be drawn on whether he had leaked information about the newspaper's Vince Cable sting to the BBC after joining News Corp. Lewis also confirmed that the Telegraph paid £150,000 to a middleman to obtain the MPs expenses data.

The current Telegraph editor, Tony Gallgher, told the inquiry that he was "hugely attracted" to the idea of an arbitration system to resolve legal complaints, which he told Lord Leveson would be "one of the best possible outcomes" of the inquiry.

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