Report into hacking created 'climate of fear'

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A report on how Scotland Yard should change its relationship with the press in light of the phone-hacking scandal read like an "East German Ministry of Information manual", the Leveson Inquiry heard.

Sean O'Neill, crime editor of The Times, branded the review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary "patronising and ultimately dangerous for future accountability". He said the review had created a "climate of fear" in which officers were now "afraid to talk to the press" and that information in the public interest, but not the corporate interest of the police, was no longer reaching journalists.