Tony Blair is now giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry
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LJ Leveson reiterates that he has no intention of "perilling the free press" and a political consensus is "important, if not critical" and the absence of consensus would be difficult
Has no doubt that any future PM will have all sorts of ideas and policies to implement, however the phone hacking issue may not be high on the agenda and whether it remains so will be difficult to tell
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LJ Leveson and TB now turn to libel and defamation laws drawing particular attention to the scope and prior notification of an article and makes note that the PCC code does not make any provision for group complaints.
LJ Leveson is slightly critical of the “right of reply”; this is a procedure under the Reynolds defence, which states that the press must notify the subject of an article for a comment, allowing the subject to take out an injunction and potentially “kill” the story
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LJ Leveson and TB now turn to libel and defamation laws and access to it drawing attention to the fact that the PCC code does not make any provision for group complaints.
scope, mechanism to solve disputes
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@Kevin_Maguire from the Daily Mirror and the New Statesman says tweets in: "Protester calling Blair "war criminal" at #leveson in trouble for contempt of court but don't think he'll be sued for slander..."
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Everyone on Twitter seems to have a copy of the PCC code at hand specifically tweeting on clause 1 on news and comment
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TB argues that press regulation poses a problem in the political sense and reiterates the need for a press-led culture change in relation to clause 1 of the PCC code which states that journalists must clearly distinguish between news and comment.
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TB says that this isn't an area where there is a regulation of an answer and believe that if there is a cultural change British journalists be the ones leading it in the world of social media, and further praises Brith journalism as the best in the world
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Blair seems to be opposed to the idea of statutory press regulation and doesn't see a problem with partisan press as long as it's based on facts.
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Blair is making a lot of references to the 24-hour news culture with the internet and social media and how it has changed the nature of political dialogue and exchange.
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TB hesitates to dispute it with Jay QC that Lord Mandelson and Campbell were in the "dark arts" and says he is real believer in what goes around comes around and a strong effective media operation
TB says that he thinks thatpart of the media felt that to the outside world the PM seems all powerful after three successive general election wins.
TB's theory is that the media felt Labour were too powerful and had to be curbed.
TB further stands by Campbell for managing a strong and effective media operation
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Cumberland journalist @AnnePickles is wondering why Leveson didn't win a BAFTA last night.
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Robert Jay QC quizzes TB on spin. TB provides a shopping list which includes putting the press officer on record for the first time
TB insists that the development of spin has no correlation to the development of the phone hacking scandal
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BBC's Have I got News for you jokes about Lawley Wakelin's protest: "As Blair gives evidence a #Leveson a heckler shouting 'this man is a war criminal' invades the court, ironically without a UN resolution."
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BBC's Nick Robinson tweets "Blair reveals that his wife Cherie instructed lawyers to challenge press coverage on more than 30 occasions"
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TB acknowledges that some privacy is sacrificed, and press intrusion is not journalism but an abuse of power
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TB speaks out on Blair family treatment by the press. Lord Justice Leveson harks back to the evidence given by earlier witnesses.
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Blair says there is no truth in Watson's phone call to back off the phone hacking inquiry
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Inquiry turns to Tom Watson's resignation and evidence
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TB remarks that social media platforms can turn into aggressive form of writing and references Mr Lawley Wakelin who burst into the room earlier
TB calls for Social media to be surfaced as an issue and that it's there and part of today's world.
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TB asked if he felt the Sun overstepped the mark following the publication of a letter from Gordon Brown to the wife of a soldier killed in Afghanistan. He said yes they did.
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Lord Justice Leveson announces a statement of apology after Davd Lawley Wakelin stormed into the inquiry. Lord Justice Leveson says that an investigation is being undertaken and efforts redoubled to ensure such incidents do not occur
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The court has broken up for lunch. Proceedings will resume at 2pm.
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Blair relying much less on the "I don't recall..." defence than some of the other evidence that the Leveson Inquiry has seen so far - including James and Rupert Murdoch themselves.
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"I don't know a policy that we changed as a result of Rupert Murdoch." Blair says. Again Blair claims he only ever changed a policy or took a policy stance - on Europe, trade unions and media ownership - because he believed in it.
"I believed in what I was doing, and didn't need him or anyone else to tell me what to do," he adds.
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"The strongest lobbying I can remember getting from a media organisation was the BBC over the license fee" - despite "serious falling-out" over Iraq. Blair is denying the presence of any "expressed deal" between the Blair governmnet and News International.
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Blair believes Leveson Inquiry is a chance to address this problematic relationship between media and government.
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Blair goes back to a glowing report on his government's legacy. "I never felt like I could take a different strategic position" on media matters, while busy introducing legislation on human rights, counter-terrorism and more.
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Some information coming in regarding the protestor who interrupted evidence earlier on, calling Blair a "war criminal."
The Mirror's Kevin Maguire tweets: "Protester calling Blair "war criminal" at #leveson in trouble for contempt of court but don't think he'll be sued for slander..."
According to some sources on Twitter his name is David Lawley-Wakelin, and has made a documentary asking Iraqis if they also believe Blair should be tried for war crimes. The film is apparently called "The Alternative Iraq Inquiry."
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Blair claims PCC operated as "lobby organ" at times. Tougher stance taken - "for a time," Blair says - following the death of Princess Diana and vilifcation of paparazzi.
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Blair denies that he assured Murdoch he would not repeal Thatcher's trade union legislation to gain support. "We did not take that position for that reason...it was an important part of New Labour."
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Evidence continues now.
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"This man is a war criminal," he says. The protestor has alleged that Blair dealed with JP Morgan over Iraq. The man was quickly taken out. Leveson has announced he will launch an investigation into how the man managed to access the court, past presumably scores of policeman (as well as Blair's private security men: 3 outside and 3 within the court).
Blair says he would like to go on record and deny that he ever spoke to JP Morgan. A rare moment of a flustered Blair, perhaps?
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A protestor has just broken into Court 73.
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"I did it because I thought it was right." Blair seems keen to avoid any accusation of politicking or expendiency about his time in politics. His Iraq defence, then.
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BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins tweets: "Blair doesn't remember when pre 97 media ownership policy changed - Lance Price said it was after Hayman Island trip." Blair claims that he felt media ownership was a "distraction" in run-up to 1997 election.
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Blair sent messages to Rebekah Brooks last year when she resigned as News International CEO because he does not believe in being a "fairweather friend." Did he sign off "LOL" as well?
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Blair keen to stress that Murdoch was the "key decision maker" and not Rebekah Brooks. Another blow to the "hands-off proprietor" image portrayed by James and Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks and other News International figures from this inquiry and select committees?
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Technology has changed the nature of politics, Blair says. "It is light years away from the world we grew up with."
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Blair continues to refer back to his dichotomy between "what is inevitable and what is wrong."
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Jay asks if Rebekah Brooks was "the centre of a network" and capable of administering personal attacks from that position.
"I did never and would never ask her or anybody else to conduct personal attacks. I absolutely hate that type of politics," Blair says. Jay reads from Brooks' evidence concerning Blair, claiming his cabinet was a "constant presence" in her life at that time.
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The Independent's Martin Hickman tweets: "Blair ducks and dives but doesn't deny that he is a close friend of Rupert Murdoch."
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Blair describes interaction with "working relationship" until after he left office. "Now it's different," he says, hence why he became godfather of Murdoch's child.
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Jay asking if Labour policies had to be "calibrated in some way" with the political and business interests of Murdoch.
"Obviously I was aware of their power," Blair says. "I was very careful...you stressed your bit of the policy that was going to appeal, but didn't change the policy. I did not change our positions on core policy at all." Blair denies he feared the Murdoch press, despite speaking very much in those terms earlier in his evidence.
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Apparently No. 10 has confirmed that David Cameron is too busy to watch Blair's evidence at the Leveson today.
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Blair now teaching the court about how to pitch trade union legislation changes to Murdoch. "You want to put your case across in the best way possible," he says. A lesson in political communication as he exercises it himself in the court room?
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Leveson wants to return to Hayman Island meeting, calling it a "charm offensive" on the Murdochs. Blair says the minimum objective of the visit was to "stop them tearing us to pieces" and maximum objective was to garner support from News International.
Peter Jukes tweets: "#Blair on the Hayman Island meeting. Blair accepts Alastair Campbell's account but rejects deal on media interests #leveson."
Blair on what he wanted to persuade Murdoch: Labour in 1997 "was a party of aspiration and not redistribution...for the aspirant working-class...and not going back to the old ways."
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Jay asking for Blair to confirm or deny some of the infamous quotations regarding Murdoch and his style of business, including former Australian PM Paul Keating's view that Rupert Murdoch was a "big, bad bastard."
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Blair: "I would have fought back in a very tough way" if News International had started to treat him like Neil Kinnock.
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Blair will now continue his evidence.
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While the court takes a break, here are some responses on Blair's performance from Twitter. The general consensus is that Blair is handling evidence incredibly cooly, looks relaxed and communicating well:
Patrick Caddick tweets: "#Leveson Forensic interrogation by a top QC...And not a glove laid on Blair...Masterclass in oratory, communication, & political operation."
The Telegraph's Iain Martin tweets: "At #leveson a brilliant Blair phrase: You have to distinguish between what is right and what is inevitable. Could apply to quite a lot..."
The Guardian's Dan Sabbagh, tweets: "Blair in control, generally skating over the hard questions, seems to be saying Rupert and I became friends, what's wrong w that."
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The court will take a short break.
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Commenting on Blair's accounts of courting Murdoch and his newspapers, Leveson says it gave Murdoch "substantial power" and that he was in "incredibly powerful position" - not just within the media world either.
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Jay moves on to the Iraq War, focussing on three calls made between Rupert Murdoch and Blair in the run-up to the coalition invasion of the country. Blair claims that calls were not about "tone of the coverage" but about what was happening in the United States and Australia - other significant forces within the coalition, Blair says.
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Blair has provided a list of telephone calls and meetings between himself and editors, proprietors and other figures with the help of the Cabinet Office. Jay notices that Blair's last meeting with Paul Dacre, editor of The Daily Mail, was in 2000. Blair claims about one-third of his meetings with figures from within Murdoch groups - mainly Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Wade - two-thirds with others. Rebekah Brooks has disclosed five more meetings in her records than Blair.
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Blair says he did not address cross-media ownership because it was "controversial." But this policy "aimed at them" because of the falling-out between Labour and the Murdoch Empire throughout the 1980s.
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Blair sees nothing wrong in Rupert Murdoch visiting No. 10 "through the back door" after Labour victories.
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Blair admits it was important to get The Sun "on board" prior to 1997 election landslide. Not in and of itself a bad thing, he says.
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Did Tony Blair become godfather to Rupert Murdoch's child because he was an incredibly powerful person?
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Blair avoids question from Jay that he (and others in government) "got too close to News International." "The way I'd put it," he says, is that they were dealing with incredibly powerful people. Might be hard for some to imagine successive New Labour governments living in fear of the press, with the likes of Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Alasdair Campbell at the helm?
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"The Daily Mail is a subject on which I won't claim much objectivity," Blair says, grinning. More stifled laughs from the court.
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Blair claiming Rupert Murdoch is not a "tribal Tory" - aspects of anti-establishment and meritocratic views too.
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"I didn't feel under pressure in relation to commercial interests from the Murdoch people or others," Blair says. The pressure was more political though. Blair's language suggests this was a one-way "pressure" from Murdoch's side - rather than a "interaction" or "relationship" as he said at the beginning of his evidence.
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Jay asks if any paper fulfuls Blair's distinction of "appropriate behaviour." He believes The Times is a paper that would report on issues fairly, even if it disagreed with Blair's policy or viewpoint (in this case he is referring to Euroscepticism).
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"Blair seems to envisage more sweeping reforms to press than pretty much any #leveson witness," tweets Joey Jones. Perhaps because he is talking semantically about the press - about the blurred lines between fact and opinion - rather than focusing on Ofcom, the Press Complaints Commission, or debates on regulation of the press. That might change soon, though.
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Blair continually stressing that a blending of fact and opinion is when the press comes unstuck. The press are allowed to be partisan to particular party or person, but "when the facts become skewed in a particular way" then it is harder to deal with, he says.
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John Rentoul from The Independent tweets: "Jay: 'Some of the reaction to your [feral beast] speech was -' Blair: 'Predictable.' #leveson."
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Blair talking about The Independent, after referring to it in his infamous "feral beasts" speech from June 2007. "I could have talked about The Mail, The Sun, etc.," he says. First mention of a News International title so far. Nothing personal against The Indy, though.
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Blair repeatedly celebrating the qualities of British journalism, and how it is respected and admired worldwide. But, he says, there is a "genre...which is an instrument of political propaganda." No specifics yet though.
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Blair talking about Labour's legacy on issues such as dminimum wage, human rights, health service waiting lists and inner-city schools. Do the protestors outside calling for him to be called to The Hague agree? "I did a lot of things in government that were unpopular," he admits.
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Blair says the 1992 election defeat "was etched on my memory." He describes the press treatment of Labour at the time as an "onslaught."
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QC Robert Jay asks Blair if Labour had "a disposition to be malleable with the truth" following its "terrible time" with the press in the 1980s. Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock blamed a string of Labour defeats through the decade on the "right-wing press" - some of it owned by News International and Rupert Murdoch.
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"Frankly, I decided as a political leader...that I was going to manage that [relationship] and not confront it," Blair says.
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Blair says that his perception on matters have been changed by some of the evidence he has heard at the Leveson Inquiry already.
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Relationship bewteen media and politicians "always going to involve a close relationship," Blair says.
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BBC News political editor Nick Robinson, tweets: "Tony Blair has just walked into Court 73 without fanfare - accompanied by man with curly earpiece. He's unnoticed by most in court."
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