Cameron to be quizzed about dealings with Murdoch empire

DOWNING STREET has said that David Cameron will attend the Leveson Inquiry into press standards if he is called to give evidence.
 
The Times reports today that Lord Justice Leveson, who is chairing the inquiry into media ethics, is "99.9 per cent certain" to summon the Prime Minister to give evidence under oath "about his meetings with newspaper proprietors and editors". 
 
The paper's media editor, Ben Webster, adds: "Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister, and Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, are also expected to be called to give evidence during the section of the inquiry considering relationships between police and politicians."
 
Rupert Murdoch, the publisher of the now defunct News of the World, will also be asked to attend. He was attacked with a custard pie the last time he appeared in this country, when he gave evidence to the Commons Culture Committee in July.
 
It was Cameron who instigated the Leveson Inquiry last year in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. He is expected to face questions about his decision to hire former NotW editor Andy Coulson (he quit last January) as his head of media and his friendship with another former editor of the paper and chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks.
 
Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie once accused Cameron of setting up the inquiry to "escape his own personal lack of judgment" in hiring Coulson.
 
MacKenzie was among the witnesses yesterday where he defended his "bullish" stance while editor of the Sun and stood by an earlier comment that he would "lob" things into the paper with little thought for privacy. 
 
Current Sun editor Dominic Mohan told the inquiry that his tabloid could be a "powerful force for good". But he also warned that over-regulation could be a "mortal blow" for newspapers, particularly if the internet was left unchecked. ·