David Norris (Independent)

I will finish on this and come back later because I have a right to reply. The question of Ms Charlotte Church was a complete fabrication, not least because she was not there on the night of the events of which she was accused. Nobody checked with her. Apparently, nobody thought about whether this was intrusive, let alone true. To use the Mr. Kelvin MacKenzie line, that "if it sounded right it was probably right and therefore we should lob it in," bugger sources or respect for people's private lives. That is what Mr. MacKenzie stated to the inquiry.

I will end by referring to The Irish Times editorial. It stated:

All the bounds of decency have been broken, not to mention criminality and mendacity on a breathtaking scale. Rights, dignity, trampled on. Privacy, be damned. And not alone by the late unlamented News of the World . A culture of anything-goes was pervasive, justified on the basis of a spurious "public interest", an attitude reflected most crassly last week by former NoW hack Paul McMullen at the hearing: "Privacy is the space bad people need to do bad things in. Privacy is for paedos. . .".

The general secretary of the National Union of Journalists in Britain to which I am affiliated, wrote that we want to show how the culture in the workplace is led from the top, how bullying and pressure from editors, accompanied with staff shortages and dwindling resources, puts journalists under huge pressure to deliver - a context where shortcuts become inevitable. I know of the way in which people are bullied in this country. I know the editors who do it. I know what they have done and the reason I cannot put it on the record is because I have been begged by these people not to expose them because they will not be protected, they will not be treated as whistleblowers and they will lose their jobs. This is rampant right throughout the industry of which I still remain a member.