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Press watchdog also agrees to pay damages to settle lawyer's libel action over accusations of misleading select committee
The Press Complaints Commission, which oversees the newspaper industry's editorial code, today found itself in the embarrassing position of formally apologising and paying damages for misleading remarks made by its chairman, Lady Buscombe.
The commission and the baroness made a formal statement of regret at the high court to settle a libel action brought by Mark Lewis, one of the lawyers at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World. They also agreed to pay a sum for damages and legal costs, but neither side would disclose any detail.
It is believed to be the first successful libel action brought against the press watchdog, whose code of conduct opens with a requirement for the press to "take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information".
The case relates to evidence given by Mark Lewis last September to the House of Commons' culture, media and sport committee. Lewis acted for Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, when he sued the News of the World for breaching his privacy by using a private investigator to intercept his voicemail messages.
Lewis told the committee that during legal hearings in Gordon Taylor's case, Detective Sergeant Mark Maberly, who had been involved in the original investigation into the News of the World, had told him that there were "something like 6,000 people" who had had their messages intercepted or their own phones directly hacked.
This clashed with the official version of events, which acknowledged only eight victims, including Gordon Taylor. The Press Complaints Commission, which had already endorsed this official version, then produced a second report that came to the same conclusion. This was denounced as "a whitewash" by Labour MP Paul Farrelly.
In a subsequent speech to the Society of Editors in November last year, Buscombe defended the PCC's reports and claimed that she had received "new evidence" from Scotland Yard saying that Det Sgt Maberly had been misquoted. The baroness said she would add this to the PCC's latest report and send it to the chair of the media select committee. "Any suggestion that a parliamentary inquiry has been misled is, of course, an extremely serious matter," she said.
Lewis started an action for libel against Buscombe and the PCC, complaining that they had made no attempt to check Scotland Yard's claim and that the clear implication off her speech was that he had lied and invented the figure of 6,000.
At the high court, the PCC and the baroness made a formal statement of regret along lines which they had previously posted on their website: "Baroness Buscombe has never suggested - and does not believe - that Mr Lewis misled the select committee and her statement was not intended as a criticism of him or the evidence which he gave to the select committee. Baroness Buscombe regrets that her statement may have been misunderstood."
Mark Lewis also started a libel action against Scotland Yard over related emails which they sent to the PCC about his evidence to the select committee. That action has not been settled.
In a separate development, Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, has been given leave to appeal against a high court ruling last week that he must give evidence about who instructed him to intercept voicemail messages. Mulcaire has argued that he should not have to give evidence which might incriminate him.
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