» Monday, June 18, 2012Leveson
Asked whether ministers had been asked to stop commenting on Leveson, the PMS said the Government had not been providing any running commentary on the potential outcome of the Leveson Inquiry. She said the whole point of the Inquiry was to look at relationships between politicians and the media and we should await the outcome of his findings. Pushed on this, she said she was not aware of ministers being told not to comment, but certainly it was the case that it would be unhelpful for Government to be providing a running commentary on the Leveson Inquiry when the PM had set it up to look at relations between politicians and the media. She added the Government looked forward to its outcome. Asked whether Mr Gove was providing a running commentary on Leveson, she said she understood the comments were made some time ago. Asked if Mr Gove was freelancing or speaking on behalf of the Cabinet or Government, she said she did know the source of his comments – they had been made some time ago, and not on behalf of Government. Asked whether the PM thought Lord Leveson was within his right to make a complaint, she said the PM had not made a comment on this and she was not going to provide a commentary on what Lord Leveson should or should not be doing. Asked whether the PM thought Lord Leveson intervening was ‘chilling’ in itself for free speech, she said it was up to Lord Leveson what comments he made and what was important was that the Leveson Inquiry was ongoing and the Government looked forward to the outcome. Asked again whether the license to Government Ministers to speak been withdrawn she reiterated she had made no comment on what had or hadn’t been said to Government Ministers, but what she had said was that providing a running commentary was unhelpful and we were looking forward to the outcome.
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