By Avery Lowry and Elizabeth Aylward

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The first installment of Hacked Off’s official podcast Everyone’s Still Hacked Off was launched on 27 May on Spotify.

Everyone’s Still Hacked Off was created to bring attention to the campaign’s mission to advocate for a free and responsible press.

The 30-minute long pilot episode featured hosts Jacqui Hames and Steve Barnett alongside guest, Kneecap film producer Rich Peppiatt.

Hames, a longtime journalist and Crimewatch TV presenter, was a victim of press intrusion and joined Hacked Off as a Board Director.

Steve Barnett, Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster, is an expert on media policy and regulation and was one of the original founders of Hacked Off in 2011.

Together, the two hosts took listeners step-by-step through the creation of Hacked Off and the ongoing battle for press regulation.

“We should emphasise that this issue of press accountability is just as relevant today, now, as it was 15 years ago. It isn't just ancient history, which the press would have us believe,” Hames said.

Barnett and Hames began the episode by discussing 21-year-old actress Millie Bobby Brown’s personal experience with press intrusion. While promoting her new film, Brown faced scrutiny following coverage from The Daily Mail criticising her physical appearance.

Barnett and Hames connected Brown’s struggles with press intrusion to experiences of press intrusion during the inquiry to show that nothing has changed post-Leveson.

Charlotte Church, a child star as a classical singer, faced intense press scrutiny throughout her childhood. Hames connects the experiences of Brown and Church to show how the media continues to fail children raised in the spotlight.

“[Church] told a similar story of being hunted down and spied upon by newspapers as she just grew up, like all of us had to do,” Hames said. “This is why I think it's a wonderful example of how things that were said and evidence that was given to the Leveson Inquiry is still relevant today.”

A victim of phone hacking, Church gave a statement to the inquiry in 2011 detailing her experiences with press intrusion.

“Generally, from 16 to 18, there was at least one photographer there most days,” Church said in her statement in the inquiry. “If there was a story that had just broken or anything like that, then they would literally be there all the time, and there would be a lot of them.”

It has been more than a decade after the phone hacking scandal, and the demands of the Leveson inquiry still haven’t been met.

The Leveson inquiry recommended an independent regulatory body to oversee the media and to investigate breaches.

Following the inquiry in 2014, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) was established. IPSO handles complaints against the media and editorial standards. However, because IPSO is operated by the industry, it is “pretty useless,” according to Barnett.

Later in the episode, the hosts speak with special guest Rich Peppiatt, a former Daily Star reporter, turned whistleblower, now a successful film producer.

Peppiatt, director of the acclaimed film Kneecap, came on the first episode of Everyone’s Still Hacked Off to discuss his experience as a journalist during the Leveson era.

Peppiatt worked at The Daily Star in 2011 before he publicly resigned, accusing the paper of Islamophobia and unethical journalism. Peppiatt himself gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry.

Hames and Barnett discussed these events with Peppiatt as well as the changing nature of the journalism industry.

“There are still journalists, presumably, who are put under pressure to not necessarily invent things, but tweak things, exaggerate,” Peppiatt said.

To learn more about his experience as a journalist and film director, listen to the full episode on Spotify here, or by clicking below.