The Leveson Inquiry has announced a programme of three seminars to take place on 6 and 12 October 2011.   It has also announced a further preliminary hearing on 4 October 2011 at 10.30 in Court 76 at the Royal Courts of Justice.

The three seminars will take place at the QEII Conference Centre in Westminster.  The programme for the first two can be found here.  The programme for the third has yet to be finalised.

The first seminar, 9.30am to 1.00pm on 6 October 2011, is entitled “The Competitive Pressures on the Press and the Impact on Journalism”  and will hear from Claire Enders, Phil Hall and Richard Peppiatt.

The second seminar, from 2.00 to 5.30pm on 6 October 2011 is entitled “The Rights and Responsibilities of the Press”  and will here from Alan Rusbridger, Trevor Kavanagh and Brian Cathcart.

The third seminar is entitled “Supporting a free press and high standards – approaches to regulation” and will take place between 9.30am – 5.30pm on Wednesday 12 October 2011.

A number of individuals have been invited to these seminars.  There is an “Invitation List” on the website for seminars 1 and 2 which makes interesting reading.  It contains over 100 individual names – from Stephen Abell (PCC) to David Yelland (ex-Sun Editor) – along with the members of four Parliamentary Committees.   It is very much a “media insider” list.  The majority of those invited are editors and journalists – although the list also has a number of academics (including Professor Daniel Solove from the US), Index on Censorship, English PEN, the PCC, Ofcom, the Media Standards Trust and Max Clifford.

Those not on the list can apply to attend these seminars.  The Inquiry website contains the following invitation to apply for one of the 20 additional places:

“If you wish to apply for a place at any of the seminars please click on the relevant link below and e-mail us explaining who you are, what your particular expertise or interest is and how you think you would add to the debate.  We will reply to all requests but obviously cannot guarantee that everyone who wants to attend will be able to do so. Please do not attend a seminar unless you have been notified that you have been reserved a place. 

Apply to attend The Competitive Pressures on the Press and the Impact on Journalism on 6 October

Apply to attend The Rights and Responsibilities of the Press on 6 October

Apply to attend Supporting a free press and high standards – approaches to regulation on 12 October

Video of all three events will be made available on the Inquiry website.

Finally, the Inquiry has made available details of the briefing session on “Current Media Law” held at 2pm on 28 September 2011 by Mark Warby QC.    There is a Transcript of media law briefing (MS Word 174kb).  The documents available on the Website include Mark Warby QC – Legal and regulatory briefing note (PDF 85kb) and Appendices to the media law briefing (PDF 255KB).