Watchdog: ‘We were misled’

The press watchdog felt it had been made a “scapegoat” during the phone-hacking scandal, the Leveson Inquiry heard yesterday.

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) was criticised for failing to do enough after evidence of the practice at the News of the World emerged.

But Baroness Buscombe, who stood down as chairwoman of the watchdog last year, accused publisher News International of misleading her.

“I regret that I was clearly misled by News International, that I accepted what they had told me,” she told the hearing.

“I felt all the way through the process somewhat hands-tied by merely being able to ask questions, write letters to editors and so on.

“Indeed, one or two editors didn’t even bother to reply.”

The editor of the Times also apologised at the inquiry to a detective unmasked by a former reporter at the newspaper who allegedly hacked his e-mails.