Independent newspaper editor Chris Blackhurst has warned Lord Justice Leveson is "loading a gun" at the newspaper industry - after receiving letters which give newspapers notice of the inquiry's final recommendations.
Blackhurst told BBC Radio 4's The Media Show that he was not permitted to discuss the specific contents of the letter for legal reasons but described his "shock and anger", calling the letter "a point by point demolition of the industry" and full of "one-sided criticism which is a damning indictment of my industry."
"The best way I can describe it is he's loading a gun, and this document - well over 100 pages - is all the ammunition. And believe you me there is plenty of ammunition, you read the ammunition and you just gulp."
Chris Blackhurst, editor of the Independent, has accused Lord Leveson of being "one-sided"
According to Blackhurst, the report makes no acknowledgment of the positive site of the newspaper industry.
Blackhurst called the letter "a diatribe" and said he did not recognise the accusations as practices that occurred at his "end of the market."
"The fact is that newspapers are an adornment to our society. We would be lost without them."
All newspaper editors received a document known as a Rule 13 letter, which provide an opportunity for those facing possible criticism to respond, before the report is published.
A spokesman for the Leveson Inquiry said: "Lord Justice Leveson is disappointed that the contents of confidential letters that he has written are being openly discussed in the Press.
"He wants to make it clear that all recipients of these letters – which are issued in accordance with Rule 13 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 – are obliged by this confidence."