View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

Mail’s Hugh Grant rebuttal ‘intimidatory’, Leveson told

By Andrew Pugh

Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers has been accused of adopting “intimidatory” tactics after it issued a statment saying Hugh Grant was guilt of of spreading ‘mendacious smears’at the Leveson Inquiry yesterday.

Grant claimed that a story published by the Mail on Sunday in 2007 about his late-night phone-calls with a ‘plummy-voiced woman’during his break-up with Jemima Khan could have been the result of phone-hacking.

Today the Leveson Inquiry was told how Associated replied by claiming: ‘Mr Grant’s allegations are mendacious smears driven by his hatred of the media.”

The QC for the Met, Neil Garnham, warned Leveson that witnesses could fear giving evidence to the inquiry if they were accused of lying by the national press the following morning.

The counsel for phone-hacking victims, David Sherborne, accused Associated Newspapers of launching a ‘personal attack’on Grant.

‘This wasn’t comment – this was an allegation of fact,’said Sherborne, who also claimed the tone of the Mail’s rebuttal had an ‘intimidatory nature to it”.

In response Leveson said: ‘I’m extremely concerned about ensuring that the arguments relating to this inquiry are conducted here, not elsewhere. Consideration ought to be given to that sentence and I will wait to see.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

He added: ‘I’m anxious not to reach any inappropriate conclusions but I would be unhappy if it was felt that the best form of defence was always attack.”

Leveson told Associated’s QC Jonathan Caplan that he wanted to know what was meant by the phrase ‘mendacious smears”. Caplan had earlier said that Grant’s allegations were ‘extremely serious’and made without any evidence, and that the statement was released because he had no opportunity to cross-examine the witness.

He said he would need to discuss yesterday’s statement with Associated before he could provide further comment.

Topics in this article : ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network