'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...
'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."
Media Guardian.
Is this the TV star's suicide bid they mean?
Monday, 2 July 2012
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