AFTER eight months of hearings, 6000 pages of evidence and 470 witnesses, the Leveson inquiry yesterday staged its final scheduled hearing.
Ostensibly, it has been looking into the culture, practice and ethics – or lack of them – of the press but the probing eye of Lord Justice Leveson has, during the process, also peered deep into the workings of government and the police.
The inquiry was set up in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal and the subsequent public outrage, which led to the closure of Britain's biggest-selling newspaper, the News of the World.
The cast of witnesses has been a long and varied one. It has included Prime Minister David Cameron, his predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, First Minister Alex Salmond, newspaper proprietor Rupert Murdoch, his top executive Rebekah Brooks, hacking victims Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller and parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler as well as those of missing Madeleine McCann.
It is fair to say the line of newspaper dirty linen washed in public has, at times, seemed endless but, of course, only some, and by no means all, of the nation's press has been taken to task.
Indeed, one of the key consequences of the investigation will be what oversight there should be on newspapers; one of the challenges facing Lord Leveson will be to strike a balance between upholding press freedom while establishing a successor to the discredited Press Complaints Commission to ensure high standards of probity are maintained.
For all its intensity, the investigation has only concluded its first part and been hampered somewhat by the parallel police inquiries into phone hacking. The second will probe into the specific culture at News International once all the criminal court cases are over.
Has the inquiry – which has cost the taxpayer around £6 million – thus far been worth it?
Steve Coogan, the comedian and one of the many victims of phone hacking, was at first a sceptical if not cynical witness, believing vested interests might make the inquiry a pointless exercise. Yet yesterday he said: "As the inquiry has gone on, it's vindicated itself at every twist and turn. It was certainly something that has shone a light on the behaviour of press and politicians and police in a way none of us thought was possible."
The report is due to be published in November.
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