The inquiry which was set up following the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World, will begin its work this morning at the Royal Courts of Justice. The appeal court judge, Lord Justice Leveson, will hear evidence over the coming months about the culture, practices and ethics of the press. He is expected to report within a year.

Trevor Kavanagh, an associate editor of the Sun newspaper, said while he believed Lord Justice Leveson would conduct a fair inquiry, he was concerned about the absence of any tabloid newspaper representation on the advisory panel.

"I do think the representation of the tabloid press is not sufficient," he told Today presenter Justin Webb. "In fact it doesn't exist. With such a very large part of the newspaper industry unrepresented I think there is a risk that it will not look at the whole picture."

Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at City University and former editor of the Mirror newspaper, said he believed tougher regulation of the press was necessary, adding that he believed the industry had to some extent cleaned up its act in recent months.

"You will remember that some months ago the world super-injunction was never off the lips of broadcasters and other journalists and there haven't been any super-injunctions in the last couple of months. Why?

"Because I think that newspapers are being less intrusive, they're being more guarded, they are very few kiss-and-tell stories and the real cancer of our industry, the News of the World, has been dealt with."

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