Sun editor to give Leveson newspaper lessons

The Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking will hold its first meeting this week, a seminar to be attended by the current editor of The Sun and a former editor of the News of the World; they have been invited to debate the pressures facing newspaper journalists.

Lord Justice Leveson, the judge who has been tasked with investigating press standards in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, is understood to have asked for the hearing to help fill a "perceived gap" in his knowledge of the workings of the newspaper industry and the issues that he and his panel of assessors will be expected to explore.

Invitees for the three-and-a-half hour session in central London on Thursday include Dominic Mohan, the editor of The Sun, who last week faced a claim from Labour MP Tom Watson, a prominent campaigner on phone hacking, that he should be asked if the practice ever took place on the tabloid. News International has said it will "defend vigorously" a lawsuit by the actor Jude Law claiming stories obtained from voicemail interception were published by The Sun.

Phil Hall, who edited the NOTW between 1995 and 2000, is also among the keynote speakers.