16.08 ITN has not received many complaints, says Mr Battle. 15.56 Mr Battle is answering a question about the difference between compliance to legal and ethical standards across newspapers and broadcasters. The differences between the broadcast sector and the newspaper sector are not as large as you might think. The journalists do try to report the truth and do try to work in an ethical way. Where I think the main differences come are in what you might call the architecture. We have quite a clear corporate governance [in the broadcast sector]. I am the head of compliance. In the newspapers, I was a legal advisor. I am there to advise, to ensure the correct advice is given to editors but also an overarching duty to ensure there is some guidance given to the journalists. It's advice plus compliance. 15.49 John Battle, head of compliance at ITN, has just been sworn in. Mr Battle has previously worked as group legal advisor at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. 15.45 While we wait for the final witness of the day, ITN's head of compliance John Battle, the witness statement of Jim Gray is available. In it, he says there are two occasions on record at Channel 4 News in which journalists used private investigators. On both occasions, the purpose was to locate individuals whom we wished to film or interview as part of a public interest investigation. There was no impropriety. We paid £200 and £1500. We have attached the relevant documents,namely invoices for the payments made. We request these remain confidential as they are commercial contracts, and identify individuals (which we are not required to by the Inquiry but which we do in a spirit of openness). The £200 payment was made in 2009 when Channel 4 News was investigating a story in which newly discovered DNA evidence had revealed an historic miscarriage of justice. The firm was hired in order to find the solicitor who had originally worked on the case, to allow an interview to take place. The £1,500 payment was made in 2010, when Channel 4 News instructed a private investigator to locate the present whereabouts of the suspects to an unsolved murder. To the best of my knowledge, and after proportionate internal checks, there have been no other uses of private investigators by Channel 4 News during the relevant period. 15.41 Freedom of expression is another agenda to that of the inquiry, Mr Gray says in his final answer. He said he would be "anxious" about statutory regulation. His evidence is now finished and the inquiry is taking a short break. 15.32 Mr Gray is asked whether any broadcast guidelines could be transferred to print media to improve standards. He struggles to think of anything that could be directly replicated, saying he had never worked in print media. Mr Gray suggests a more generous system of "prior notification" for subjects of stories. 15.26 Asked whether Ofcom guidelines had restricted editorial freedom, Mr Gray replied: "No." I struggle to think of a story that I really wanted to put on air that I didn't because of the guidelines. That's not to say there might be an effect on how the story is told, for instance, in the right to reply...I've never spiked a report because of an Ofcom guideline. 15.24 Counsel David Barr has to ask Mr Gray, who is Scottish, to slow down for the shorthand writer twice. 15.15 Channel 4 News would run stories based on a single off-the-record source, says Mr Gray. He says it is rare but might happen when a politician has said something off the record to a political correspondent. 15.10 There was no evidence of phone-hacking at Channel 4 News, Mr Gray tells the inquiry. There was an independent external inquiry as a result of the phone-hacking scandal. The outcome was that there was no evidence of phone hacking, blagging, payments to police or any other practices concerned in this inquiry. 15.03 Lord Patten has finished his evidence and Jim Gray, Channel 4 News editor, will appear next. 14.58 The BBC gets involved in providing news because of market failures, Lord Patten tells the inquiry. 14.55 Lord Patten is asked about regulation of the press. He says he is in favour of self-regulation: It would be far preferable if the written media themselves could clean out the stables, and I assume that there would be a consensus for that proposition. It would be clouded with a certain amount of doubt as to whether or not it would happen but that would be the most hopeful way forward. 14.52 Elsewhere, Gordon Rayner has more on the news that a NOTW reporter played police a recording of a voicemail left on the phone of Milly Dowler. Surrey Police knew in April 2002 that the tabloid had illegally accessed the schoolgirl's mobile phone messages, but instead of pressing charges a senior officer from the force invited two News of the World staff to a private meeting at the force's headquarters to discuss the case. Up to three other police forces were also aware of the hacking by the News of the World, but they did nothing until newspapers reported it last July. 14.45 The witness list for Wednesday's hearing has been updated to include the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union leader Bob Crow. The other witnesses listed are David Allen Green, who blogs as Jack of Kent, and the "fake sheikh" Mazher Mahmood, who has been recalled. 14.40 The late Guardian journalist Hugo Young is referred to by Lord Patten as a journalist who knew the boundaries between journalists and politicians. Lord Patten said: "Hugo Young had an extremely developed sense of what was seemly. He only ever had two politicians in his house. 14.33 Lord Patten's witness statement is available now. In it, he describes how he feels "the BBC should set the gold standard for ethical behaviour." He goes on: "Producers of BBC content should not only meet the standards set by the Trust and Ofcom but they should aspire in their daily behaviour to set their compass by what is in the public interest and what the audience expect of them." The BBC has made mistakes in its editorial standards. Since 2007 the Trust has been active in leading the BBC to develop and put in place systems that support the highest of standards (and in 2010 the Editorial Guidelines were redrawn, and that was followed by an extensive training programme); in 2008 the BBC rolled out trust training~to all staff involved in producing content (it was also rolled out to independent production companies); and there have been two Executive action plans and accompanying Trust audits following serious editorial breaches (one in 2008 following both the competitions issues and separate issues relating to a press trailer about the Queen, and the other following Ross/Brand incident in 2009). 14.23 Lord Justice Leveson interrupts the questioning by counsel David Barr to ask about the flow of information between editors and politicians. Lord Patten says being manipulated by a group of journalists "doesn't make very good sense." He refers to Margaret Thatcher who would see a lot of some journalists because "she thought they were intelligent and she liked arguing with them." 14.18 Politicians have been "kidded" by editors and proprietors into thinking the press derermines their fate, says Lord Patten. He says he is "not in favour of grovelling." 14.12 Lord Patten, a former Conservative party chairman, is asked how much contact he has with current politicians. I'm a member of the House of Lords but when I became chairman of the Trust, I agreed to resign the Conservative whip and become a cross-bencher... I don't vote on controversial issues. I see ex-politicians in the House of Lords from time to time. 14.09 We're back from lunch and Lord Patten is resuming his evidence, talking about Rupert Murdoch's "always doomed" attempt to expand into China. 13.30 It is clear from Surrey Police's letter to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that individuals from the News of the World are named. Although their names have been redacted in the publicly available document, we can only assume that the inquiry will be provided a version containing those names. 13.00 The inquiry is now breaking for lunch. 12.56 Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, is now giving evidence to the inquiry. He says that the BBC needs to learn to say sorry more quickly when it has made editorial mistakes. Lord Patten 12.48 Mark Thompson says he worries that tighter regulation of the media could be imposed by the Government at a politically sensitive moment. Lord Justice Leveson replies: I don't want you to feel I'm fighting for a solution I haven't already got. 12.42 The rapidity of the News of the World's hacking is emphasised in the Surrey Police letter, as Gordon Rayner tweets: 12.39 Lord Justice Leveson asks Mark Thompson whether he feels the BBC's "growing reach" of its news coverage has eaten away the business of regional newspapers and other local media. Thompson claims he has not seen any "tangible" evidence of this and that the BBC's regional services have not grown over the last 30 years. 12.34 Gordon Rayner, our chief reporter, tweets on the content of that Surrey Police letter: 12.25 We're just picking through Surrey Police's letter on the Milly Dowler investigation. Most striking immediate observation is the suggestion that the News of the World wrote to Surrey Police in April 2002 offering "a copy of a tape recording of messages" left on the teenager's phone. Milly Dowler 12.20 The inquiry heard earlier that a BBC journalist used a private investigator to find out the owner of a car from its number plate after the vehicle was used by someone suspected of involvement in a serious criminal conspiracy. Mark Thompson replied: There were many different ways in which this information could be obtained. 12.18 The BBC once used private investigator Steve Whittamore, who was later convicted of illegally accessing personal data, to check whether someone was on a particular flight, Mark Thompson tells the inquiry. 12.07 Labour MP Tom Watson describes the content of the letter from Surrey Police as "stomach churning." 12.02 A letter from Surrey Police on the Milly Dowler investigation has now been published on the House of Commons website. More on this soon. 12.01 Mark Thompson's witness statement is now running on the Leveson inquiry's website. 11.58 Mark Thompson says he cannot understand the argument that economic pressures have led to short cuts being taken, which might damage the ethics of newspapers' news-gathering methods. The BBC of course is propped up with millions of pounds of licence-fee payers' cash. It's not clear to me why the economic pressures on newspapers would go directly to ethics. Why should ethical standards be reduced by economic pressures? 11.52 The BBC director-general says he holds Channel 4's news operation in high esteem. I believe that Channel 4 has done much distinguished investigative work over the years. It's a well run and tightly editorially managed organisation. 11.49 Mark Thompson says he does meet senior police officers, but describes contact as infrequent. 11.47 Apparently at noon we can expect publication of documents setting out a timeline of Surrey Police's investigation over the murder of Milly Dowler. More on this as we get it. This is coming out via the House of Commons. 11.44 Evidence has resumed after a brief break. Mark Thompson says there are "plenty of stories" which appear in print which the BBC chooses not to pursue because they are not deemed to be in the public interest. 11.33 The BBC director-general says the Sachsgate scandal exposed serious failiings at the BBC. Mark Thompson said the incident, in which presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand left obscene messages on the voicemail of actor Andrew Sachs's voicemail showed a lack of responsibility right up the chain of command at the Beeb: It went far, far, far beyond the line. It wasn't close to the line, it went far beyond... what was decent. It exposed a serious lapse of judgment. Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand 11.30 Mark Thompson says the Hutton report changed the way the BBC carried out its training, compliance and complaints process. 11.27 Labour MP Tom Watson tweets that Rupert Murdoch has already seen draft plans for the News of the World's replacement: A News Corp source tells me Rupert Murdoch has seen the draft designs of the Sunday Sun with a launch in April at a discounted price. 11.20 The BBC receives around 240,000 complaints a year, says Mark Thompson. 11.15 BBC reviews found that from Jan 2005 - July 2011 the corporation used private investigators on 232 occasions paying £310,000, tweets Ben Fenton. 11.13 Mark Thompson says that the BBC uses private investigators for certain stories requiring "surveillance," citing a programme about bail hostels as an example. 11.11 Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch tweets: No excuses for phone hacking. No argument. No excuses either for copyright stealing, but plenty of ignorant argument! Rupert Murdoch 11.00: Mark Thompson says the same editorial procedures are applied to the blogs of BBC journalists such as Robert Peston and Nick Robinson as television and radio bulletins. He stressed that it was just as important that stories and blogs on the BBC website were legally sound as they are on other media. 10.56: Tom Watson also writes that he is sending the letter to the attorney general. 10.49: Here is a link to Tom Watson's letter to the Met about alleged email hacking at The Times. It is clear that a crime has been committed - illicit hacking of personal emails. It is almost certain that a judge was misled. In turn, James Murdoch has misled a parliamentary inquiry into where Parliament had been previously misled by executives of News International. This runs counter to the assurances of Rupert Murdoch that News International takes a "zero tolerance approach to wrongdoing. Tom Watson 10.46: Labour MP Tom Watson has written to Scotland Yard asking detectives from Operation Tuleta to look into allegations that The Times engaged in email hacking, tweets Thais Portilho-Shrimpton, co-ordinator of the Hacked Off Campaign. 10.39: Mr Thompson said the BBC's internal review examined whether BBC journalists had ever engaged in phone hacking, payments to police and 'blagging'. I have a very high level of confidence that these things never happened at the BBC. 10.33: Mark Thompson said that an internal review found there was no evidence to suggest that BBC staff ever hacked people's phones. 10.28: Asked by Lord Justice Leveson if the process of obtaining permission to carry out secret filming was "very bureaucratic," Mr Thompson admitted that the paperwork required caused delays, which made it difficult for the BBC to carry out undercover work "on the fly." 10.25::The BBC director-general insisted that secret fiming was not a tool which producers use to make programmes more exciting or to gather bigger audiences. We are determined to ensure that secret filming remains a resource of last resort. 10.20: Mark Thompson: We respect privacy unless there are very strong public interest reasons for not doing so. He cited secret filming as an example of breaching privacy but said the BBC would have to be satisfied that there were no other journalistic means available before pressing ahead. Mark Thompson, giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry 10.15: Thompson says the BBC would be very wary about going ahead with a story from a single unnamed source. The source's credibility would have to be vouched for by senior executives, at least one of whom would have to be made aware of the source's identity, he said. 10.05: Mark Thompson is first up. Named as Mark John Thompson Thompson. Is that an error? 10.00: A Scotland Yard detective who worked as a liaison officer between Surrey Police and Milly Dowler's family was targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, the Independent reports. The name and mobile phone number of the detective constable, who would have been privy to the private anguish of the Dowler family, was found in the 11,000 pages of evidence seized from Mulcaire's home. The investigator, right, obtained voicemail PINs and eavesdropped on phone messages on behalf of the News of the World. 09.45: While Mr Thompson today faces the scrutiny of the inquiry, the BBC is to begin searching for its next potential director-general as it plans to cut the salary of the corporation's top job, The Times reports. The newspaper says that whoever takes over the reins from Mr Thompson will be paid substantially less than the £671,000 he currently earns. Lord Patten, who also gives evidence to the inquiry today, is quoted as saying he is opposed to statutory regulation of newspapers. It's a more open, responsible and self-confident society that doesn't give politicians any opportunity to prevent the accountability which goes with an interrogative, investigative press. Lord Patten and Mark Thompson 09.30: Appearing today at the Leveson Inquiry: Mark Thompson, BBC director-general Lord Patten, BBC Trust chairman Jim Gray, Channel 4 News editor John Battle, ITN's head of compliance Statements from the following will also be taken as read: Greg Dyke, Nicholas Eldred, Robert Peston, Nicholas Robinson, Richard Watson, Tom Bradby, Maggie Carver, Gary Gibbon, John Hardie, David Mannion and Matthew Hibbert. 09.00: Good morning and welcome back to live coverage of the Leveson Inquiry into the ethics of the press. 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