David Cameron ordered a judicial inquiry into the press after the worst details of the phone hacking scandal came to light, but has he learnt anything from his own intimate dealings with controversial media figures?
Mandrake hears that the Prime Minister is entertaining Richard Desmond, the porn baron, at Chequers this weekend.
As well as making his fortune from pornography, Desmond delivered a damaging blow to the self-regulation of Fleet Street by withdrawing his four national newspapers from the press watchdog, the PCC.
The tycoon, who once goose-stepped around a boardroom and accused all Germans of being Nazis during a meeting with executives of The Daily Telegraph, was criticised at the Leveson inquiry.
Let’s not forget that it was the political class in the form of the Blair Government which decided that Richard Desmond was a fit and proper person to own a newspaper,” said Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail.
It is not known whether Desmond, who still owns pornographic television channels, will feature the dinner at the PM’s grace-and-favour country residence in his OK! magazine. It is being held for the charity Mencap.
His invitation comes four days after Cameron announced a raft of measures to block access to porn on the internet.
Last year, the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom decided that Desmond was a “fit and proper” person to take over Channel 5.
In 2009, his company was fined £27,500 for airing pornography which was too explicit for television. Another of his firms was fined £25,000 after its Red Hot services promoted websites leading to hardcore adult material which could be viewed without the need for age verification.
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