A quiet day.

Alec Owens, former Investigator with the Information Commission is going thru spreadsheets taken from Private Investigator Steve Whittamore in Operation Motorman in 2003. It has been Owens contention last week that there was no prosecutions of journalists and editors because they were deemed in the words of a former colleague to be “too big”. A report from the Counsel for The Information Commission makes it clear that as early as 2003, it was believed editors would have known.

Francis Aldhouse is former Deputy Information Commissioner. Aldhouse “cannot recall” a meeting with Owens where he (Aldhouse) suggested that the media was “too big” to deal with. It is his view that hs boss Richard Thomas wanted to approach the Press Complaints Commission about the illegality. The evidence presented today is new to Aldhouse.

Peter Burden has written about the methods used by tabloidists in a book “Fake Sheiks” (a reference to a leading tabloidist Mahzer Mahmood). He speaks first about tabloid invention…..such as the “kidnap plot” involving David Beckham. He also makes a similar comment in respect of Mahmoods sting on members of the Pakistani Cricket team (some were recently jailed for corruption).