National News
Mail editor knew of detective work
3:53pm Monday 6th February 2012
The editor of the Daily Mail was aware the newspaper was using search agencies but not the extent to which it was doing so, he has told the inquiry into press standards.
Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, told the Leveson Inquiry that using private detectives to access information used to be commonplace in the newspaper industry.
The inquiry has previously heard from Mail on Sunday editor Peter Wright that the paper continued using private detective Steve Whittamore for 18 months after he was raided in an investigation into the unlawful trade of personal information. Whittamore was convicted of illegally accessing data in April 2005.
Mr Dacre, the longest-serving Fleet Street editor, said: "We wrote to Mr Whittamore and said could he give us an assurance that he was acting within the law." He added: "In 2007 we brought the shutters down and absolutely banned the use of all these... of Whittamore inquiry agencies."
Mr Dacre said that "everybody, every newspaper" had been using Whittamore at one stage. He admitted that he was aware the Daily Mail had been using Whittamore before 2006. He said: "We didn't realise what they were doing was illegal. There was a very hazy understanding of how the Data Protection Act worked and this was seen as a very quick way of obtaining phone numbers and addresses to corroborate stories."
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) uncovered a "treasure trove" of evidence linking newspapers to the sale of private data when it searched the Hampshire home of ]Whittamore in March 2003, the inquiry has been hold.
Mr Dacre said he was not sure an investigation into the Daily Mail's use of Whittamore was warranted at the time. "We did not believe it was illegal. Our journalists were asking for information and I am not sure the implications of the Data Protection Act were understood at that stage."
He said reporters previously used phone directories and reverse telephone books, as well as tracking down births and deaths, in time-consuming ways, and then a new, quicker method emerged.
He was asked by counsel to the inquiry Robert Jay QC about his reaction to the ICO's report putting the Daily Mail top of the league of newspapers using Whittamore, with 958 transactions which were positively identified as illegal, involving 58 journalists.
"Obviously it brought things home to me," he said. "Everybody was using this, law firms use them even now. Local authorities use them, insurance companies use them. We were trying to get addresses and phone numbers to corroborate news stories, to check the facts. We needed to get to the people in a family to check a story. This was a quick and easy way to get that information. Time is everything in journalism."