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by Stephen Morgan » Wed Jan 04, 2012 2:38 am
by Byrne » Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:14 am
Former Scotland Yard officer arrested as part of press leaks investigation
DCS Dave Cook bailed after being questioned on suspicion of misconduct in a public office
Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 January 2012 21.53 GMT
Former Scotland Yard officer arrested as part of press leaks investigation
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 21.53 GMT on Tuesday 10 January 2012. A version appeared on p11 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Wednesday 11 January 2012. It was last modified at 00.07 GMT on Wednesday 11 January 2012. It was first published at 18.17 GMT on Tuesday 10 January 2012.
It is not clear why the Met did not carry out the arrest and instead passed the inquiry on to the police watchdog.
A former Scotland Yard officer has been bailed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission after his arrest over allegations of unauthorised leaks to a journalist.
DCS Dave Cook, 52, was questioned on suspicion of misconduct in a public office after being detained at his Berkshire home on Tuesday morning.
He was arrested after the IPCC was passed information in mid-December by Metropolitan police detectives working on Operation Elveden, which is investigating alleged payments to police officers by newspapers.
Investigators working for the police watchdog have powers of arrest when carrying out an independent investigation. It is not clear why the Met did not carry out the arrest and instead passed the inquiry on to the police watchdog. A spokesman for the Met would not comment.
Cook has complained he was a victim of the News of the World when he was followed during his investigation into the murder of Daniel Morgan. He now becomes a potential victim of one police inquiry – Weeting – and a suspect in another – the IPCC inquiry.
Cook was criticised by the judge in the Morgan murder trial for misbehaviour in the way he handled a key supergrass witness. He was accused of allegedly coaching the supergrass, in order that his lies were not discovered.
The move comes as the Met adopts a new policy towards the media that threatens officers who maintain informal contacts with journalists, and who pass on information that is not authorised, with arrest and disciplinary action.
The new policy, outlined by Elizabeth Filkin, the former parliamentary commissioner for standards, in her report last week encourages the Met to take a tough stance against officers who leak information to journalists. Filkin said the tougher action against unauthorised leaks was part of a policy of openness and transparency. She also called for whistleblowing to be a rarity so that the Met can protect its image and reputation.
A spokeswoman for the IPCC said: "A 52-year-old man, a former Met officer, was arrested by the IPCC at his home in Berkshire this morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office and Data Protection Act offences. The arrest is the result of information passed to the IPCC by the Metropolitan Police Service team investigating Operation Elveden and relates to the alleged passing of unauthorised information to a journalist."
Nine suspects have been arrested as part of Operation Elveden, which was launched after officers were handed documents suggesting News International journalists had made payments to officers.
Sir Paul Stephenson, the then Met commissioner, said in July evidence from the publisher suggested a small number of officers were involved.
Last month, a 52-year-old woman, understood to be a member of the force's specialist operations branch, which runs Royal Protection officers, was arrested on suspicion of receiving illegal payments.
Others questioned as part of the inquiry include former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson, former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, the paper's former royal editor Clive Goodman, and a 63-year-old man whose identity has not been disclosed.
The Met believe the final total of people whose phones could have been hacked by the News of the World will be about 800
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/ja ... sfeed=true
by seemslikeadream » Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:49 am
Four Sun journalists arrested in investigation into police bribery
Raid at Wapping offices puts evidence given by former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks to parliament under fresh scrutiny
The role of the former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks is expected to come under fresh scrutiny after four of the paper's current and former journalists were arrested on Saturday in connection with an investigation into corrupt payments to police.
Detectives with Operation Elveden, the Metropolitan Police's investigation into illegal payments to officers, raided the Sun's offices in Wapping, east London, morning after receiving information from News Corp, the parent company of News International, which owns the paper. A serving police officer in the Met's Territorial Policing command was also arrested at his place of work and questioned at a police station.
In a statement, News Corp said: "Metropolitan Police Service officers from Operation Elveden arrested four current and former employees from the Sun newspaper. Searches have also taken place at the homes and offices of those arrested. News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated."
It is understood that staff and management at the Sun had no warning of the operation. The four Sun journalists arrested were Mike Sullivan, the paper's crime editor; the former managing editor, Graham Dudman; an executive editor, Fergus Shanahan; and Chris Pharo, a news desk executive. They all worked under Brooks, who edited the Sun from January 2003 to September 2009, when she became chief executive of News International.
In 2011 Brooks wrote to parliament's home affairs select committee saying that she had no "knowledge of any specific cases" involving News International reporters paying the police. This was an attempt to clarify comments that she made to the culture, media and sport committee in March 2003 when she declared: "We have paid the police for information in the past."
Paul Farrelly MP, a member of the committee, said: "The law must take its course. We have been clear all along that allegations of criminal behaviour involving journalists extend far beyond phone hacking."
Elveden was launched on the back of Operation Weeting, the inquiry into phone hacking. The phone hacking scandal led to the closure of the News of the World after 168 years, prompted a major public inquiry, and forced the resignation of the Met's two most senior police officers.
Two other journalists, Lucy Panton of the News of the World and Sun district editor, Jamie Pyatt, were arrested in connection with Elveden last year. A Scotland Yard spokesman said that Saturday's operation was the result of information provided by News Corp. "It relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately," the spokesman said.
Deborah Glass, deputy chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is supervising Operation Elveden, said: "It will be clear from today's events that this investigation is following the evidence. I am satisfied with the strenuous efforts being made by this investigation to identify police officers who may have taken corrupt payments and I believe the results will speak for themselves." The arrests bring the number of people questioned in the Elveden investigation to 14. The four journalists and the police officer were bailed late on Saturday night pending further inquiries. News Corp's management and standards committee, set up last July to co-ordinate a response to the phone-hacking and bribery allegations, said it had given the police "every assistance during the searches of News International premises while ensuring that all appropriate steps were taken to protect legal and journalistic privilege."
The committee said it also provided the option of legal representation to those arrested.
by seemslikeadream » Wed Feb 01, 2012 4:52 pm
Guardian Reports "Data Pool 3" Might be Murdoch's Smoking Gun
Lost amidst all of the press focus on the Florida primaries is a Sunday Guardian UK article by Nick Davies, the reporter whose dogged multi-year probe of the Murdoch press empire's phone hacking led to intense investigations by the British government and Scotland Yard.
In a Sunday article headlined Mysteries of Data Pool 3 Give Rupert Murdoch a Whole New Headache, Davies reveals that investigators are now going through a vast collection of computer files, supplied by the Murdoch organization under intense pressure (and after earlier corporate claims that much of the material had been either routinely deleted or "lost in transit").
The contents of this treasure trove include literally millions of e-mails and other material so vast that police are reduced to searching through it for key words. What they find could produce the weapons that spell the end of the Murdoch empire. More details below the squiggle:
Davies says this new development "may be the moment when the scandal that closed (Murdoch's) News of the World started to pose a potential threat to at least one of (his) three other UK (papers) -- the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times."
Four more Murdoch journalists associated with these papers were arrested Saturday, but have not been charged. But Davies said the Murdoch organization has been facing enormous legal and political pressure.
Last July, the Guardian reported police suspicions that Murdoch staff had deliberately destroyed huge quantities of e-mail archives. In 2009, the company had apparently planned a routine house cleaning of its electronic files, but did not follow through.
However in 2010 when actress Sienna Miller filed a suit into whether her voicemail had been hacked, her solicitors asked News International to "preserve all documents" relating to her file. Three days after that, an "internal message" (no word on who sent it) "...pressed for the e-mails to be deleted 'urgently'." The 2009 plan was then put into motion. Around the end of the year a News of the World Editor told the court that the files had been "lost en route to Mumbai." Another company statement told the court the company could not retrieve e-mails more than 6 months old.
In January of 2011, more deletions took place according to investigators, but by then, investigators were turning up the pressure. In March of last year, executives apologized to the court, saying that the files had not been lost and could be retrieved as far back as 2005. And facing mounting evidence, Murdoch told his staff to give the supposedly lost material to investigators.
Technicians began the work of restoration in October and completed the formation of what is now known as Data Pool 3 by December.
Davies says the possibilities are fascinating. It includes invoices, reporter expense claims, bank and phone records as well as e-mails.
For News International, Data Pool 3 is a nightmare. Firstly, no one know what is in there. All they can do is wait and see how bad it gets.
Second, the police clearly believe it may yield new evidence of the crimes they set out to investigate (snip - including fishing for confidential phone, bank and tax records, voice and e-mail jacking and bribing police.)
Third – and most nightmarish – Data Pool 3 could yield evidence of attempts to destroy evidence the high court and police were seeking. Data Pool 3 itself was apparently deliberately deleted from News International's servers.
If proved (snip) it could see the courts imposing long prison sentences; and because it could have been sanctioned by senior employees and directors.
As Davies notes, Data Pool 3 is so huge, nobody really knows what it contains. Did senior Murdoch executives order destruction of evidence? Will it identify new victims of Murdoch hacking who could then come forward to make legal claims against the corporation? The possibilities are fascinating. The ultimate question?
Will Data Pool 3 contain the smoking gun that spells an end to the Murdoch empire?
by seemslikeadream » Sat Feb 11, 2012 11:14 am
Five Sun Staff, 3 Officials Arrested in News Corp. Bribery Probe
February 11, 2012, 9:33 AM EST
By Sarah Shannon
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Five more staff at News Corp.’s tabloid The Sun and three officials were arrested today as a probe widened to include bribes by journalists to public servants outside the police force.
News Corp.’s Management and Standards Committee provided the information to the Metropolitan Police which led to the arrest of five of its staff, according to a company statement. A police officer, a member of the armed forces and a Ministry of Defense employee were also arrested.
The arrests are part of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Elveden into illegal payments to police and add to about 30 people who have been arrested since January in three investigations related to phone hacking, computer hacking and bribery. Four current and former employees of The Sun were arrested on Jan. 29 on bribery allegations.
“News Corporation remains committed to ensuring that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past will not be repeated,” the company said. News Corp. has offered legal representation to its employees, it said. The committee was established in July to investigate phone hacking at News of the World, police payments and other issues.
The five journalists arrested are Geoff Webster, deputy editor of The Sun; reporter John Sturgis; picture editor John Edwards; chief reporter John Kay; and chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker, according to a person familiar with the matter, who declined to be named because the information isn’t public.
Miranda Higham, a News Corp. spokeswoman, declined to name the employees or comment beyond the statement. Contact details for The Sun staff weren’t immediately available.
Suspected Corruption
The Metropolitan Police said that five men were arrested in relation to suspected corruption involving public officials who are not police officers. They are being held in police stations across London and Kent, it said.
A sixth person, a 39-year-old service officer with Surrey Police, is being questioned in London on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to those offenses. A 39-year-old woman, who is a Ministry of Defense employee, is being questioned at Wiltshire Police station on the same charge as the police officer, alongside a 36-year-old man who is a member of the Armed Forces.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense declined to comment.
Operation Elveden was set up last year to investigate alleged bribes paid to police by News Corp.’s News of the World tabloid, which was shuttered in July 2011 as a result of a phone-hacking scandal.
by Pierre d'Achoppement » Sat Feb 11, 2012 12:09 pm
by seemslikeadream » Tue Feb 21, 2012 2:45 pm
Murdoch's Legal Tab: Approaching $1 Billion
February 21, 2012 12:41 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
Cultivating a culture of corruption can be expensive. Just ask Rupert Murdoch.
His media behemoth News Corp. has spent nearly $900 million dollars in recent years cleaning up legal messes created by the unethical behavior of his employees. And the legal bills, including out of court settlements, show no signs of abating as trans-Atlantic investigations grind on.
By year's end, News Corp. had already spent $200 million on legal costs trying to deal with and contain the phone-hacking scandal that continues to envelop his British newspaper empire. That sum comes in the wake of News Corp. shelling out nearly $700 million to recently settle three different anti-business lawsuits filed against a Murdoch marketing company in the United States.
Speculation mounts that the phone-hacking scandal could prompt the Department of Justice to prosecute News Corp. for bribing foreign officials in order to gain a competitive advantage and the legal costs surrounding that type of probe could also be enormous. One expert tells Media Matters that Murdoch's company could have to spend another $100 million navigating that investigation; more if the inquiry drags on longer than one year.
What's telling is that the massive legal bills all stem from the fact that Murdoch seems to cultivate a corporate culture where executives don't believe that the rule of law applies to them. The News Corp. culture is one where hacking computers, emails and phones, not to mention bribing politicians with favorable news coverage in exchange for votes in parliament, have been seen as a way of doing business.
In other words, Rupert Murdoch has created a ethical cesspool and now his company has had to spend what's approaching ten figures trying to clean it up. The legal tab though, is still open.
As Reuters reported earlier this month:
The FBI is conducting an investigation into possible criminal violations by Murdoch employees of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a law intended to curb payment of bribes by U.S. companies to foreign officials, a U.S. law enforcement official said.
The U.S. official said that if any law enforcement action was pursued by U.S. authorities against Murdoch employees, it would most likely relate to FCPA.
What's the FCPA angle regarding the New York-based News Corp.? Their employees keep getting arrested in Britain for paying off police officials in exchange for tabloid news scoops. Just last week, five senior employees at Murdoch's Sun were arrestedby Scotland Yard on charges of paying officers for non-public information used in sensational news stories; stories used by the newspaper to boost business by selling more copies.
It's true that the tabloid bribery charges do not represent a typical FCPA case. Normally, prosecutions revolve around employees of U.S.-owned companies bribing foreign officials in order to obtain business and contracts, or for slipping past customs agents in order to fulfill orders overseas.
Nonetheless, as Butler University law professor, and FCPA blogger, Mike Koehler wrote, the anti-bribery statute would seem to apply to News Corp.:
As a general matter, the FCPA's anti-bribery provisions prohibit the payment of money or anything of value to a "foreign official" to "obtain or retain business." London police officers are "foreign officials" under the FCPA. For instance, in this 2006 FCPA enforcement action the DOJ asserted that an Iraqi police officer was a "foreign official" under the FCPA.
And for News Corp., the mere possibility of a FCPA probe could mean staggering legal fees.
Britain's Guardian reported that in response to the looming legal threat, Murdoch's media giant has put together "the most formidable team of FCPA lawyers ever assembled." And that legal team is not cheap. According to Peter Henning, white collar crime expert and professor of law at Wayne State University, it likely costs Murdoch $50,000 just to assemble that entire team for one hour of legal consolation.
FCPA cases represent "one of the last bastions of unlimited billing by law firms," Henning explained to Media Matters. The Department of Justice has made it clear that for companies under the FCPA microscope the onus is on them to produce detailed internal investigations into allegations of bribery. The more thorough and transparent the internal investigation, the better the negotiated settlement will often be.
"These type of internal investigations are all hands on deck," says Henning. "Law firms won't spare any expense and they will bill it all at a top rate." (Engineering giant Siemens recently spent $1 billion on its internal FCPA probe.)
The truth is, many of Murdoch's recent costly legal woes are not associated with the long-simmering phone hacking scandal. Instead, the biggest financial hits Murdoch has taken for his employees' unethical behavior are tied to News Corp.'s News America Marketing (NAM). In 2009, the firm initiated a startling losing streak against competitors who charged it with dirty tricks, lawbreaking and monopolistic practices.
The greatest hits:
*$125 million: To tiny Insignia Systems (ISIG), which accused NAM of anticompetitive practices.
*$500 million: To Valassis (VCI), which accused NAM of forcing clients to choose its services or face price rises if they gave business to Valassis.
*$29.5 million: To Floorgraphics Inc., which alleged NAM hacked into its computer systems (sound familiar?) to steal competitive information.
And make no mistake, those settlements take big chunks out of the bottom line, even at a company as large and diverse as Murdoch's. Note that in the wake of News Corp.'s $125 million settlement with Insignia, the media giant announced its third quarter profits were down 24 percent from the year's previous third quarter. At the time, a company spokesman conceded that if it hadn't been for the costly Insignia pay-off, News Corp. profits would have been down just five percent.
To date, Murdoch's News Corp. has spent nearly $900 million trying to clean up legal messes spawned by his unethical employees, and the law firm billings continue. At least the lawyers are happy
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:11 pm
More sensational claims about Murdoch's UK tabloids
Lisa Millar reported this story on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 08:09:00
Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)
ALTERNATE WMA VERSION | MP3 DOWNLOAD
TONY EASTLEY: Extraordinary allegations have been aired at the phone hacking inquiry in the UK, with details of huge payments made by The Sun newspaper to police and public officials.
The police officer leading the criminal investigation says there was a culture of illegal payments at Rupert Murdoch's News International tabloid that was authorised at a very senior level.
Correspondent Lisa Millar reports from London.
LISA MILLAR: A day after proudly launching a new Sunday newspaper, Rupert Murdoch is facing more unwanted headlines.
The Leveson Inquiry into media ethics has been told journalists at Mr Murdoch's cherished Sun newspaper regularly paid police and other officials for salacious gossip.
The allegations have come from one of Scotland Yard's most senior police officers, Sue Akers, who is leading the criminal investigation into a scandal that's threatened the future of the Murdoch empire.
SUE AKERS: That it reveals a network of corrupted officials. The journalists had a network upon whom- upon which to call at various strategic places across public life. There also appears to have been a culture at The Sun of illegal payments.
LISA MILLAR: She's alleged the payments were authorised at a senior level and that staff knew they were acting illegally, managing payment through friends or relatives of the source.
SUE AKERS: Multiple payments have been made to individuals amounting to thousands of pounds. In one case over a period of several years, this amounts to in excess of 80,000 pounds.
LISA MILLAR: A dozen people have been arrested - among them journalists, police and public servants.
Sue Akers says one of the reporters received more than $200,000 dollars over several years to pay sources, and there was more alleged evidence of the cosy relationship between the press and the police.
The inquiry heard that in 2006, the then editor of The Sun Rebekah Brooks was told by police that investigations into phone hacking wouldn't be broadened beyond the News of the World.
One of the victims of phone hacking, former deputy prime minister John Prescott, told the inquiry what he thought was going on.
JOHN PRESCOTT: I think there's more a conspiracy of silence to hide the facts. Frankly I'm strongly of that view in the last few months.
(Sound of voices and cameras at press conference)
LISA MILLAR: News International's financial costs continue to mount, with singer Charlotte Church and her parents winning one of the largest settlements yet - $890,000.
The 26-year-old was a teenager when the now defunct News of the World hacked her family's voicemails, placed her under surveillance and accessed her medical records.
CHARLOTTE CHURCH: What I have discovered as the litigation has gone on has sickened and disgusted me. In my opinion, they are not truly sorry, only sorry they got caught.
LISA MILLAR: News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch responded to the latest allegations at the inquiry, saying he'd made clear his company had vowed to do everything it could to get to the bottom of prior wrongdoings.
Any of the alleged practices were from the past, he said.
This is Lisa Millar in London for AM.
by AhabsOtherLeg » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:29 pm
by seemslikeadream » Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:31 pm
James Murdoch gives up News International role
James Murdoch quits as News Int boss (01:40)
By Yinka Adegoke and Mark Hosenball
Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:00pm EST
(Reuters) James Murdoch resigned as executive chairman of News International on Wednesday, raising new doubts he can succeed his father Rupert as CEO of parent company News Corp in the wake of a phone hacking scandal at the unit he oversaw.
It also raises the possibility that one of his older siblings -- Elisabeth or Lachlan -- could emerge as an eventual contender for the top job, according to people familiar with the matter.
Other sources suggested a contrarian view of James' departure from News International, interpreting the move to focus him on operations based out of corporate headquarters in New York as Rupert defying his doubters by bringing his embattled son closer to the company's power center. That would dovetail with another counterintuitive move the elder Murdoch made recently: launching a Sunday edition of his tabloid The Sun newspaper in London last week amidst an investigation that had led to the arrest of staff of that paper in addition to those of the now-defunct News of the World.
The younger Murdoch, once seen as heir apparent to his 80-year-old father, has been under pressure since the phone-hacking scandal erupted last summer at the British newspapers. His resignation is the latest in a flurry of senior executive resignations from News International since the scandal came to light.
On James' watch, thousands of celebrities and everyday citizens had their voice mails hacked by journalists at News International newspapers. The company has paid out millions of dollars in settlement fees to date with more expected to come.
James will remain deputy chief operating officer of News Corp with a focus on its international TV business, a New York-based post he was promoted to last year.
The move appears to further strengthen the position of News Corp President Chase Carey, who is now favored by investors to take the top job at the Murdoch family controlled media conglomerate.
"It clarifies the management hierarchy and clarifies Chase Carey as the person who's both No. 2 and No. 3 behind Rupert Murdoch," said Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan. "That's a good thing. I think the operations are going well."
News Corp's shares hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday morning of $20.35. Analysts and investors have remained ambivalent to the phone hacking scandal throughout the last year, noting that newspapers make up only a tiny portion of News Corp's overall business.
News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in a statement his son would still play a key role at the company.
The elder Murdoch has spent most of the last two weeks in London overseeing The Sun's Sunday launch. The move was seen as an effort to boost staff morale following an ongoing internal investigation into his newspapers' journalistic operations.
"I think it is clearly regrettable that any of this happened but it did and as a shareholder I believe the company has behaved very responsibly to find the people who were responsible," said Larry Haverty, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Multimedia Funds.
FAMILY POWER STRUGGLE
A source familiar with internal company machinations said that even before Rupert Murdoch left for his latest trip to London it was becoming apparent that James Murdoch's prospects to succeed his father at the head of the News Corp empire were fading.
According to the source, powerful company insiders close to the internal investigation News Corp set up to clean up the company's newspaper properties in Britain have come to question James' record heading the unit and his responses to the phone hacking scandal as it unfolded.
As a consequence, Rupert's eldest son, Lachlan, who dropped out of contention as heir apparent as a result of a brutal corporate power struggle that forced him out of the company in 2005, appeared at his father's side when in London last week. But James was nowhere in sight even though he nominally remained executive chairman of the British newspaper interests.
Company sources cautioned, however, that Lachlan is content to continue building his own business back in his native Australia and is uninterested in returning to News Corp at the moment. Still, his father has repeatedly tried to entice Lachlan back into the fold with numerous job offers.
Sources said that daughter Elisabeth Murdoch, whose independent London-based television production company, Shine, was acquired by News Corp last year, has been waiting quietly in the wings and is regarded by some as the current favorite to succeed her father, if any family member ultimately is allowed to make that move.
James Murdoch's resignation comes after a new spate of embarrassing revelations in London at the judge-led Leveson Inquiry into press standards, which was ordered by British Prime Minister David Cameron in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.
A police officer heading three criminal inquiries into reporting practices at News International testified on Monday that there was a "culture of illegal payments" to corrupt public officials at the company's flagship Sun newspaper.
The Inquiry also brought to light an email from a top in-house lawyer at News International that showed senior managers had been told as far back as 2006 that illegal phone hacking was not confined to one "rogue reporter," as the company maintained for years afterward, but was likely to have been far more widespread, as later proved to be the case.
by seemslikeadream » Thu Mar 01, 2012 5:09 pm
Leveson inquiry preparing to call Rupert Murdoch
20:51:21 BST
By Mark Hosenball
LONDON | Thu Mar 1, 2012 6:18pm GMT
(Reuters) - The judicial inquiry into alleged media abuses is preparing to summon newspaper owners, including Rupert Murdoch, to give public testimony in late April or early May, according to sources close to the inquiry.
One of the sources said that some of the proprietors to be called to testify have been notified of the intentions of the judge leading the inquiry, but did not know if Murdoch had yet been notified.
Another source said Brian Leveson had publicly indicated there would be opportunities during his inquiry when he would want to discuss its emerging findings with key figures.
After he winds up the current phase of his inquiry, which has been looking at dealings between British media and police, Leveson indicated that the next phase of his inquiry will examine relations between the media and politicians.
One of the sources close to the inquiry noted that Prime Minister David Cameron had said he would be willing to give evidence to Leveson. The source said Leveson hoped he could hear evidence from equally important personalities in the media.
Spokespeople for Murdoch's UK-based News International and his U.S.-based News Corp. had no immediate comment. But a source close to Murdoch said he had previously indicated he would be happy to cooperate with the Leveson inquiry.
On Thursday, detectives investigating claims journalists bribed public officials for information arrested a 10th member of staff from Murdoch's The Sun newspaper, Britain's biggest-selling daily.
The arrests were provoked by information handed to police by the Management and Standards Committee, a clean-up established by Murdoch to root out any criminality at News International. Murdoch closed the News of the World, his British Sunday tabloid, in July over a phone-hacking scandal.
FUTURE WITNESSES
John Toker, a spokesman for Leveson, said the inquiry's policy was not to comment on future witnesses or lines of inquiry. But he added: "There are no restrictions on Lord Justice Leveson about who he can call because of his powers under the Inquiries Act. He has always said he will go where the evidence leads."
Hints that Murdoch would be called by Leveson during his investigation were floated at a hearing last December.
During questioning of Piers Morgan, a CNN talk-show host who once edited the News of the World, Robert Jay, the Leveson inquiry's chief counsel, asked Morgan to elaborate on a discussion he had with Murdoch about a complaint against the now-shuttered tabloid in 1994.
When Morgan testified that he could not answer for Murdoch, Jay said: "Well, I can ask him for his impression when we get there."
One newspaper proprietor, Richard Desmond, who owns the Daily Express newspaper group, has already appeared before the tribunal and the CEO of the Daily Mirror's publisher Trinity Mirror, Sly Bailey, has also given evidence.
Top editorial executives of other papers, including the Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily and Sunday Mirror, and Times and Sunday Times have also testified.
by wintler2 » Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:06 pm
Sun established 'network of corrupted officials', Sue Akers tells Leveson
..Sue Akers, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, told the Leveson inquiry into press standards there had been "multiple payments" by the Sun to public officials of thousands of pounds, and one individual received £80,000 in alleged corrupt payments over a number of years. One Sun journalist drew more than £150,000 over the years to pay sources. ...
Lord Justice Leveson took aim at Michael Gove, the education secretary and former Times journalist, who had said that the inquiry, launched by David Cameron last summer, was having a "chilling effect" on Fleet Street. The judge said that he believed in freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but added that journalism must obey the rule of law and act in the public interest.
Police hold another Sun reporter in bribes probe
Virginia Wheeler, the paper's defence editor, is the 10th member of staff from Britain's biggest-selling daily newspaper to be arrested in the last few weeks over allegations they made illegal payments to police and other public officials. ...
On Monday, the detective leading investigations into payments to officials and phone-hacking told a public inquiry that there appeared to be a "culture of illegal payments" at the Sun.
If proven, this could lead to U.S. authorities taking action against News Corp under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resulting in possible fines of millions of dollars and criminal charges against individuals.
...
by seemslikeadream » Sat Mar 03, 2012 1:09 am
Three mull first U.S. lawsuits against Murdoch: source
February 16, 2012. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth
By Mark Hosenball
Fri Mar 2, 2012 2:09pm EST
(Reuters) - Three people who believe they were targeted by a private investigator working for Rupert Murdoch's News of the World while they were in the United States are considering suing his company in U.S. courts, a source close to the case said.
The lawsuits would be the first litigation filed against Murdoch's News Corp empire in the United States and could mark a significant escalation in a scandal that has already shaken Britain's media and political establishment.
Murdoch's British publishing arm News International has already handed out millions of dollars in settlements to celebrities and others who had their voice mails hacked by its journalists.
The source said London police had showed the three people documents seized from Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who worked for Murdoch's now-defunct tabloid News of the World.
The documents indicated Mulcaire had collected phone numbers and other information on the targeted individuals when they knew they were in the United States, said the source.
The evidence - in the form of detailed notes Mulcaire took regarding assignments he received from journalists at the newspaper - does not prove the persons targeted by Mulcaire had their voicemail hacked, the source said.
In at least one of the cases, said the source, Mulcaire's documentation also included at least one U.S. telephone number.
In January 2007, Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, the News of the World's chief reporter on Britain's royal family, pleaded guilty to charges related to phone hacking. Both were sentenced to brief terms of imprisonment.
All legal actions to date regarding alleged phone hacking by Murdoch journalists have been brought in U.K. courts. Recently, Murdoch's British publishing unit has made strenuous efforts to settle with claimants before their cases come to trial.
However, Mark Lewis, an English lawyer who has represented some of the highest-profile phone hacking claimants, is expected to visit the United States in April to consult with American lawyers about the possibility of filing phone hacking lawsuits in the U.S. court system.
In September last year, Lewis told reporters he had talked to American lawyers about filing possible claims against News Corp in New York.
Lewis' high profile clients have included the parents of murdered schoolgirl Millie Dowler. Revelations that the News of the World had hacked her mobile phone sparked widespread outrage and pushed the hacking scandal back into the headlines.
Bloomberg News reported last month that U.S. telephone numbers had been found in notes related to hacking victims which police had seized from Mulcaire, including numbers for a Los Angeles agent and New York publicist for Charlotte Church, a Welsh singer.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Church and her family had settled a phone hacking claim against the News of the World for 600,000 British pounds in damages and legal costs.
Earlier this year, British actor Jude Law settled a phone hacking claim against the News of the World, saying that his phone had been hacked on numerous occasions between 2003 and 2006, including when he was at New York's JFK Airport.
Last summer, the FBI opened an investigation into possible phone hacking inside the United States.
The probe came after London's Daily Mirror, a competitor to Murdoch's Sun tabloid, said a U.S. private investigator had told it he had turned down a request from the News of the World that he hack into phone data of victims of the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington D.C.
A U.S. law enforcement source said that the FBI inquiry turned up no evidence of phone hacking in the U.S. by Murdoch journalists, though the FBI is looking into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an American law which bans questionable payments to foreign government officials.
by seemslikeadream » Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:30 am
Two Murdoch journalists reportedly attempt suicide as pressure mounts
By msnbc.com staff and news services
Two senior journalists working for Rupert Murdoch's News International have attempted suicide as pressure mounts at the scandal-hit publisher of the now-defunct News of the World, according to media reports.
The suicide attempts follow weeks of intense scrutiny of the role of The Sun, another Murdoch paper, in the phone-hacking scandal and police bribery case.
The man and the woman, who were reportedly involved in separate incidents, were rescued in time, a friend of one of them said, according to a report Tuesday on stuff.co.nz. The two journalists have been checked into the hospital, according to a report Tuesday by the Financial Times. The newspaper reported that their care is being paid for by News International.
"It was not a suicide pact," the friend told the New Zealand-based news organization. "The attempts were not simultaneous and there is no suggestion of a pact."
Eleven current and former staff of the Sun, Britain's best-selling daily tabloid, have been arrested this year on suspicion of bribing police or civil servants for tip-offs, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Their arrests have come as a result of information provided to the police by the Management and Standards Committee, or MSC, a body set up by parent company News Corp to facilitate police investigations and liaise with the courts.
The work of the MSC, which was set up to be independent of the conglomerate's British newspaper arm News International, has caused bitterness among staff, many of whom feel betrayed by an employer they have loyally served.
"People think that they've been thrown under a bus," one News International employee told Reuters. "They're beyond angry - there's an utter sense of betrayal, not just with the organization but with a general lynch-mob hysteria."
News International, the European arm of Murdoch's empire, is facing multiple criminal investigations and civil court cases as well as a public inquiry into press standards after long-simmering criticism of its practices came to a head last July.
Politicians once close to Murdoch, including Prime Minister David Cameron, turned their backs on him and demanded answers after the Guardian newspaper revealed the News of the World had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
The London Evening Standard reported that other News International journalists are “terribly stressed and many are on the edge.” The company has reportedly offered psychiatric help to any journalist who wants help.
by seemslikeadream » Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:48 am
Breaking: Fall of the House of Murdoch - Murdochs Forced to Sell BSkyB?
byLib Dem FoPFollow
The breaking news this morning:
The Financial Times has found that OfCom has increased its team looking at the evidence coming from the Leveson Enquiry to asses whether James Murdoch is a "fit and proper person" to run BSkyB. News Corp has a 39.1% shareholding in BSkyB which declares annual profits approaching $2billion. News Corp also owns News International which published the News of the World (NoTW) and still has The Times, The Sunday Times and the Sun. The head of the Murdoch 'mafia family' - as an MP describes it - recently launched 'The Sun on Sunday' to replace NoTW
As the FT is behind a paywall, let the Grauniad explain the implications:
The media regulator set up a dedicated group of seven or eight staff under the name Project Apple at around the turn of the year as part of an assessment that is also taking in whether News Corporation is a fit and proper controlling investor in the satellite broadcaster.
If Ofcom concluded that either Murdoch or News Corp were not appropriate owners, the regulator could revoke Sky's licence to broadcast in the UK, forcing it to switch off its channels, unless Murdoch stepped down from the board or News Corp sold its 39.1% stake.
Update:
A bit more detail and background.
Ofcom - the name is Brit Newspeak for "The Office of Telecommunications" - is analogous to the US Federal Communications Commission. Apart from the BBC which is set up under a Royal Charter, it licenses all broadcasting companies and each of the channels they carry.
BSkyB is the main, virtually the only, paid for satellite broadcasting platform available in the UK and Eire. It has its own subscription channels which include general entertainment, news, arts and, most profitable, movies and sports. In addition its 'Electronic Programme Guide' or EPG carries the free to air channels provided by the terrestrial 'public service broadcasters' - the BBC's 9 TV channels and radio; Channel 3 (the largest 'franchisee' for this is ITV but there are also Scottish Television and Ulster Television which are still separate companies. ITV also has three additional general interest and a children's channel); Channel 4 and its 'digital channels' and Five and its digital channels. In the Irish Republic it also carries RTE, the Irish state broadcaster's channels. Also on their EPG are a number of other channels run by different broadcasters which are included in their various packages but can be free to air.
BSkyB also has a presence on the digital terrestrial platform, Freeview with the SD version of their Sky News and a couple of other channels carrying programs shown on their main entertainment channels but often these are previous seasons.
Free satellite services are available in the UK from freesat, a joint BBC/ITV venture and in Ireland from Soarsat from RTE. In the case of freesat, other broadcasters pay to have their free-to-air advertising funded channels on the EPG.
Because BSkyB is both a subscription platform and has its own subscription channels, the implications of its closure could be profound. It owns, for example, the live broadcasting rights to many sports including F1 car racing, soccer and cricket. Closing Sky would mean huge losses to the bodies that run the sports.
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