Conservative MP for Surrey Heath and Education Secretary at the time of the Inquiry. A former journalist at the Aberdeen Press and Journal, the Times, the BBC and the Spectator. Told the Inquiry that sometimes "individuals reach for regulation in order to deal with failures of character or morality, and sometimes that regulation is right and appropriate but some of us believe that before the case for regulation is made, the case for liberty needs to be asserted as well".
Satirist, journalist, Private Eye editor and broadcaster. Told the Inquiry that his publication was against regulation. The activities in focus at the Inquiry, such as phone hacking, contempt of court and police taking money, were all already illegal, he said. What was required was enforcement of existing laws. "The secret of investigative journalism is people ring you up and tell you things," he told the Inquiry (quoting his old friend Paul Foot).
