Surge in number of warnings over press behaviour Newspapers and magazines had appeared to rein in their behaviour after the launch of the Leveson inquiry into media ethics. Photograph: Andy Myatt/Alamy The number of warnings issued about the behaviour of newspaper journalists harassing and intruding into the privacy of celebrities and members of the public is creeping back to the levels before the Milly Dowler phone hacking scandal erupted. Complaints judged serious enough to be taken up by the Press Complaints Commission had fallen dramatically in the second half of last year after the Leveson inquiry was set up in July. Nervous tabloids appeared to rein in their behaviour in the aftermath of the revelation that Dowler's phone had been hacked and the creation of a public inquiry, which the education secretary, Michael Gove, warned had created a "chilling atmosphere" for freedom of expression. Figures from the PCC show the watchdog put out 110 advisory and desist notices in 2010. In 2011, it sent 119 notices in the first six months, and only 27 in the second half of the year, after the inquiry had begun. But in the first six months of 2012, the PCC issued 66 - matching 2010 levels - suggesting the tabloids have regained some of their confidence. Complaints have included one brought by the family of Sebastian Bowles, the 11-year-old British boy killed in a coach crash on the way home from a skiing trip in Switzerland this year, whose lawyer gave evidence to Leveson last week. Advisory and desist notices are sent confidentially by the PCC to all newspapers, usually in response to a complaint by a member of the public or a celebrity who believes they are being harassed by reporters. Their existence is usually kept private, although sometimes complaints are made public, such as when the PCC successfully persuaded photographers to stop camping outside Kate Middleton's home at the time of her 25th birthday in 2007. In some cases this year, the PCC was acting for celebrities complaining about similar press intrusion into their family lives and photographs taken on private property or of their children. However, mostly they were taking up cases from ordinary people, many of whom were grieving because of the death or illness of a child, partner or parent, or the aftermath of an affair. Among the complainants to the commission in the past year are the parents of Sebastian Bowles, who said photos were taken against their wishes of them and another child visibly "distressed"; a couple who were visiting a seriously ill child in hospital; and a man who said his career and health had been affected by journalists surrounding his home after his wife was revealed to be having an affair. Giles Crown told the Leveson inquiry that Sebastian's parents, Edward and Ann, had been upset by photographs of them and their nine-year-old daughter taken in the porch of a hotel while they waited for a coach to take them and other bereaved families to the crash site, despite other coaches parked in front of the hotel to try to shield them from the press pack. They also had "packs of press" outside their homes in London and Belgium, and police had to regularly return to the family house in Belgium to move on journalists who returned each time they were asked to leave, while neighbours were followed down the street by reporters asking questions about the grieving family. "As a result of these visits, and from this point in time until more than a week later, Edward's family lived with their external window shutters closed because they were so concerned," said Crown. The family also complained that family holiday photos from Edward Bowles's Facebook page were used without permission, despite him believing that he had set the privacy settings to the highest level. The notices are seen as one of the more successful activities of the PCC, which is to be abolished after the Leveson inquiry into press standards and replaced by a new "independent" body, whose structure will be created through complex negotiations between Lord Justice Leveson, the newspaper industry and politicians. But the notices do not always succeed, and Hugh Grant told Leveson in November that complaints to the PCC last year failed to remove photographers camped outside the house of Ting Lan Hong, the mother of his baby daughter. He eventually obtained a court order. Media legal expert Jonathan Coad also said those cases which resulted in formal letters from the commission were only "a small proportion of the problem." Coad, a partner at Lewis Silkin solicitors, said among the other cases he has dealt with were a journalist who tried to interview a child with special needs through the letterbox of his home about his parents' marriage; a celebrity whose neighbours were offered £500 cash if they would sign a witness statement saying she was a bad mother; and a TV star who after being told a story about him being gay would be published tried to kill himself - a story which was leaked apparently by somebody in the ambulance ringing a newspaper with the tipoff. "From inside red-top [tabloid newspaper] land, initially they did feel the sap taken out of them by Leveson, and their behaviour was consciously improved," said Coad. [However] my feeling and anecdotal experience is the initial effect has passed. It is understood that not all requests for the PCC to intervene are acted on if the commission does not believe there has been a breach of the code, for example if several media organisations make one request each for an interview. Reporters do not have to be acting aggressively for an advisory or desist notice to be sent, only ignoring repeated requests to be left alone. Complainants include those who have been libelled by newspaper or magazine articles or have other serious allegations. The numbers would also be likely to be affected by rising public awareness of the PCC and the public's rights to complain, which would have been increased further by the media attention given to the Leveson inquiry.