next to hearing on the british phone-hacking scandal headed by lord justice leveson. during this inquiry witnesses testified reporters with the now defunct "news of the world" hack their phone conversations. they include parents of a 13-year-old girl who was murdered. author and columnist joan smith and later testimony from actor hugh grant who talks about his encounter with the "news of the world" reporter who he says abetted the tabloid was engaging in phone-hacking. this hearing is an hour and 45 minutes. >> before you begin to hear the evidence, may i just say a few words. we do think it is important that those who are here and those who will watch the proceedings clearly understand the procedure which the inquiry has laid down as being appropriate for this evidence under the inquiries act. we of course as have the other corporate disciplines have seen the witness statements of those who are going to be called this week and next week and it is right to say that in some of them there is varying degrees of criticism or sections of the press and on occasion individua

is there neglect you would like to -- anything you would like to suggest to the lord justice leveson at this stage? >> we were asked the question when we visited the prime minister and we are ordinary people so we have no experience in such a public light situation. and certainly no experience from a media, controlled media involvement situation. that has always been on our best judgment as to how we dealt with test matters. >> it was more the extent of it exposed and the inquiry could make the decisions. >> yes, it appears it the inquiry that your judgment has been extremely well exercised under difficult situations and we appreciate that. but do you have anything more general that you would invite the inquiry to think about? >> i think we will leave that up to you. >> how very generous of you. you. >> i have no further questions for you. i'm extremely grateful for your evidence and the way in which you kindly and frankly answered my questions. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> i think you were acting for the dowlers. are there any further questions you want to ask? >>

. >> earlier this month lord justice brian leveson began hearings on phone hacking and more broadly,the culture, practices and ethics of the british media. this portion of the hearing focuses on the victims of alleged phone hacking. earlier this year british prime minister david ram con appointed lord justice leveson to oversee a committee examining the relationship between the press and the police. that committee will make recommendations on the future of governance. this is just under two and a half hours. >> yes, mr. kaplan. >> before you begin to hear the evidence of those i think who have been termed the core participants, victims, may i just say, um, a few words. um, we do think it is important, um, that those who are here and those who will watch the proceedings clearly understand the procedure which the inquiry has laid down as being appropriate, um, for this evidence under the inquiries act. we, of course, as have the other core participants, have seen the witness statements of those who are going to be called this week and next week, and it is right to say that in some of t

a sort of wider lesson to be drawn from it which i think i mentioned this at one of lord justice leveson's seminars. it seems to me tabloid culture is so remorseless, its appetite is so unable to be filled that the people involved have lost any sense of they're dealing with human beings, is and when i was doing investigative journalism, i quite often had to go and knock on the door of somebody who was bereaved. but it wasn't because i wanted to know how it felt. it was because i was writing about, you know, say the murders, i interviewed three of the men who had been attacked by him and survived. there was always a sort of purpose which i could explain and say you may not want to talk to me. actually, nobody ever did say go away. but i think this is very different. this is just, um, everything has become a story, and we're all caricatures. i've said this in my writing. you know, that i think to the tabloid press, we're just two dimensional, we're just fodder for stories. >> can i, please, turn to paragraph 25 of your -- [inaudible] where you deal with -- [inaudible] more generally. you exp

is threre neglect you would like to -- anything you would like to suggest to the lord justice leveson at this stage? >> we were asked the question when we visited the prime minister and we are ordinary people so we have no experience in such a public light situation. and certainly no experience from a media controlled media involvement situation. that has always been on our best judgment as to how we dealt with test matters. >> it was more the extent of it exposed and the inquiry could make the decisions. >> yes, it appears it the inquiry that your judgment has been extremely well exercised under difficult situations and we appreciate that. but do you have anything more general that you would invite the inquiry to think about? >> i think we will leave that up to you. >> how very generous of you. thank you. >> i have no further questions for you. i'm extremely grateful for your evidence and the way in which you kindly and frankly answered my questions. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> i think you were acting for the dowlers. are there any further questions you want to as

it's a judge-led inquiry, it's called the leveson inquiry, and it is looking into culture, practice,of the press here in the united kingdom broadly speaking, but also in the relation to the now-defunct "news of the world." we're hearing from celebrities who are talking about how intrusion of the press has impacted their lives, again, as it relates to the phone hacking scandal, but also breaches of privacy by the press in a more general sense. now, we also have heard from real people today including the parents of the murdered schoolgirl, milly dowler. they're a part of the hearing. a detective hired by "news of the world" hacked into milly dowler's voicemail when she was missing and deleted messages on that voicemail freeing up space for fresh messages which would be fresh leads in the case, and that gave her parents false hope that she was still alive. here's what they had to say about it today. >> i rang her phone -- >> yes. >> and it clicked through onto her voicemail, so i heard her voice. >> yes. >> and i was, it was just like -- she picked up her voicemail, she's alive. and i j

to beat me on the head because of the birth of my daughter and that's why i'm here in front of the levesoncommittee and a much too young girl and even though she denied it was in all these papers. >> i'm seeking to analyze what appears in this article and receive your comment upon it and you've kindly given me that. >> can i just ask you, what's the position of the papers in germany? have they reported you in the way in which you've complained about being -- >> yes, yes. it wouldn't have been germany. it's everywhere. i say in my main statement, you know, this is one of the problems when something is misreported, it's a splatters around the internet. this is a fact that i have a 21-year-old german girlfriend and it doesn't matter unless it's used a stick to beat me again and again and it does become a little wearying and you wished they bothered to ask me or bothered to listen to the girl's denials. >> and is it possible to do something about this in germany? >> it's not -- it's really not a big -- it's not like it's libelous. i was merely giving an example of the use of misreporting to be

to beat me on the head because of the birth of my daughter and that's why i'm here in front of the leveson committee and a much too young girl and even though she denied it was in all these papers. >> i'm seeking to analyze what appears in this article and receive your comment upon it and you've kindly given me that. >> can i just ask you, what's the position of the papers in germany? have they reported you in the way in which you've complained about being -- >> yes, yes. it wouldn't have been germany. it's everywhere. i say in my main statement, you know, this is one of the problems when something is misreported, it's a splatters around the internet. this is a fact that i have a 21-year-old german girlfriend and it doesn't matter unless it's used a stick to beat me again and again and it does become a little wearying and you wished they bothered to ask me or bothered to listen to the girl's denials. >> and is it possible to do something about this in germany? >> it's not -- it's really not a big -- it's not like it's libelous. i was merely giving an example of the use of misreporting to b

justice leveson was appointed to oversee the relationship between the press, and police. up next, a portion of the hearing, featuring the testimony from hugh grant. this is about 2 hours 15 minutes. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> i, hugh grant, do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm that the evidence i shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. >> thank you. >> mr. grant, your full name please? >> hugh john mungo grant. >> thank you. there is a statement of truth signed by you on the third of november of this year. please confirm that is your first statement. >> that is. >> than you did a second statement on the 11th of november. again there is a statement of truth. >> yes. >> what i am going to do -- >> before you do anything, mr. grant, i am very grateful to you for coming. i am conscious that you're speaking of matters to you or prefer if you would prefer were not deployed in the -- you would prefer were not deployed in the press. i am grat

to beat me on the head because of the birth of my daughter and that's why i'm here in front of the leveson committee and a much too young girl and even though she denied it was in all these papers. >> i'm seeking to analyze what appears in this article and receive your comment upon it and you've kindly given me that. >> can i just ask you, what's the position of the papers in germany? have they reported you in the way in which you've complained about being -- >> yes, yes. it wouldn't have been germany. it's everywhere. i say in my main statement, you know, this is one of the problems when something is misreported, it's a splatters around the internet. this is a fact that i have a 21-year-old german girlfriend and it doesn't matter unless it's used a stick to beat me again and again and it does become a little wearying and you wished they bothered to ask me or bothered to listen to the girl's denials. >> and is it possible to do something about this in germany? >> it's not -- it's really not a big -- it's not like it's libelous. i was merely giving an example of the use of misreporting to b

if the joint committee or congress fails to act by that >> remarks from douglas leveson who is the director of the budget office. he talked about cutting taxes to increase spending and why this would be the best way to boost the economy. this meeting was held on september 13th and will start with opening remarks from mr. elmendorf. >> we will turn to our witness for today. dr. douglas elmendorf is the eighth director of the congressional budget office. his term began on january 22nd, 2009. before he came to cbo, dr. elmendorf was a senior fellow in the economic studies program at brookings institution as the edward m. bernstein scholar, he wrote papers on the economic activity and the director on the hamilton project in an effort to promote shared economic growth. he was an assistant professor at harvard university, a principal analyst at the congressional budget office, a senior economist at the white house counsel of economic advisors, a deputy secretary -- assistant secretary for economic policy at the treasury department and an assistant director of the division of research and statisti