ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the setting up of the Leveson Inquiry by then Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press, following the News International phone-hacking scandal. It provides a summary and reflective overview of the ‘phone-hacking’ scandal at the News of the World which spread to other tabloids and looks at various police operations and criminal convictions which followed, starting around 2003. The chapter also provides a detailed look at press regulation by Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) and its rival organization IMPRESS, the IPSO Code and some adjudications by the press regulator. IPSO is a non-profit Community Interest Company which regulates those publishers who have agreed to be subject to its regulation. IPSO regards its Code as the cornerstone of the system of voluntary self-regulation to which all members of the magazine, print and online press have a binding contractual commitment.
