Report: UK tabloid hacked into voicemails

[elfismiles]

Report: UK tabloid hacked into voicemails

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jul 9, 4:38 pm ET
LONDON – The tricks of the trade of Britain's rambunctious tabloid press came under scrutiny Thursday, after a newspaper reported that a tabloid owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch had illegally hacked into the mobile phones of hundreds of celebrities and politicians.

But in the end police said they would not reopen an investigation into the claims against Murdoch's News of the World, accused by The Guardian newspaper of paying private investigators to obtain voice mail messages, bank statements and other information about public figures, including Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael and senior British politicians.

The News of the World's royal editor, Clive Goodman, was jailed in January 2007 for hacking into the phones of palace officials, and The Guardian claimed the practice was widespread at the newspaper at the time.

On Thursday morning, Paul Stephenson, London's police chief, announced that he had appointed a senior Scotland Yard officer to look into The Guardian's claims. But seven hours later, that officer, police Assistant Commissioner John Yates, announced that the allegations had been thoroughly examined during the Goodman case and "no further investigation is required."

But it didn't end there.

Britain's chief prosecutor, Keir Starmer, then said he had ordered an urgent review of the evidence given by police to prosecutors in the Goodman case to be sure that "the appropriate actions" had been taken.

Starmer said he had "no reason to consider that there was anything inappropriate in the prosecutions that were undertaken in this case," and the Crown Prosecution Service declined to say whether new charges could be laid.

The Guardian reported that the News of the World — the country's most popular Sunday paper — paid private investigators to obtain voice mail messages, private phone numbers, bank statements and other information about as many as 3,000 public figures, from late reality TV star Jade Goody to former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The News of the World is owned by News International Ltd., a subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp., whose U.S. media outlets include Fox Television, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

Citing anonymous senior police sources, The Guardian said journalists at the tabloid used private investigators to hack into private voicemail messages, using the information to "gain unlawful access to confidential personal data, including tax records, social security files, bank statements and itemized phone bills."

The Guardian wrote that the News of the World had paid more than 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) in secret out-of-court settlements to three of the targets, including Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association.

News International said in a statement that it was "prevented by confidentiality obligations" from discussing some of The Guardian's allegations, but said it worked to ensure its journalists operated within the law.

Murdoch refused to comment. "I'm not talking about that issue at all today. Sorry," he told FOX Business Network at a media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

The Guardian newspaper said in a statement that the police should share their evidence with the lawmakers on the House of Commons Culture and Media Committee that reviews media practices.

Most of the claims in The Guardian story date from 2006. The newspaper said Paltrow was targeted by private investigators after she had given birth to her son, Moses, and George Michael the same year he had been photographed dozing behind the wheel of his car.

Spokespeople for Paltrow and Michael did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Goodman was jailed for four months in 2007 for hacking into royal officials' voicemail systems. His accomplice, private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was sentenced to six months in prison for hacking into the messages, including some from Princes William and Harry. The judge said Mulcaire duped mobile phone network operators into passing him confidential PIN numbers to access messages left on the cell phones.

News International executives said Goodman had acted without the knowledge of other journalists or editors.

Yates said police had found that Goodman and Mulcaire had a list of hundreds of "potential targets," but that only a small number of phones had actually been hacked

"In the vast majority of cases there was insufficient evidence to show that tapping had actually been achieved," he said.

The Guardian's report re-ignites a long-simmering debate about the ethics of Britain's newspapers, which compete aggressively for readers and stories, and routinely deploy cash handouts and subterfuge to get scoops. An exclusive about a politician or celebrity can mean hundreds of thousands of extra copies sold for a tabloid like the News of the World, which has a circulation of about 3 million.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said The Guardian's allegations raised "questions that are serious and will obviously have to be answered."

Britain's Data Protection Act makes it an offense to "obtain, disclose or procure the disclosure" of personal information without consent.

But in 2006, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, Britain's data-protection watchdog, said in a report that there was "an unlawful trade in confidential personal information," with much of it going to the media.

The Information Commissioner's office said Thursday that in 2006 it handed police evidence that 31 journalists from the News of the World and its sister paper, The Sun, had bought and sold illegally obtained personal information.

Assistant Information Commissioner Mick Gorrill said the evidence was of "blagging," or obtaining information through misrepresentation.

Adrian Monck, head of the journalism program at London's City University, said many media-watchers believed the Goodman story "was not an isolated, one-off case."

"For years the stock-in-trade of tabloid journalists has been the ability to get this kind of secret information," he said.

The case also raises questions for David Cameron, leader of the opposition Conservative Party. The News of the World's editor at the time of the Goodman case was Andy Coulson, now Cameron's director of communications. He resigned from his newspaper post after Goodman was sentenced, but said he had no knowledge of the hacking.

Cameron said he had given Coulson a "second chance" by hiring him after he left the News of the World.

"As director of communications for the Conservatives he does an excellent job in a proper, upright way at all times," Cameron said Thursday.

___

Associated Press Writer Jane Wardell contributed to this report from L'Aquila, Italy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090709/ap_ ... er_privacy

[pepsified thinker]

Sounds like somebody took a page from J. Edgar Hoover's playbook.

...then again, I guess NSA's been using that playbook for a while now, too.

(wonder who Hoover got it from originially?)

[Stephen Morgan]

It's widespread at all of the newspapers. The Telegraph have an entire department for it.

[stefano]

Quite a funny story: Hugh Grant's car broke down and he got a lift from a passing pap, who turned out to be Paul McMullan from News of the World who now owns a pub and had testified to Parliament about the bugging thing. He invited Grant back for a drink and Grant had been commissioned to write a piece for the New Statesman, so he put on a wire and recorded some chats about bugging and scanning, and Andy Coulson and all of that. Excerpts, my bold, but the whole thing's a fun read about how the hacks think about privacy. "Sorry to talk about Divine Brown, but" made me laugh.
______________

The bugger, bugged
by Hugh Grant

I wanted to hear more about phone-hacking and the whole business of tabloid journalism. It occurred to me just to interview him straight, as he has, after all, been a whistleblower. But then I thought I might possibly get more, and it might be more fun, if I secretly taped him, The bugger bugged, as it were. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.
[...]
Him Yes, as I said to the parliamentary commission, Coulson knew all about it and regularly ordered it . . . He [Coulson] rose quickly to the top; he wanted to cover his tracks all the time. So he wouldn't just write a story about a celeb who'd done something. He'd want to make sure they could never sue, so he wanted us to hear the celeb like you on tape saying, "Hello, darling, we had lovely sex last night." So that's on tape - OK, we've got that and so we can publish . . . Historically, the way it went was, in the early days of mobiles, we all had analogue mobiles and that was an absolute joy. You know, you just . . . sat outside Buckingham Palace with a £59 scanner you bought at Argos and get Prince Charles and everything he said.
Me Is that how the Squidgy tapes [of Diana's phone conversations] came out? Which was put down to radio hams, but was in fact . . .
Him Paps in the back of a van, yes . . . I mean, politicians were dropping like flies in the Nineties because it was so easy to get stuff on them. And, obviously, less easy to justify is celebrities. But yes.
[...]
Me So everyone knew? I mean, would Rebekah Wade have known all this stuff was going on?
Him Good question. You're not taping, are you?
Me [slightly shrill voice] No.
Him Well, yeah. Clearly she . . . took over the job of [a journalist] who had a scanner who was trying to sell it to members of his own department. But it wasn't a big crime. [NB: Rebekah Brooks has always denied any knowledge of phone-hacking. The current police investigation is into events that took place after her editorship of the News of the World.]
It started off as fun - you know, it wasn't against the law, so why wouldn't you? And it was only because the MPs who were fiddling their expenses and being generally corrupt kept getting caught so much they changed the law in 2001 to make it illegal to buy and sell a digital scanner. So all we were left with was - you know - finding a blag to get your mobile [records] out of someone at Vodafone. Or, when someone's got it, other people swap things for it.
Me So they all knew? Wade probably knew all about it all?
Him [...] Cameron must have known - that's the bigger scandal. He had to jump into bed with Murdoch as everyone had, starting with Thatcher in the Seventies . . . Tony Blair . . . [tape is hard to hear here] Maggie openly courted Murdoch, saying, you know, "Please support me." So when Cameron, when it came his turn to go to Murdoch via Rebekah Wade . . . Cameron went horse riding regularly with Rebekah. I know, because as well as doorstepping celebrities, I've also doorstepped my ex-boss by hiding in the bushes, waiting for her to come past with Cameron on a horse . . . before the election to show that - you know - Murdoch was backing Cameron.
Me What happened to that story?
Him The Guardian paid for me to do it and I stepped in it and missed them, basically. They'd gone past - not as good as having a picture.
Me Do you think Murdoch knew about phone-hacking?
Him Errr, possibly not. He's a funny bloke given that he owns the Sun and the Screws . . . quite puritanical. Sorry to talk about Divine Brown, but when that came out . . . Murdoch was furious: "What are you putting that on our front page for? You're bringing down the tone of our papers." [Indicating himself] That's what we do over here.
[...]
Me What's his son called?
Him James. They're all mates together. They all go horse riding. You've got Jeremy Clarkson lives here [in Oxfordshire]. Cameron lives here, and Rebekah Wade is married to Brooks's son [the former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks]. Cameron gets dressed up as the Stig to go to Clarkson's 50th birthday party [NB: it was actually to record a video message for the party]. Is that demeaning for a prime minister? It should be the other way round, shouldn't it? So basically, Cameron is very much in debt to Rebekah Wade for helping him not quite win the election . . . So that was my submission to parliament - that Cameron's either a liar or an idiot.
Me But don't you think that all these prime ministers deliberately try to get the police to drag their feet about investigating the whole [phone-hacking] thing because they don't want to upset Murdoch?
Him Yeah. There's that . . . You also work a lot with policemen as well . . .
[...]
Him I mean - 20 per cent of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms? . . .
[...]
So we went from a point where anyone could listen in to anything. Like you, me, journalists could listen in to corrupt politicians, and this is why we have a reasonably fair society and a not particularly corrupt or criminal prime minister, whereas other countries have Gaddafi. Do you think it's right the only person with a decent digital scanner these days is the government? Whereas 20 years ago we all had a go? Are you comfortable that the only people who can listen in to you now are - is it MI5 or MI6?
[...]
Him No, they've kept their distance. I mean, there's people who have much better records - my records are non-existent. There are people who actually have tapes and transcripts they did for Andy Coulson.
Me And where are these tapes and transcripts? Do you think they've been destroyed?
Him No, I'm sure they're saving them till they retire.
[...]
Those are the highlights. As I drove home past the white cliffs, I thought it was interesting - apart from the fact that Paul hates people like me, and I hate people like him, we got on quite well. And, absurdly, I felt a bit guilty for recording him.

And he does have a very nice pub. The Castle Inn, Dover, for the record. There are rooms available, too. He asked me if I'd like to sample the honeymoon suite some time: "I can guarantee your privacy."

[gnosticheresy_2]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/0 ... ng-cameron

News International are in the shit now, for those unfamiliar with this update to the phone-hacking saga which the Guardian broke yesterday evening: private investigator working for the News of the World hacked the voicemail of then missing (and later found to be murdered) schoolgirl Milly Dowler and listened to the voicemails from hysterical relatives. Then, when the voice mailbox became filled to capacity, they deleted some of the messages so that new ones could be added so they'd have more juicy inside information. Which also had the unfortunate side effect of making the family think that their daughter could be still alive and additionally seriously hampered the police investigation. So now it's not just celebrity sex lives and politicians (who nobody really cares about) that this story is implicating. The Milly Dowler case got loads of publicity at the time, then again in the last few days when they convicted the murderer. It's all over the TV news channels and broadsheet press though strangely none of the other tabloids seem to be that interested in covering it.

Twitter went bezerk with this last night, people were apparently phoning up the NOTW offices and screaming abuse at them then hanging up. And Hugh Grant has apparently just done a very good live on BBC radio demolition job of the guy he counter-hacked as mentioned upthread, I'll post a link to the audio when it becomes available.

[wintler2]

God i hope this story finally gets the attention it deserves. In Aus News Corp is running 2nd to ABC on Australia Network contract (broadcasting to asiapacific). Probably due more to News corps completely rabid and ceaseless attacks on Rudd&Guillard govt. than phone tapping in UK. That has never really surfaced as an issue for News in Aus, possibly due to dominance of News Corp media.

Stephen Mayne on Crikey
..If Julia Gillard declared in Question Time today that the probity of tenderers was an issue and she was appalled by the Milly Dowler revelations overnight, the News Corp outlets would be obliged to report about one of its most despicable acts in the 58 years Rupert Murdoch has spent building the company. ..

Great idea! because very few Australians know about it currently.

[MacCruiskeen]

When I was a kid, a family lost all three of their children in a fire in their council flat about half a mile from my home. The News of the World sent a reporter and a photographer to try and get a photo of, and interview with, the grief-stricken parents (who were staying with neighbours on the first* floor of the same block). Upon being told by those neighbours, in no uncertain terms, to cease, desist and depart forthwith, the photographer then scaled a drainpipe and tried to photograph the parents through the window.

His camera was trashed, and both of those hacks were lucky to escape with their lives.

*That's second floor for Americans, I think. One above the ground.

[gnosticheresy_2]

Sorry, iPlayer links only I'm afraid

Hugh Grant on 5Live vs ex NOTW hack Paul McMullen http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00hzjlg

and Radio 4's The World at One http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0128pym

Choice quotes:

Asking Rebekah Brooks* to clean up News International is like asking Hitler to reform the Nazi Party

Brooks & Coulson** are either the worst editors in history of the world or they're liars.

*Nee Wade, was editor of NOTW at the time, now chief exec at News International

**Andy Coulson, replaced Wade/ Brooks as editor, resigned in 2007 as a result of this very scandal (which shows you how long the police have been sitting on it)

Coulson’s resignation in effect prevented a thorough investigation of the Goodman affair by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), and ensured Rupert Murdoch would not have to answer difficult questions about the activities of his British newspapers at a time when he was under intense scrutiny in the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Coulson

Went on to become Conservative Party communications director, then followed Cameron into number 10 to become his director of communications. Forced to resign following renewed accusations that he endorsed or at least knew of phone hacking when he was editor. So he's been forced to resign from two different jobs because of the same thing!

[Stephen Morgan]

The PCC? It's run by the newspapers, over 90% of all complaints are dismissed without even being considered due to alleged "technical errors" by the complainants. An almost equally large majority of those considered are rejected, and those upheld, a fraction of a fraction, generally don't impose any sanction on the guilty party. A thorough investigation by them isn't going to scare Murdoch.

[Stephen Morgan]

[Stephen Morgan]

Foreigners might not be aware of the phenomenon of "Page Three".



You know the Sun used to be, before Murdoch, the Daily Herald, the TUC's pet newspaper.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

A very long time ago I posted about the cold-case murder of Daniel Morgan, a somewhat shady private eye who was brutally murdered with an axe in the carpark of a London pub.

Here's the most relevant bit of the post:

Mr Morgan, who was originally from the village of Llanfrechfa, jointly ran a security firm called Southern Investigations which employed off-duty police officers.

His body was found at the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham on 10 March, 1987.

Mr Morgan's mother Isobel Hulsmann, from Hay-on-Wye, Powys, and his brother Alastair, from London, have campaigned for justice ever since.

The Metropolitan Police say they believe Mr Morgan was killed because he was about to expose a drugs conspiracy linked to police corruption.

There have been five police investigations, but no-one has been convicted of his murder.

In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the case was last reviewed in 2003 but at that time it was not possible to advise prosecution.

It said a file from the most recent investigation was received in June 2007 and reviewed by the service's special casework team.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17358

The case just seemed off. Five internal Met investigations into the possibility of police officers being involved in drug importation, the "security" business, and the murder of this man, and they all went nowhere - for nearly 30 years. Now, according to Channel 4 News, this killing could also be linked to the more recent NOTW phone-hacking scandals.

Please watch the videos on Channel 4 at this link, it explains the connections much better than I can (though I had to watch it twice to get my head around it all). http://www.channel4.com/news/news-of-th ... -detective

-----

It's really quite something. The stench was already bad enough, but this reeks of long-standing collusion between the Met police, News International, the private eye underworld and highly organised crime, including gangsterism sanctioned by the Met, the murder of a potential whistleblower, and the NOTW surveilling a senior policeman on behalf of the corrupt cops/organised crime gang after he started re-investigating the murder :

Exclusive: Channel 4 News learns that a Metropolitan Police detective was put under surveillance by News of the World journalists and his personal details targetted.

The surveillance operation came during a crucial murder investigation which implicated private investigators who had alleged links to News International.

Channel 4 News understands Rebekah Brooks, then editor of the News of the World, was informed of the allegations by Scotland Yard at the time.

It was at a time when Rebekah Brooks - now one of the most powerful figures in the media industry - ran the tabloid News of the World and it was just three months after the alleged hacking into Millie Dowler's phone.

This is a story about a claim that Brooks was confronted by the police over allegations of her journalists targetting a murder detective. An astonishing story which at one point, we've been told, had the police secretly watching the News of the World watching the police.

Channel 4 News can reveal the story for the first time tonight.

At 9PM, 25th June 2002, BBC Crimewatch was about to announce yet another investigation into a notorious, unsolved murder.

The case involved the murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who was found in the car park of a south London pub 24 years ago with an axe buried in his head.

The case collapsed again recently - for the fifth time - undermined hugely by police corruption in the early years. But it's what happened after this Crimewatch broadcast to the senior detective in charge, Dave Cook, which has never been told before.

Alastair Morgan, the brother of Daniel Morgan, the murdered private investigator spoke to Detective Dave Cook often during the investigation.

He told Channel 4 News: "Dave told me about it, he told me about it then but I didn't realise who the newspaper was at that point."

Within days of the Crimewatch broadcast, it's understood that Dave Cook had been told by colleagues he was being targetted by the News of the World.

Alastair Morgan describes what is supposed to have happened next: "I learned about the surveillance and then I learned that it was the News of the World that was carrying out the surveillance.

"Dave told me that he was out walking his dog, he was taking his dog for a walk one evening when he noticed a van in an odd location. I think he said behind some trees near his house. The following morning he noticed he was being followed."

It's alleged that the police discovered one of the vans was leased to the News of the World. So concerned were the police that a witness protection unit was mobilised - as well as a police counter surveillance team.

When finally confronted, the News of the World apparently said they were interested in whether Dave Cook was having an affair with a Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames. They were in fact married at the time. Jacqui Hames has told Channel 4 News she has been contacted by Operation Weeting Detectives investigating the phone hacking scandal.

What is so disturbing about this allegation is the timing of the targeting of Dave Cook. Because in the murder investigation he was leading, suspects in the case were private investigators who, it's alleged, had close links to the News of the World.

Channel 4 News also understands that Rebekah Brooks - now CEO of News International - knows all about this.

Because, it's claimed, there was a meeting at Scotland Yard in December 2002, in which the police challenged her over this.

We still do not know what the outcome of that meeting was, but both the News of the World and the Metropolitan Police appear never to have spoken about it publicly.

Tonight the News of the World told Channel 4 News: "News International has not been previously aware of these claims but will investigate any allegations that are put to them.

They say they are not in a position to confirm or deny whether any meeting took place or what may have been said if indeed a meeting did take place.

Mindblowing, really. I mean, mindblowing that this has actually been reported on mainstream telly. Rebekah Brooks could quite concievably have her erse oot the windae, as they say. And then questions will be asked about what James Murdoch knew. It could even end up at the door of the Old Man, though he'd still have Coulson to throw under the bus first, I suppose. But the more people are thrown under the bus - like Glen Mulcaire - the more they talk, and the bigger it all gets.

Also mindblowing that Hugh Grant is fast becoming my favourite celebrity.

Just as a wee reminder of how high up the food chain this all goes, though the Paul McMullan transcript covered most of it:



And Tommy Sheridan's in jail for perjury while Andy Coulson, who testified against him, walks free.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/05/milly-dowler-phone-hacking-cameron

News International are in the shit now, for those unfamiliar with this update to the phone-hacking saga which the Guardian broke yesterday evening: private investigator working for the News of the World hacked the voicemail of then missing (and later found to be murdered) schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

They also hacked the phones of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the victims of Ian Huntley (I believe he is guilty of that crime, for the record, contra Dave MacGowan - though no doubt the NOTW hacked Huntley and Maxine Carr's phones as well, which, even if it had led directly to their capture, would've still been wrong. And illegal obviously).

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, says he was hacked too, probably by the Express or Mirror. I believe him on that, which is the first time I've believed him on anything, and likely the last too.

Remember Max Mosley as well - filmed by the News Of The World being flogged by prostitutes, one of whom just happened to be married to an MI5 officer. It's a dirty job alright.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Sounds like somebody took a page from J. Edgar Hoover's playbook.

...then again, I guess NSA's been using that playbook for a while now, too.

(wonder who Hoover got it from originially?)

Pinkerton and Hearst.

Sorry for triple post.

[vanlose kid]

*

meanwhile, back in the jungle:

Rupert Murdoch finally gets green light for BSkyB takeover – but at a price

News Corporation may pay £1.9bn more than original offer after delay brought about by eight-month inquiry

* Dan Sabbagh, James Robinson and Mark Sweney
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 20.19 BST

Rupert Murdoch is likely to end up having to pay nearly £2bn more to secure full control of BSkyB, after being forced to wait over a year for regulatory approval to buy the 61% of satellite broadcaster BSkyB his News Corporation does not already own.

The media mogul proposed a £7.4bn takeover offer in June last year priced at 700p per Sky share, but after objections from most of the rest of Fleet Street – worried about the combination of the largest UK newspaper owner and the largest broadcaster – the takeover bid was referred to the competition authorities by the business secretary, Vince Cable.

That triggered an eight-month inquiry – which all but ended when the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, put the finishing touches to a series of undertakings aimed at safeguarding "media plurality". They would require the enlarged company to spin off Sky News for at least 10 years, capping News Corp's shareholding at its current 39.1%.

While the process dragged on Vince Cable was stripped of his power to take the decision after he was covertly recorded by Daily Telegraph journalists as saying he had "declared war on Murdoch" last December. Meanwhile Sky's share price continued to soar – reaching 846.5p last night.

Rupert Murdoch's company insisted that it will not "overpay" to buy BSkyB. However, sources close to the Sky board indicated they believed that a deal would be done at the price of 875p, which would cost News Corporation £9.3bn – some £1.9bn more than the media giant was originally prepared to offer.

Hunt said he was "aware of the huge interest" in the takeover, but thought that the undertakings to spin off Sky News were "still sufficient to ensure media plurality". He said he had made the undertakings "more robust", by ensuring for example that it was necessary to have an independent director with senior journalism expertise present at Sky News board meetings where decisions on editorial matters are taken.

Hunt was later forced to defend his decision in parliament, answering an urgent question from Tom Watson, MP. In a short, stormy debate, several Labour MPs tried to argue that the News Corp bid should not have been allowed to go through in the light of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, which has seen more than 30 high profile people bring civil actions against the publisher.

"This seedy bid would shame a banana republic," Watson said, while Labour frontbencher Ivan Lewis asked why Hunt had had "so little to say on the phone hacking scandal". However, aided by Speaker John Bercow, who ruled that questions on phone hacking were out of order in this context, Hunt was able to dodge the issue in the chamber.

Shortly afterwards, in the Lords, Lord Prescott went further, arguing that Murdoch "to my mind, is not a fit and proper person to be purchasing such an organisation".

Hunt's advisers reiterated that it was not possible for the culture secretary to take the phone hacking scandal into account, because the minister had been assessing whether the takeover could go through on the grounds of "media plurality" rather than on the basis of a "fit and proper person test" – which would have brought the hacking issue into account. By keeping Sky News at arm's length from the Times, the Sun and News Corp's headquarters, the minister had in effect done his job.

Those opposing the deal, led by the unlikely alliance of owners of the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and the Guardian, said they were disappointed by the announcement, and indicated they would consider whether there was any possibility of mounting a judicial review.

However, the group of newspapers will only seek to challenge the ruling on plurality grounds, if they mount a challenge at all. Hunt's slow and measured consultation process was designed purely to avoid a judicial review. Hunt said interested parties had until midday on 8 July to give their opinion on the extra undertakings.

Meanwhile, online campaign group Avaaz, who gathered outside the Department of Culture with an "eight-foot tall stilt-walking Murdoch caricature … controlling wooden Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron puppets on strings", set up an internet petition in the hope of deluging Hunt with paperwork that will further delay his final approval of the deal.

Roger Parry, a veteran media executive, who has been widely touted as a potential chairman of the independent Sky News, said he believed the agreements would safeguard Sky News's editorial independence because "journalists are naturally independent", but added that "the bigger issue is the economic viability of Sky News", shorn from its parent.

City experts said Murdoch could agree the terms of a £9.4bn takeover bid as early as 29 July. Observers believe Hunt is keen to give final confirmation by 19 July when the summer parliamentary recess begins – although aides said the minister would not allow himself to be held hostage by the parliamentary timetable.

Chris Goodall, an analyst at Enders Research, argues the two sides are likely to reach agreement on price "within a month" of Hunt's final approval. Nick Bell, equity analyst at Jefferies, said that there was a strong possibility the two sides will reach the terms of agreement on price by 29 July to tie-in with BSkyB's financial results. But it was not completely clear if the spun off Sky News would be viable.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... over-price

News Corp/BSkyB deal underlines Murdoch's political clout

Critics will claim this is a textbook example of how Rupert Murdoch wields the power vested in his newspapers

* James Robinson
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 June 2011 13.33 BST

BSkyB has its summer party tonight at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, a venue which its critics might wryly remark provides further evidence of Rupert Murdoch's close ties to the government. Jeremy Hunt's decision to approve News Corp's deal to buy the satellite broadcaster, with some extra conditions attached, will consolidate the media mogul's power in the UK at a time when one part of his empire is the subject of a police investigation. Those extra undertakings are largely meaningless – a director with journalistic experience will sit in on board meetings at the new, independently run, Sky News when editorial decisions are made, for example. Provisions to protect editorial independence were also put in place when Murdoch bought the Times in 1981 and the Wall Street Journal in 2007 and they were ignored.

Critics will claim this is a textbook example of how Murdoch wields the power vested in his newspapers. The Sun came out early and enthusiastically for David Cameron. Now the government has allowed him to take full control of a broadcaster whose revenues exceed those of the BBC. Team Cameron and Team Murdoch are undeniably close. The prime minister employed Andy Coulson, who was editor of the News of the World when its journalists were hacking into messages left on mobile phones, as his director of communications. Coulson resigned only when the full extent of phone hacking began to become apparent, and even then Cameron was reluctant to let him go.

Murdoch was the first visitor to No 10 after Cameron was elected, arriving through the back door so the photographers couldn't capture him coming in through the front. Rebekah Brooks, the former News of the World and Sun editor who now runs Murdoch's UK newspaper arm, dines regularly with the Camerons in Oxfordshire, where Brooks and her husband Charlie have a weekend retreat and the PM has a constituency home. Rupert's son James, who is chairman of BSkyB and a senior executive at News Corp (and Brooks' boss), was at one such social event last Christmas. The Tories and the Murdochs have been driven closer by political and commercial expediency, as well as ideological conviction, and those ties are further cemented at social occasions. The same was true in the Blair era, while Gordon Brown was among the guests at Brooks's wedding.

Meanwhile, Labour backbenchers made much of the phone-hacking link when the culture secretary was dragged to the Commons at 11.30am to answer an urgent question on the takeover tabled by former defence minister Tom Watson MP. Along with Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and hacking victim who is suing the News of the World, Watson has done more to highlight wrongdoing at the News of the World than anyone else. "This seedy bid would shame a banana republic" Watson said this morning.

Many opposition MPs, along with a few Liberal Democrats, may continue to ask how a company which has now admitted criminality on a significant scale can be allowed to increase its power. The Lib Dems are in a tortuous position, although that is a stance they have become familiar with during their times as the Tories coalition partners. It was clear that business secretary Vince Cable wanted to use his powers to block the Sky takeover, if possible, or reduce its power after it was absorbed into News Corp – as he foolishly boasted to two Telegraph journalists posing as constituents. By doing so, he set in motion a chain of events which ended with his power to intervene in media mergers being removed. Now the Lib Dems can complain all they like about Murdoch's power, doubtless with the memory of the kicking his papers gave to Nick Clegg when it seemed he might lead his party to a record election performance still fresh in their minds. But they are unable to do much about it, particularly as the Murdoch press is currently going easy on the Lib Dems because, as part of the coalition, they are vital to Cameron's survival.

Labour's position is slightly more nuanced. The shadow culture secretary, Ivan Lewis, raised hacking in the house this morning when he quizzed Hunt about the deal, but Speaker John Bercow intervened and told him that was off limits, which allowed Hunt to sidestep the question.

Nevertheless, that was a departure for Labour. Until now, Lewis has consistently attacked Hunt for refusing to refer the deal to the Competition Commission for a full enquiry, and thus subjecting it to further regulatory scrutiny, but refused to take the gloves off by raising the phone-hacking affair. Lewis's attack was spiced somewhat by his assertion that hacking went far further than the News of the World, and his call for a public inquiry into press conduct generally. Ed Miliband's director of communications, Tom Baldwin, made it clear in a leaked memo to MPs that hacking and News Corp's bid for Sky should be treated as separate issues, and if you believe that all parties need to court Murdoch's paper's in order to ensure their message is heard, then that was a shrewd political calculation. Decoupling the Sky bid from the hacking affair was privately welcomed by Brooks. It may even have spiked News International's guns, and possibly given the Labour leadership a slightly easier ride in the Sun that it would otherwise have got. The tabloid paper ran a surprisingly upbeat profile of the Labour leader in April, although, tellingly perhaps, it was published on Good Friday, when newspapers sales are low.

The conviction that the Murdoch press must be neutralised, at least, and cultivated if possible runs deep in some parts of the Labour party, who still believe the unremittingly hostile treatment Neil Kinnock received made winning elections more difficult. Rupert Murdoch's power may be exaggerated, particularly in an age when newspapers sales are falling, but whether it is illusory on not, all that matters is that politicians continue to believe it is real.

Some on the left long for the Labour party to take a principled stand against a man whose dominance of the UK media will be further enhanced once the Sky deal is done and his market-leading newspapers become part of the same company which owns the nation's richest broadcaster. They are sure to find ways of working more closely together, thus further weakening competitors, including the Guardian, which challenge the inherent rightwing bias of the British press.

Lewis's comments this morning aside, the Labour party is effectively treading a middle course, landing blows on the government by criticising Hunt's decision to clear the Sky takeover, but resolutely refusing to be drawn into a war with the Murdoch empire. That risks alienating those who would like to see Murdoch's power checked, but the bigger question is, what does Labour gain as a result? Sitting on the fence may result in slightly less hostile coverage, but it is unlikely ever to persuade the Sun, the News of the World, the Times or the Sunday Times to abandon their support for Cameron.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... intcmp=239

News of the World phone hacking: Police review all child abduction cases

Detectives to examine every case involving attacks on children since 2001 in response to Milly Dowler phone hacking

Amelia Hill, James Robinson, Sam Jones, Nick Davies and Dan Sabbagh
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 July 2011 22.04 BST

Police officers investigating phone hacking by the News of the World are turning their attention to examine every high-profile case involving the murder, abduction or attack on any child since 2001 in response to the revelation that journalists from the tabloid newspaper hacked into the voicemail messages of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The move is a direct response to the Guardian's exclusive story on Monday that a private investigator working for the News International tabloid, Glenn Mulcaire, caused Milly's parents to wrongly believe she was still alive – and interfered with police inquiries into her disappearance – by hacking into the teenager's mobile phone and deleting messages.

News of the impending police action capped a dramatic day of unfolding developments in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

Last night, it emerged that News International handed to the Metropolitan Police details of payments made by News of the World to senior police officers between 2003 and 2007, the period when Andy Coulson was the paper's editor.

The development brings the crisis closer to the door of prime minister David Cameron who appointed Coulson as his director of communications when in opposition and then staunchly defended him until Coulson quit in January 2011.

News International said last night: "As a result of media enquiries, it is correct to state that new information has recently been provided to the police. As News International and News Group Newspapers has reiterated many times, full and continuing cooperation has been provided to the police since the current investigation started in January 2011. Well understood arrangements are in place to ensure that any material of importance to which they are entitled is provided to them. We cannot comment any further due to the ongoing investigations."

The revelation also suggests there is now a breaking of ranks inside News International since the files on payments to the police are unlikely to have emerged only yesterday, but instead were released to the police as senior executives said the paper could no longer continue to cover up the scale of the wrong doing at the paper.

Pointedly, News International insisted last night that the payments to the police did not relate to the period from 2000-2003, when Brooks was the paper's editor. Commentators last night suggested that was a way for the company to deflect the blame onto Coulson.

Throughout the day, pressure intensified on the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper and, in particular, its former editor and now News International chief executive, Rebekah Brooks – who insisted she knew nothing of the Dowler hacking allegations. She edited the News of the World at the time the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone messages took place.

Last night, former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan claimed on BBC Newsnight that Rebekah Brooks was aware of the phone hacking. Asked if his former editor knew of the activities, he said: "Of course she did."

McMullen, who made similar claims in a conversation that was secretly by taped by actor Hugh Grant earlier this year, described the hacking of Dowler's phone as "not such a big deal".

He said: "The journalists might have helped. The mistake that was made was that [Mulcaire] was so keen to get new messages he deleted the old ones."

The case of Madeleine McCann is expected to be one of the first to be re-examined by detectives from Scotland Yard's new inquiry into the phone hacking, Operation Weeting.

Clarence Mitchell, Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman, said he has been interviewed by officers from the hacking inquiry Operation Weeting, and is due to be interviewed a second time in the near future.

Other cases likely to be re-examined include 15-year-old Danielle Jones, who was abducted and murdered in East Tilbury, Essex, in 2001 by her uncle, Stuart Campbell.

Officers from Operation Weeting have already told the parents of the girls killed in Soham in 2002 by Ian Huntley that their mobiles had been hacked. Documents seized by the Metropolitan police in a 2006 raid on Mulcaire's home show he targeted Leslie Chapman, the father of Jessica Chapman.

It is understood the name "Greg" appeared in the corner of notes taken by Mulcaire – believed to be a reference to the News of the World's former assistant editor (news) Greg Miskiw. It is thought that parents of the other murdered girl, Holly Wells, were also targeted.

Police officers will trawl through their collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Mulcaire, and seized from him in 2006, when he and the News of the World's royal editor, Clive Goodman, were jailed for hacking into mobile phones belonging to aides to Prince William and Harry and other members of the royal household.

Mulcaire issued a public apology on Tuesday to all those hurt or upset by his activities, saying that after the developments of the past 24 hours he had to "break his silence". He said: "I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. I've been to court. I've pleaded guilty. And I've gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution.

"Working for the News of the World was never easy. There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn't understand that I had broken the law at all."

The media regulator, Ofcom, is understood to be ready to examine whether News Corporation directors would be "fit and proper persons" to own BSkyB – if any senior employees at News Corporation or its UK arm, News International, were charged with hacking-related offences.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is closing in on winning regulatory approval for its proposed £8bn-plus takeover of the 61% of BSkyB it does not own. Sources close to the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who will decide on the issue, insisted he could not take phone hacking into account in the decision that is focused on "media plurality".

Meanwhile a string of high-profile companies – including Ford, npower, Halifax, T-Mobile and Orange – said they would be reviewing or withdrawing their advertising in the News of the World. These five brands are estimated to account for more than £2m worth of advertising in the tabloid in the past year. T-Mobile and Orange are thought to have spent an estimated £1.5m between them.

Ford said it would be using "alternative media within and outside News International Group instead of placing Ford advertising in the News of the World" while it awaited the outcome of an internal investigation.

The company added: "Ford is a company which cares about the standards of behaviour of its own people and those it deals with externally."

Halifax said it was "considering our options" about advertising in the News of the World, adding: "We are sensitive to the views of our customers and will take them into account."

, with cCalls for boycotts of the News of the World appeared on Twitter and Facebook, and companies came under sustained pressure to pull their advertising from it.

Those wishing to direct their fury at the firms who advertise through the News of the World were provided with a one-stop page where they could automatically tweet their concerns to companies such as the Co-operative, easyJet, Butlins and Renault. Others went further, and calling for direct boycotts of the firms unless they took their advertising money elsewhere.

John Bercow, the speaker of Commons, granted a debate – which will happen on Wednesday – into calls for a public inquiry into phone hacking by News International journalists, and whether there was a potential cover-up by its senior executives.

Ministers in the Commons opposed the emergency debate but, in what will be seen as another show of force by Bercow, he accepted arguments in favour put by the Labour MP Chris Bryant.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said Brooks needed to "examine her conscience" and that he was sure that she would because "this happened on her watch".

Although his words were Labour's strongest intervention so far on the phone-hacking crisis, the party is still undecided about whether to put forward a substantive motion calling for a public inquiry that could be subject to a vote or amendment.

Media regulator Ofcom is understood to be standing by ready to examine whether News Corporation directors would be "fit and proper persons" to own BSkyB — if any senior employees at News Corporation or its UK arm News International were charged with any hacking related offences. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is closing in on winning regulatory approval for its proposed £8bn-plus takeover of the 61% of BSkyB it does not own — with sources close to the deciding minister, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, insisting again yesterday that he could not take phone hacking into account of a decision that is focused on "media plurality".In the first sign of potential coalition tension of the Conservative Hunt's planned approval of the Murdoch BSkyB deal, Tim Farron, the president of the Liberal Democrats, told BBC Radio 4's World at Oneon Tuesday: "I ask myself, is Rupert Murdoch a fit and proper person to own any more of the media market? Well, certainly not." The Milly Dowler revelations were the "tip of the iceberg", he added.

Channel 4 News reported that Brooks was confronted by the Met in 2002 about the fact a senior detective investigating the murder of a private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was targeted by Mulcaire on behalf of the News of the World. The main suspect in the case, which was being led by Detective Superintendent David Cook, was a man with close links to the News of the World.

Cook and his wife, Jackie Haines, were told by Scotland Yard in April this year their mobile phone numbers and payroll details had been found in Mulcaire's notebook. News International said it could not confirm or deny whether Brooks had ever attended such a meeting.

Lady Buscombe, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, said she was lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking.

"There's only so much we can do when people are lying to us. We know now that I was not being given the truth by the News of the World," she told the BBC's Daily Politics.

Brooks emailed employees at News International to insist she knew nothing about phone hacking: "It is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations. I am aware of the speculation about my position.

"Therefore it is important you all know that as chief executive, I am determined to lead the company to ensure we do the right thing and resolve these serious issues."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... ld-murders

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