They are the middle men whose hundreds of texts and emails go to the heart of the government's handling of Rupert Murdoch's aborted £8bn takeover of BSkyB.News Corporation lobbyist Frédéric Michel and Adam Smith, former special adviser to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, finally emerged from the shadows to take centre stage at the Leveson inquiry.French-born Michel, stepping down after giving four and a half hours of evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice, flashed a smile towards Smith as he passed him on the way to the witness stand.The gesture may not have been reciprocated; Smith fell on his sword last month after Michel's boss, James Murdoch, released 164 pages of emails to the inquiry that showed a remarkably close relationship between the two ... Continue reading →

Jeremy Hunt had indicated to News Corporation by the end of 2010 that he was "probably in favour" of arguments for allowing its £8bn BSkyB takeover, the company's lobbyist responsible for contact with the culture secretary's department has told the Leveson inquiry.Frédéric Michel told the inquiry on Thursday that by December 2010, just before Hunt was given quasi-judicial responsibility for the bid, the Conservative cabinet minister and his Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) were supportive of News Corp's argument that the BSkyB deal would not be detrimental to UK media plurality.Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked Michel whether News Corp considered the DCMS to be "onside" in terms of being in favour of the Sky bid by December 2010."I think they ... Continue reading →

Leveson inquiry: Jeremy Paxman is to give evidence. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex Features Continue reading →

Leveson inquiry: Jeremy Paxman is to give evidence. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Rex Features Continue reading →

Lucie Cave, editor of Heat magazine, will pick 20 music videos in the Heatometer show. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA The prospect of Heat TV has been long mooted, prompting almost as much speculation among media types as the celebrity gossip magazine devotes to Cheryl Cole's love life.Now the Bauer Media title is finally going to transfer to the small screen with a "celebrity news and music TV channel" to be launched by the publisher's joint venture with Channel 4, Box TV.Heat TV will launch on 3 July. Music videos will run alongside news stories and links to social networks, with viewers invited to comment on Twitter.The new venture will replace one of Box TV's existing seven-strong stable of channels, but it has not confirmed which one. ... Continue reading →

Leveson inquiry: Jeremy Paxman, Andrew Marr, Lord Reid - live Full coverage as the BBC presenters and former home secretary give evidence Continue reading →

Sick bowl as echo chamber http://t.co/WDQXtOMp Continue reading →

TV heroes … Mark Curry, with fellow former Blue Peter presenters Caron Keating and Yvette Fielding. Photograph: Luke Finn/PA For some it was an act of savagery on a par with the vandalism of the Blue Peter garden. The 54-year-old teatime favourite, along with the rest of the BBC's children's programming, will disappear from BBC1 and BBC2, tumbling down the EPG to be confined to its digital channels CBBC and CBeebies.The switch prompted the biggest outbreak of TV nostalgia since the BBC axed Top of the Pops. Susan Stranks, former presenter of the rival ITV show Magpie and a long-time campaigner for children's broadcasting, said the corporation's output for younger viewers was being "ghettoised". "Children are part of the mainstream of society and it's important ... Continue reading →