Leveson inquiry: who's appearing on Monday

Kelvin MacKenzie The former editor of the Sun worked at the sharp end of tabloid journalism for more than 20 years until he left the News International red-top in the early 1990s. During MacKenzie's 13-year editorship of the Sun from 1981, he was a cheerleader for Margaret Thatcher's controversial reforms, the Falklands war and her battle with the National Union of Mineworkers. But since then his tenure at the paper has become overshadowed by his controversial Hillsborough splash in 1989 that wrongly claimed Liverpool fans "picked the pockets" of some of the 96 victims of the tragedy and urinated on medics. MacKenzie's post-Sun career has included a brief stint at Sky, working for Mirror Group Newspapers, where he ran Live TV and introduced the "news bunny", and boss of TalkSport for several years. More recently, he was a Sun columnist before switching to the Daily Mail last year, has already come to blows with the inquiry, describing it as "ludicrous" before later apologising for his typically robust remarks at a seminar organised by Lord Justice Leveson's team in the autumn on the newspaper industry's practices and ethics. In his submission to the same seminar, MacKenzie recounted how when editor of the Sun he checked a story about Elton John, which turned out to be false, with the paper's news editor, legal director and two reporters prior to publication. "And four months later the Sun was forced to pay out record £1m libel damages to Elton John for wholly untrue rent-boy allegations," he said. "So much for checking a story. I never did it again. Basically my view was that if it sounded right it was probably right and therefore we should lob it in." Gordon Smart Smart is editor of the Sun's showbiz column, Bizarre, which he joined as deputy to former editor Victoria Newton in 2004. Rebekah Brooks made Smart editor of the diary column in November 2007, when Newton became the paper's head of entertainment. Smart was tipped as a future Sun editor when Dominic Mohan became the fifth Bizarre editor to take the helm at the paper in 2009. Smart started his career in journalism in his native Scotland, as a junior reporter at two local papers. Dominic Mohan The former showbiz reporter turned editor of the Sun, Mohan joined the paper from the News of the World in 1996. He was the chosen successor to Rebekah Brooks as Sun editor in 2009 when she became News International chief executive. At a Leveson inquiry seminar in October, the Sun editor likened showbiz journalism to the world of lobby hacks in Westminster. "The way showbiz journalists operate is like a political journalist in the lobby," he said, adding that he faces pressure as part of his "own professional pride" to produce a fun and informative daily newspaper. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook .