And so the Leveson inquiry into media standards goes on.
It seems to me that there are two clearly distinct categories of witnesses who are sharing their views with the inquiry - one being the celebrity contingent and one being people for whom "celebrity" was simply a by-product of being caught up in newsworthy events.
I can only feel sympathy for the people from the second of those categories - the McCanns and the Dowler family being two examples. The fact that certain members of the press and certain news organisations have either made up stories, or at least put across some flimsy "facts" from "sources" which will inevitably lead readers to a particular point of view is bad enough, but to find out that a phone hacker deleted messages from Millie Dowler's mobile, giving her poor mother false hope, and that the suggestions made about the McCanns could actually have hindered the search for their daughter - this is just utterly appalling.
And what of the celebrities. Well, actually I think that they have also at times received an extremely raw deal from the press. The argument that they court the press for their own ends, and are therefore "fair game" holds no water with me. If an actor, as part of his or her profession is required to publicise their work, and this includes giving interviews and doing features, that's fine, but why this is considered to mean that they no longer qualify for a private life is a mystery to me.
Yes, I know that things aren't quite that simple - certain public figures will manipulate the press for their own ends at times, and yes, we live in an increasingly mad and celebrity-obsessed culture (if we didn't all clamour for salacious gossip then intrusive and vulgar stories wouldn't sell newspapers and magazines and so they wouldn't be written). Also, inevitably certain stories should be told when they are in the "public interest", but it feels to me that a line was crossed quite some time ago.
Hopefully this inquiry might lead to some changes, and we might start to redress the balance a little.