Leveson press inquiry to report on November 29

The Leveson inquiry into press standards, set up after the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World tabloid, will publish its findings on November 29, it was announced Thursday. Former senior judge Brian Leveson will announce whether he believes tougher regulation is needed of the newspaper industry, whose reputation has been hit hard in the past year by revelations of hacking and allegations of bribery. Leveson was tasked by Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2011 to examine the culture, practices and ethics of the press, specifically through its relationships with the public, police and politicians. During ten months of televised public hearings, he heard from politicians including Cameron himself, newspaper barons including Rupert Murdoch, police chiefs, journalists, hacking victims and celebrities. The Leveson report could have far-reaching implications for the future of the British press, which is currently kept in check by a voluntary system of self-regulation that critics say has been exposed as woefully inadequate. The inquiry was set up following the revelation that the Murdoch-owned News of the World had engaged in widespread phone hacking, including of the phone of a missing teenage girl who was later found murdered. Its terms of reference require Leveson to make recommendations "for a new more effective policy and regulatory regime which supports the integrity and freedom of the press, the plurality of the media, and its independence, including from Government, while encouraging the highest ethical and professional standards". Leveson has also been asked to assess how the authorities should deal with concerns about the press and regulation, the future conduct of relations between politicians and the press, and police and the press. Police have now arrested scores of people over hacking and in a related probe into the bribery of public officials. Former Murdoch executive Rebekah Brooks and Cameron's former communications chief Andy Coulson, both former News of the World editors, are among those facing criminal charges for hacking and bribing public officials. The prime minister also asked Leveson to look specifically into the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within Murdoch's British newspaper empire and other organisations in the media, and how this was investigated. But this part of the inquiry, officially known as part two, cannot take place until the criminal investigations into hacking and bribery are complete.