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? >>

there is 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

. >> 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

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