Privacy and Injunctions - Evidence - Parliament

Richard Desmond, chairman, Northern & Shell Network Ltd, Paul Ashford, Editorial
Director, Northern & Shell Network Ltd, and Hugh Whittow, editor, Daily Express—Oral
evidence (QQ 584–696)
Q571 Mr Bradshaw: Could you let us have details?
Hugh Whittow: Yes.
Q572 Nadhim Zahawi: What would an average yearly expenditure on damages or
settlements for privacy breaches be?
Hugh Whittow: Well those are the figures that we have.
Q573 Nadhim Zahawi: Including settlements?
Hugh Whittow: It is since 2009.
Paul Ashford: Yes.
Hugh Whittow: There have been seven cases across the four titles.
Q574 Nadhim Zahawi: You have spent £70,000?
Hugh Whittow: £70,000, yes.
Paul Ashford: Yes, I think all of those were settlements. They were not court
findings; they were settlements.
Hugh Whittow: Most of them involved pictures.
Nadhim Zahawi: Thank you very much.
Q575 Lord Thomas of Gresford: The question of the Press Complaints Commission
has been raised. Now you have been in it, you have been out of it, you have been in it again
and you have been out of it, so I gather. Why?
Richard Desmond: As I take the blame for this, I suppose I should answer. I found
some members of the PCC to be very hypocritical. In particular, during the intense publicity
surrounding the McCanns, every newspaper was running articles of similar nature to the
ones that the Express were running; I again apologise—I am sorry for what we published.
But every other newspaper was publishing the same, and we learnt last week certain others
were doing very bad things. During this time the PCC did absolutely nothing. There were
no conversations when Peter Hill, who was the editor of the Express, was on the committee.
There was never, I am told, a conversation about the McCanns. When we apologised, put it
on the front page, wrote a cheque out, etc, the then chairman—I am pleased I have
forgotten his name—
Paul Ashford: Sir Christopher Meyer.
Richard Desmond: Sir Christopher Meyer went on BBC television. I could not
believe it. He started to attack Peter Hill, the editor of the Express, and the Daily Express. I
thought this was very hypocritical. We did not resign straight away; we went along with it
for a while. Ultimately it performs a useful role, of course it does, but it has to be run
properly.
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