Parliament to study media intrusion
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Your support makes all the difference.An inquiry into media intrusion is to be conducted by the influential Commons Select Committee on Media, Culture and Sport.
The Labour MP who chairs the committee, Gerald Kaufman, says the inquiry will focus on intrusion into the lives of "ordinary people" rather than politicians, members of the Royal Family or celebrities. However, the timing of the announcement, will arouse suspicions that there is a link between the inquiry and the recent saga of the Prime Minister's wife and the conman Peter Foster. Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, will give evidence to the committee. and department insiders said last night that she would be "very likely" to raise the affair. Ms Jowell has appeared on television attacking the press for hounding Cherie Blair.
The investigation, to begin in February or March, will examine the role and shortcomings of the Press Complaints Commission, and will look at the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the BBC's internal procedures for preventing intrusion. Newspaper editors may also be called and people who have suffered intrusion will be invited to submit written evidence. In a statement the committee said it would examine the case for privacy laws and/or a statutory ombudsman to replace the PCC.
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