In closing the seminar series that opened the Leveson Inquiry, Lord Justice Leveson said that it had achieved exactly what he wanted it to. He had been worried that participants might use the seminars as a platform to advance some campaigning position. With some minor exceptions, he said, his view was that the seminars had avoided this danger.

One of the observations made by participants, including myself, was that the seminars, and the teach-ins that took place beforehand were dominated by press interests. The voices of the public, and also of complainants to the PCC and phone hacking victims were lacking.

Not all participants in the seminars agreed with this point, but a quick analysis by Media Policy Project intern Katherine Relle confirms that the participants were drawn overwhelmingly from amongst  journalists and media executives (78) while others such as lawyers and regulators (16), academic (14) and civil society (3) were in the minority. These figures are based on an analysis of the participation in the seminars that took place on 6 October 2011. The exact numbers could be subject to some dispute as some individuals could have been placed in multiple categories, but the overall picture is clear.

Does this mean that Leveson has been captured by the media industry? It is certainly the case that markers have been put down, notably by Paul Dacre, Alan Rusbridger, and Mark Thompson. Interestingly, they have made clear this is a debate about complex co-regulatory frameworks rather than another defence of self regulation per se. Whether the Leveson Inquiry allows itself to be captured by the industry will depend on what status it affords the deliberations of these two days, and whether they do more to include the public in the future. Shami Chakrabarti stressed that the Inquiry was just at the start and that it would be more inclusive in the future. We shall see.

The Media Policy Project (well me, actually)  will be providing a more developed analysis of the shaping debate about the future of self regulation in the next week or so.  Academics are certainly finding their voice in the debate and will provide much more evidence and research, from CCMR, and the LSE team amongst others.