Facebook and Twitter would be exempt from regulation hints Lord Justice Leveson Information Commissioner Christopher Graham told the inquiry that journalists could still use "the dark arts" to pursue stories if there was a clear public interest in doing so. He said he had seen no evidence of journalists illegally obtaining private data since two reports on breaches of privacy were published in 2006. Mr Graham, who has been the Information Commissioner since 2009, said he believed a free press should be able to operate within the law, which contained provisions for a public interest defence in cases where private data had been accessed. "You sometimes have to apply the dark arts to get the story, and then you're accountable for it," he said. And if you're really in trouble, that's the mitigation that you put to the court. Lord Justice Leveson said: "I can't imagine that a journalist with a public interest defence would be troubled by the courts." Mr Graham said he was in favour of jail sentences for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act, but did not expect journalists to be among those who would face jail as a result.