Newspapers demand more experts on press inquiry

Lord Justice Leveson Newspaper groups have asked Lord Leveson to appoint more experts
More from Torin

* Bookmarks on Delicious
* Media Brief
* The trials and tribulations of James Murdoch
* MPs prepare to question Murdoch again

This round-up of Thursday's main media stories reports on concern that the judicial inquiry into the future of the press lacks expertise in important areas.

Newspaper groups asked Lord Justice Leveson yesterday to appoint more experts to his inquiry into the future of the Press, reports the Daily Mail.

Counsel for Associated Newspapers, Trinity Mirror and Guardian News and Media said none of the judge's six existing advisers was "representative of the tabloid or mid-market newspapers, or had experience of national newspaper production at a senior management or editorial level, the regional press, investigative or sports or showbusiness journalism". The judge said he would reserve his judgment.

The former editor of the Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, has revealed that his phone was hacked. In the Spectator, he writes that it has changed his previously hostile attitude to the stars whose phones were hacked - but he won't be suing News International.

Chris Blackhurst, the editor of the Independent, has come out in support of the Labour party's controversial proposal to get journalists "struck off" if they are found to have committed gross malpractice, reports the Guardian. Blackhurst told BBC Radio 4's The Media Show he believed future regulation of the press ought to be more proactive and he would support the licensing of individual journalists in the fashion of doctors and jockeys.

The BBC's director of sport, Barbara Slater, has said the corporation will be better placed to cover the London Olympics from Salford in 2012 than it would have been from London, reports the Guardian. She told journalists from the Broadcasting Press Guild that the new HD and tapeless technology in the BBC North headquarters was essential to the Olympics coverage.

The heat is rising and Europe's leaders are wilting in the sun, according to a Daily Telegraph cartoon inspired by the eurozone crisis. But the idea of a financial transaction tax troubles the Sun, which asks: "Why should hard-working Brits pay a penny more to save the euro?" as reported in the BBC papers review.

on hold advertising
Irving Apartments