Appointed professor of Criminology at City, University of London in 2013 and Dean of Arts and Social Sciences in 2017. At the time of the Inquiry, he worked in the Department of Sociology and Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism at City University London. Gave extensive evidence with Professor Eugene McLaughlin on the changing nature of relations between the news media and police chiefs, with particular reference to the "trial by media" of former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.
Phillipson was Professor of Law at the University of Durham and a qualified solicitor at the time of giving evidence. His research interests were in public law, particularly areas of European and UK human rights law, he said. He offered evidence of the notion of "public interest" and noted that without adequate protection for privacy, there was the risk of a situation in which rights and freedoms of individuals were sacrificed to the commercial interests of the mass media and the idle curiosity of the majority.
Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford, Professor at New York University Law School and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand at the time of the Inquiry. Submitted evidence on broad issues of political morality and the public interest in relation to a free press.
