(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

BY JIM FLINK

ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

He’s alleged to be a victim of phone hacking himself. Against that backdrop, Hollywood actor Hugh Grant took center stage in the Leveson hearings in London.

The BBC notes Grant threw down the gauntlet of privacy versus an overzealous press.

“Hugh John Mungo Grant, to use the full name he gave the court, was determined to place many newspaper publishers in the dock. The actor's performance was combative and he was regularly challenged to provide facts to support his assertions.”

Some of Grant’s testimony was captured on the Telegraph. It in, he says, the media has been allowed to bully and coerce, without monitoring or control.

“I just think that there has been a section of our press that has been allowed to become toxic over the last 20 or 30 years.  Its main tactic being, bullying and intimidation and blackmail. And that takes a lot of courage to stand up to.”

The San Francisco Chronicle notes, the Hollywood actor placed blame not just on the media, but others in British society who have been complicit, noting his life has been the subject of intense media focus.

“He raised his 1995 arrest in Los Angeles with a prostitute, saying he had never complained about the coverage and he 'totally expected there to be a public storm.’  Grant said in his experience, if he called the police about something, ‘the chances are a reporter or a photographer would turn up on your doorstep before a policeman.’”

And The New Yorker notes, in his testimony, Grant said he believes phone hacking extends beyond News of the World.

“....it was important because it implicated the Mail on Sunday. If Grant is right, it would suggest that hacking was a widespread practice on Fleet Street, rather than a ‘dark art’ limited to one or a couple of newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch.”

Although some have praised the Hollywood actor for his bravery, The Telegraph’s Toby Reed says Grant is both arrogant and naive.

“I'm not sure that the invasion of Grant's privacy on this occasion was an affront to ‘our British sense of decency’. We already accept that how much privacy a person is entitled to should be a function of who they are and what they do – there's no hard-and-fast rule. The European Court has acknowledged that ... other rights, such as freedom of expression, may trump the right to privacy.”