Fleet Street will be in the dock next week as a variety of leading national newspaper journalists, editors and publishers take the stand at the Leveson Inquiry.
On Monday the witness list comprises: Sun royal editor Duncan Larcombe, former Sun editor and columnist Kelvin MacKenzie, current Sun editor Dominic Mohan, Sun Bizarre editor Gordon Smart and Sun legal manager Justin Walford.
Witness statements will the be read out in the afternoon by former Sun editors Stuart Higgins and David Yelland.
MacKenzie was unflattering to Lord Justice Leveson when he was invited to give a presentation to one of the seminars which came before the inquiry, in October.
He said: ‘God help me that free speech comes down to the thought process of a judge who couldn’t win when prosecuting counsel against Ken Dodd for tax evasion and more recently robbing the Christmas Island veterans of a substantial pay-off for being told to simply turn away from nuclear test blasts in the Fifties. It’s that bad.”
On Tuesday, a variety of editors and publishers will be up including FT editor Lionel Barber, Independent editor Chris Blackhurst, Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher, former Telegraph editor Will Lewis and Telegraph Media Group chief executive Murdoch MacLennan.
Mail on Sunday editor Peter Wright is among the witnesses on Wednesday and on Thursday the day will be devoted to grilling editors and executives from Richard Desmond’s Northern and Shell stable of titles.
Desmond himself will be giving evidence as well as editorial director Paul Ashford, former Daily Express editor Peter Hill, current Daily Express editor Hugh Whittow and Daily Star editor Dawn Neesom.
Here are the full witness lists for next week’s sittings of the Leveson Inquiry:
Monday 9 January:
- Duncan Larcombe (The Sun)
- Kelvin Mackenzie (formerly with The Sun)
- Dominic Mohan (The Sun)
- Gordon Smart (The Sun)
- Justin Walford (The Sun)
- Stuart Higgins (The Sun – to be read)
- Simon Toms (The Sun – to be read)
- David Yelland (The Sun – to be read)
Tuesday 10 January:
- Lionel Barber (FT)
- Chris Blackhurst (Independent)
- Tony Gallagher (Telegraph)
- William Lewis (formerly with the Telegraph)
- Murdoch MacLennan (Telegraph)
- Manish Malhotra (Independent)
- Andrew Mullins (Independent)
- Finbarr Ronayne (Telegraph)
- Benedict Brogan (Telegraph – to be read)
- Adam Cannon (Telegraph – to be read)
- Ian McGregor (Telegraph – to be read)
- Peter Oborne (Telegraph – to be read)
- Arthur Wynn-Davies (Telegraph – to be read)
Wednesday 11 January
- Liz Hartley (Associated Newspapers)
- Peter Wright (Associated Newspapers)
- Kevin Beatty (Associated Newspapers – to be read)
- James Welsh (Associated Newspapers – to be read)
Thursday 12 January
- Paul Ashford (Northern & Shell)
- Richard Desmond (Northern & Shell)
- Peter Hill (Northern & Shell)
- Dawn Neesom (Northern & Shell)
- Nicole Patterson (Northern & Shell)
- Robert Sanderson (Northern & Shell)
- Hugh Whittow (Northern & Shell)
- Martin Ellice (Northern & Shell to be read)
- Gareth Morgan (Northern & Shell to be read)
- Martin Townsend (Northern & Shell to be read)
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