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12 things you never knew

12 things you may not have known about the Leveson Inquiry
1
Five prime ministers gave evidence, if you include Theresa May, who subsequently became PM. The others were David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Sir John Major.
2
Among the diverse organisations that made submissions were the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, End Violence Against Women, the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, the UK Drug Policy Commission and Twitter UK.
3
At least six people who testified in person subsequently went to jail (Max Clifford, Andy Coulson, Mazher Mahmoud, Ian Edmondson, Neville Thurlbeck, Chris Atkins).
4
The Inquiry devoted a whole day of public proceedings to hearing evidence from philosophers. They discussed such concepts as the public interest, freedom of expression and privacy.
5
Robert Jay QC, leading counsel to the Inquiry, attracted notice for the rich vocabulary he deployed in questioning, which included words such as 'propinquity', 'occlude', 'pellucidly' and ‘condign’.
6
The Inquiry probed events going back to the early 1980s, notably the arrangements by which Rupert Murdoch was permitted to buy the Times and Sunday Times in 1981.
7
Google is mentioned in evidence in Discover Leveson 311 times.
8
Rupert Murdoch gave evidence over two days, made three witness statements and supplied well over 100 documents as exhibits.
9
The UK’s current most senior police offer, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, gave evidence to the Inquiry, as did her five most recent predecessors – Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Sir Paul Stephenson, Sir Ian Blair, Sir John Stevens and Lord Condon.
10
Evidence was given under oath, so if you find a falsehood in Discover Leveson testimony, that witness may be liable to prosecution for perjury.
11
Of all the inquiries into the press in the UK since 1948 (and there have been between six and eight, depending how you count them), the Leveson Inquiry was the first to hear evidence in person from victims of press abuses.
12
Julian Assange made a submission to the inquiry about his treatment by the Press Complaints Commission, with supporting documents, four months before he sought asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

Themes

Understand all the key topics and the context behind the Inquiry's findings

Journalism & society
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Regulation
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Politics
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Future of journalism
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Background & history
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Subsequent developments
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Ethics & abuses
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