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.
