Dame Colette Bowe was the Chair of Ofcom from 2009 to 2014. She gave evidence to the Inquiry on the composition and role of Ofcom. In 2014, she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire for her services to media and communications.
Prime Minister of UK and Leader of Labour Party 2007 - 2010, prior to which he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Blair Government from 1997 - 2007. Brown was a Member of Parliament from 1983 - 2015, first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. Stood down as MP in 2015. Brown criticised the Sun for use of unauthorised information about his son's medical details and accused Rupert Murdoch of lying on oath. He criticised James Murdoch of "breathtaking arrogance" and claimed that the Conservative Party adopted all the policies put forward by the Murdoch company.
Author and policy analyst working with the Reuters Institute at the time of the Inquiry. Her 2012 report, Regulating the Press: A Comparative Study of International Press Councils, was commended by Lord Justice Leveson as "a monumental piece of work" and is extensively cited in his Inquiry Report.
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".
At the time of the Inquiry, Richards was Chief Executive of Ofcom, the independent regulator for the communications industry in the UK, stepping down in 2014. He told the Inquiry that he thought any proposal for editors to be part of a new regulatory board, as proposed by Lord Black, would not work. Previously worked as a senior policy adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, and before that as Controller of Corporate Strategy at the BBC.
Suter joined regulator Ofcom when it was first established in 2003, and was designate Partner responsible for Content and Standards. Prior to his appointment in this role, Suter had worked in various roles within the BBC over a period of 15 years. At the time of the Inquiry, he was a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. In 2014, he was appointed to the UK's Press Recognition Panel, created by the Royal Charter set up at the conclusion of Leveson Inquiry.
Group Director and board member at Ofcom at the time of giving evidence. Submitted an Ofcom study on the importance of media plurality, recommending that Government consider how to strike the right balance between promoting plurality and encouraging economically sustainable news-media organisations. Argued that judging a newspaper by circulation was not an accurate measure of its impact on society. Ofcom is an independent body which regulates the UK's broadcasting, telecommunications and wireless communications sectors and sets and enforces rules on fair competition between companies in these industries.
Former CEO of Trinity Mirror. Deputy Chair of Ofcom and Chairman of the Ofcom Content Board at the time of the Inquiry, Graf was also a member of Ofcom's Remuneration Committee and the Radio Licensing Committee. He was Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror Group when the company merged with the Mirror Group in 1999, a position he held until February 2003.
Clive Hollick, a former owner of Express Newspapers and a supporter of the Labour Party, was made a life peer in 1991. He told the Inquiry that he believed self-regulation of the Press should be abandoned. The historic pattern of promising and failing to reform had been repeated too often with sometimes tragic results, he said.
Business specialist in media and telecommunications. Meek held board-level roles at Ofcom from 2003 to 2007 as senior partner for content and competition. Meek founded Communications Chambers, a group of senior communications-industry professionals, providing public policy and strategic advice to the industry. Gave evidence on the role of Ofcom in the light of new media technologies.
