TWO OF Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper editors appeared before the Leveson Inquiry yesterday, one to apologise for invading someone’s privacy, another to say he could not be sure his newspaper had not behaved similarly.
At the same time, the inquiry, which is headed by Lord Justice Brian Leveson, recalled the Daily Mail's editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre, to question him further following his robust comments about the actor Hugh Grant, who has already given evidence to the inquiry.
Yesterday, the editor of the Timesapologised at the inquiry to a detective who was unmasked by a former reporter of the newspaper who had allegedly hacked the detective's email. James Harding said he regretted "sorely" the intrusion and expected "better of the Times".
Scotland Yard detectives are investigating claims the Timesjournalist, named as Patrick Foster, accessed the email of Lancashire detective Richard Horton in 2009 to unmask him as the author of the anonymous NightJack blog.
Mr Harding told the inquiry on January 17th that one of his reporters was issued with a formal written warning for professional misconduct for gaining unauthorised access to an email account.
The inquiry has heard the Timesfought a High Court battle to name Mr Horton as the writer of the NightJack blog after the reporter told his managers he had tried to access an email account.
Recalled to the inquiry to give evidence on the subject today, Mr Harding started by saying: “In the last couple of weeks I have learned a great deal more about what happened in this incident.
"As editor of the paper, I am responsible for what it does and what its journalists do. So I want to say at the outset that I sorely regret the intrusion into Richard Horton's email account by a journalist then in our newsroom. I am sure that Mr Horton and many other people expect better of the Times. So do I. So on behalf of the paper, I apologise."
Meanwhile, the editor of theSun said he could not be 100 per cent sure that some showbusiness stories published in the tabloid had not been obtained by phone hacking.
Dominic Mohan, who was also recalled to give further evidence, was questioned over a series of celebrity stories dating from a number of years ago. Among them were an article about Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher and his then wife Patsy Kensit and another about EastEnders star Martine McCutcheon, both from 1998. “Look, I can’t say 100 per cent and there’s an investigation being conducted by the management standards committee at News International, as you well know . . . Many stories are obtained through going to events, talking to celebrities at nightclubs, in bars,” he said.
In a separate development, Daily Maileditor-in-chief Paul Dacre is to be recalled to the inquiry, Lord Leveson said.
Mr Dacre will answer more questions about accusations made by actor Hugh Grant. On Monday, he defended accusing Mr Grant of making "mendacious smears" after the actor claimed a Mail on Sundaystory about his relationship with socialite Jemima Khan was likely to have come from illicit eavesdropping.
Mr Dacre also proposed a scheme under which miscreant journalists could be stripped of their professional credentials by the industry if they misbehaved.