+- Deep Politics Forum (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora)
+-- Forum: Deep Politics Forum (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora/forum-1.html)
+--- Forum: Propaganda (https://deeppoliticsforum.com/fora/forum-12.html)
+--- Thread: Phone hacking scandal deepens (/thread-3201.html)
Phone hacking scandal deepens - Jan Klimkowski - 19-01-2011
The Murdoch empire's "rogue reporter" defence has always been an untenable joke, but it's a pleasure to see it disintegrating:
Quote:NoW phone-hacking scandal: News Corp's 'rogue reporter' defence unravels
Glenn Mulcaire tells high court that News of the World's head of news asked him to hack voicemail messages
James Robinson guardian.co.uk, Monday 17 January 2011 20.48 GMT
News Corporation's defence that phone hacking at the News of the World was the work of a single "rogue reporter" was on the verge of collapse tonight after Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective at the centre of the case, said the paper's head of news commissioned him to access voicemail messages.
Mulcaire is understood to have submitted a statement to the high court this afternoon confirming that Ian Edmondson, the paper's assistant editor (news) asked him to hack into voicemail messages left on a mobile phone belonging to Sky Andrew, a football agent. Andrew is suing the paper for breach of privacy.
It is also understood that Mulcaire said in the court statement that several other executives at the News of the World were aware that phone hacking was taking place, although he does not name them.
A spokesman for the News of the World said: "This is a serious allegation that will form part of our internal investigation."
Edmondson was suspended by the paper before Christmas after he was named in court documents in a separate case against the News of the World brought by the actor Sienna Miller.
His computer has been impounded as part of the paper's internal investigation and the company is trawling through his emails. He is expected to be questioned after colleagues have been interviewed.
Mulcaire's decision to name Edmondson helps to explains why News Group acted so quickly to suspend him.
Mulcaire's lawyer, Sarah Webb, said: "It's in court documents. I'm not prepared to comment."
The admission by Mulcaire, whose legal fees are believed to be met by News of the World publisher, News Group, which is part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, contradicts the paper's repeated claim that only a single journalist the former royal editor Clive Goodman knew about his activities. Executives at the paper, including its former editor Andy Coulson, now David Cameron's director of communications have stuck to that version of events since Goodman and Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 for illegally intercepting voicemails left on mobile phones belonging to members of the royal household.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "We have nothing further to add."
Files seized by police in a 2006 raid on Mulcaire's home show that Mulcaire wrote "Ian" in the margins of a transcript he made of messages left on Miller's phone.
Miller's lawyers had contended that "Ian" referred to Edmondson, an executive at the paper who was hired by Coulson and worked closely with the former editor during his time at the paper.
Mulcaire had a habit of writing the first name of whoever had asked him to conduct hacking in the top left corner of his paperwork. His conviction in 2006 along with Goodman rested partly on the fact he had written "Clive" on his files.
Lawyers acting for Nicola Phillips, a publicist suing the paper for breach of privacy, won a high court ruling in November ordering Mulcaire to name the executives who ordered him to hack into phones.
He appealed against that ruling, however, on the grounds that he could incriminate himself by doing so, and the court of appeal has yet to hear his case.
It is unclear why Mulcaire has decided to name Edmondson now, although it is thought lawyers acting for several other litigants, including the comedian Steve Coogan and the Sky Sports commentator Andy Gray are preparing to make the same request. Murdoch has pledged "immediate action" against anyone found hacking again. News Corporation had fought a long battle to prevent details of the phone-hacking affair becoming public.
The Guardian revealed in July 2009 that News Corp had paid the PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, and two others a total of £1m in a secret out-of -court settlement in exchange for dropping a hacking case. The documents relating to the case were then sealed by the court. The celebrity publicist Max Clifford received £1m last year in a similar settlement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/17/phone-hacking-news-of-the-world
Phone hacking scandal deepens - Jan Klimkowski - 19-01-2011
Ah. Pawn to King 7.
Murdoch's creatures make the only logical move available to them - dump on their News Editor, and move from ONE rogue reporter to TWO rogue reporters.
:angeldevil:
Quote:News of the World shifts away from 'one-rogue' phone-hacking response
Tabloid publisher is battling to regain credibility by gradually distancing itself from Ian Edmondson
Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 January 2011 22.09 GMT
Mired in a deluge of slow-moving celebrity phone-hacking lawsuits, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is battling to regain credibility by gradually distancing itself from Ian Edmondson, the senior News of the World editor at the heart of the latest round of court allegations.
The tabloid publisher was quick to recognise the gravity of today's courtroom claim by Glenn Mulcaire the private investigator previously jailed for his part in hacking the mobile phones of members of the royal household at the behest of royal editor Clive Goodman who claimed that Edmondson, No 3 at the newspaper, had instructed him to hack into the mobile phone of the football agent Sky Andrew.
Meanwhile, Edmondson, under investigation by his own newspaper, is already feeling the heat. The gaggle of lawyers acting for the celebrities suing the newspaper argue that all News Corp has done is move from the "one rogue" referring to the already jailed Goodman to a "two rogue" strategy. News Corp continues to concede as little as possible they argue only suspending journalists where there is a prima facie case for one individual reporter to answer.
News Corp insists, though, that its approach has changed. It wants litigants to see what evidence they can put in the public domain, to see what information emerges from Mulcaire's notebooks, which are gradually being released by the Metropolitan police. It says it is prepared to act and has been for months if "new information is put before us".
It is a high-risk approach. News Corp knows there is the potential for one of the phone hacking cases to develop each week. The news story continues to run on, damaging the company's credibility at a time when senior Labour sources believe Rupert and James Murdoch are trying to negotiate a behind- the-scenes deal to get the News Corporation buyout of BSkyB waved through by Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary.
Meanwhile, the evidence provided by the Met to claimants such as ex-footballer Andy Gray remains sketchy with large parts of key documentation, phone records and notes redacted. It is not clear what will come out if the Met is forced to provide more information to litigants and, indeed, if any cases come to trial. But for now any journalist from the News of the World named in the fashion of Edmondson will have to be immediately suspended.
This, perhaps, could help insulate past and present senior executives Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, and Rebekah Brooks, another former editor, who moved to the Sun, then became the chief executive of News International, News Corp's UK newspaper arm. There is no evidence to suggest either any direct contact with Mulcaire or any other phone hacking.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/18/news-of-the-world-phone-hacking
Phone hacking scandal deepens - David Guyatt - 19-01-2011
Although it is not a precise parallel, this affair reminds me a bit of the Guinness buyout of Distillers Plc., which resulted in the "Guinness four" being charged, found guilty and all but one (for health reasons) imprisoned.
Fingers crossed...
![[Image: policeman.gif]](http://www.myemoticons.com/images/work-school/civil/policeman.gif)
Phone hacking scandal deepens - Magda Hassan - 20-01-2011
News of the World hacking scandal throws spotlight on Murdoch media empire
By Julie Hyland
20 January 2011
The private investigator at the centre of allegations of widespread phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch's News of the World (NoW) has reportedly admitted that executives at the newspaper were aware of the practice.
According to the Guardian, Glen Muclaire has made the admission in a statement given to the high court. The document is also said to confirm that Ian Edmondson, NoW's assistant editor (news), asked Muclaire to hack into voice mail messages left on a mobile belonging to Sky Andrew, a football agent. Two weeks ago, the NoW announced it had suspended Edmondson before Christmas pending a separate legal action by actress Sienna Miller against the newspaper, in which he was named.
Muclaire and Clive Goodman, NoW'sroyal correspondent, were jailed in 2007 for six and four months, respectively, after they were found guilty of illegally accessing the mobile phone messages of members of the royal family. The royals had called in police to investigate, after a number of stories appeared in the NoW on Princes Harry and William.
Despite evidence that the potential victims of the phone hacking ran to the hundreds, if not thousands, and involved government ministers, police and defence chiefs, the case was confined solely to the royals and Goodman was the only NoW journalist to be charged.
The NoW claimed throughout that Goodman was a rogue reporter, and Mulcaire an out-of-control investigator. Andy Coulson, then editor of the NoW, resigned his post when the two were jailed. He vigorously denied any knowledge of the phone hacking, but said he took responsibility, as it had happened on his watch. Not long after, Coulson went to work for Conservative leader David Cameron, then in opposition. He is now employed as Cameron's director of communications.
It is not clear why Mulcaire has named Edmondson now, after years of denying the involvement of anyone other than Goodman, or how Edmondson will respond to his claim. There is speculation that the NoW was forced to move against Edmondson because its rogue reporter defence had become untenable. He may be sacrificed, it has been suggested, to draw a line under the scandal and protect Coulson and others.
Mulcaire and Goodman received payoffs for unfair dismissal from the NoWwith Muclaire receiving £80,000 and Goodman an undisclosed amount rumoured to be as much as £1 million. As both settlements were subject to confidentiality agreements, it has never been explained why the NoW would make payouts to those found guilty of criminal offences. There are also claims that Mulcaire's legal fees, thought to be running at some £500,000 so far, are being paid by News International, which publishes the NoW.
The scandal raises questions about relations between Murdoch's corporation and the police, and reaches right into the heart of the political establishment.
For several years, it appeared that the allegations of extensive phone hacking by the NoW had been laid to rest, after the Metropolitan Police ruled out further charges. Declining to publish the evidence it had collected from Mulcaire, the Met said it would instead inform those thought to be victims privately.
In July 2009, however, the Guardian alleged that the list of potential targets was far wider than previously assumed, including John Prescott, former deputy prime minister, and then minister Tessa Jowell. Prescott challenged why police had never informed him that he could have been a target, but Andy Hayman, then assistant commissioner at the Met, repeatedly insisted that there was no evidence that Prescott's phone had been hacked.
Further investigation by the Guardian revealed that the police had recovered 4,000 full or partial names and nearly 3,000 full or partial telephone numbers at the time of the 2007 trial, but had named just eight individuals.
In March 2010, the NoW settled with publicist Max Clifford for intercepting his voice mail, agreeing to pay legal costs and an undisclosed personal payment that has been reported to be as high as £1 million. Clifford had won a court ruling that the NoW must disclose secret information of the journalists involved in the hacking. The deal meant that this information could not be made public.
The Clifford settlement was in addition to some £1.5 million reportedly paid in other out-of-court settlements. An investigation by the New York Times in September 2009 quoted lawyer Mark Lewis stating, "Getting a letter from Scotland Yard that your phone has been hacked is rather like getting a Willy Wonka golden ticket. Time to queue up at Murdoch Towers to get paid."
At least six lawsuits are thought to be under way, with many more being prepared against the NoW. In addition, 11 people are taking legal action against Muclaire. Prescott and former deputy Met Police commissioner Brian Paddicksubsequently identified as a potential victimare seeking a judicial review into the police handling of the investigation.
The Times investigation cited several former NoW journalists stating that Coulson had "actively encouraged" phone hacking. "In fact", the newspaper continued, "an examination based on police records, court documents and interviews with investigators and reporters shows that Britain's revered police agency failed to pursue leads suggesting that one of the country's most powerful newspapers was routinely listening in on its citizens."
This was followed by a Channel 4 "Dispatches"programme, in which it was alleged that Coulson had personally listened to hacked messages.
Two parliamentary select committees are involved in inquiries concerning the hacking, and the House of Commons voted to refer allegations of hacking against politicians to the Standards and Privileges Committee.
In February, the cross-party culture, media and sport select committee reported that the exact number of victims of this criminal activity "will never be known", not least due to the silence of Goodman and Mulcaire and the "collective amnesia" at the newspaper group. But it was certainly more than "a handful", it said.
It was "inconceivable" that no one else at the NoW knew of the hacking, the committee stated. It registered its concern about the "readiness of all of those involved: News International, the police and the PCC [Press Complaints Commission] to leave Mr. Goodman as the sole scapegoat without carrying out a full investigation at the time."
It added that while no details had been forthcoming on any payoffs to Goodman or Mulcaire, the committee was "left with a strong impression that silence has been bought."
Despite such reports, in December the Crown Prosecution Service said police had failed to find "admissible evidence" to purse legal action, and the case was closed.
In response to the allegations now made against Edmondson, it was announced that a panel of prosecutors and police will be set up to review any fresh evidencealthough it is considered unlikely that the case will be reopened.
As Henry Porter noted in the Observer, "Imagine these allegations being made about any other organisation…and you realise that this kind of cover-up, involving the payment of so much money to so many people, is unprecedented…. The truth is that no other organisation in Britain could have acted in this way and come so far without suffering serious penalties and public humiliation."
It has been suggested that the Met police were reluctant to investigate lest it damage its relations with News International. What precisely these relations consist of has never been spelt out.
Andy Hayman, who led the investigation into Goodman and Mulcaire, is now employed by Murdoch's Times (of London) as a columnist.
A 1999 police investigation into corruption within the force revealed a detective agency run by former officers acting as intermediary between police and the tabloids. In 2004, further arrests were made as the result of investigations into the links between police and "several media" organisations, involving the handing over of criminal records.
In 2003, Rebekah Brooks, then editor of Murdoch's Sun tabloid, told a parliamentary committee that the newspaper paid police for information. News International immediately issued a denial.
As for the political establishment, the close relations between Tony Blair and Murdoch are legendary. The multibillionaire's access to government has certainly not been diminished by the change from Labour to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, as Coulson's appointment signifies.
It is Conservative Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt who is currently looking into Murdoch's News Corporation's planned £8 billion buyout of BSkyB. The acquisition is opposed by many other media outlets, including the Guardian. If cleared, Murdoch would control half of Britain's TV revenues and half its newspapers' revenues by the middle of the next decade, according to Will Hutton.
The Guardian noted that in December, the corporation "was handed a gift when the hostile business secretary, Vince Cable, was stripped of his role in judging whether to allow the takeover after saying that he had declared war on Murdoch' to two undercover Daily Telegraph reporters."
That is something of an understatement. Cable was due to decide whether Murdoch's bid should be passed onto the Competition Commission. As a result of the undercover sting, the decision passed to Hunt.
Hunt is on record as stating that he is not opposed to the takeover. It has subsequently emerged that he held a private meeting with Murdoch's son, James, absent civil servants last June, just after the BSkyB bid was made public.
Only last week, the Financial Times reported that Hunt had been warned by lawyers to be careful to avoid legal challenges, after he sent Murdoch's company a key document concerning the bid. "Three competition experts", had said this "could give News Corp [Murdoch's international media operation] the ability to offer pre-emptive remedies' that would cut out the need" for investigation by the Competition Commission, the FT reported. "News Corp pursued this tactic when the European Commission was considering the bid, which was eventually passed unconditionally."
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/murd-j20.shtml
Phone hacking scandal deepens - David Guyatt - 20-01-2011
Magda Hassan Wrote:As Henry Porter noted in the Observer, "Imagine these allegations being made about any other organisation…and you realise that this kind of cover-up, involving the payment of so much money to so many people, is unprecedented…. The truth is that no other organisation in Britain could have acted in this way and come so far without suffering serious penalties and public humiliation."
The foregoing alone speaks volumes about the power of Murdoch as it presently stands.
And of course, the wholesale corruption of the HM Police Force Plc, a full time for profit organization. I wonder if bribes are accounted for under the heading of "Force SOX" (i.e., social expenses)? This used to be the accounting code in my day.
Phone hacking scandal deepens - Jan Klimkowski - 20-01-2011
Mulcaire is the private eye, and Goodman the NoW royal correspondent:
Quote:Mulcaire and Goodman received payoffs for unfair dismissal from the NoWwith Muclaire receiving £80,000 and Goodman an undisclosed amount rumoured to be as much as £1 million. As both settlements were subject to confidentiality agreements, it has never been explained why the NoW would make payouts to those found guilty of criminal offences. There are also claims that Mulcaire's legal fees, thought to be running at some £500,000 so far, are being paid by News International, which publishes the NoW.
The scandal raises questions about relations between Murdoch's corporation and the police, and reaches right into the heart of the political establishment.
For several years, it appeared that the allegations of extensive phone hacking by the NoW had been laid to rest, after the Metropolitan Police ruled out further charges. Declining to publish the evidence it had collected from Mulcaire, the Met said it would instead inform those thought to be victims privately.
So, the Murdoch empire claims that Goodman was a "rogue reporter" who was acting unilaterally and without management permission, and Mulcaire was not told to hack phones by Murdoch management.
And yet Murdoch lawyers pay the pair over a milion quid for false dismissal and may have paid over half a million quid's worth of Mulcaire's legal fees.
To a "rogue" employee and a "rogue" private eye?!?!? :monkeypiss:
Perhaps the Murdoch empire should commission a new soap entitled "The Price of Omerta"....
Phone hacking scandal deepens - David Guyatt - 21-01-2011
The plot thickens.
Is it smoke filled rooms or smoked salmon and iced champagne? The result is probably the same in any case.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/20/david-cameron-rebekah-brooks-bskyb
Quote:David Cameron met Rebekah Brooks after Vince Cable lost BSkyB power
PM visited News International chief's home over Christmas amid storm over Rupert Murdoch's bid to take full control of BSkyB
Nicholas Watt and Dan Sabbagh
The Guardian, Thursday 20 January 2011
Rebekah Brooks lives near to David Cameron's consistuency home.
David Cameron was a guest of Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International, at her Oxfordshire home over the Christmas period just days after he transferred ministerial responsibility over Rupert Murdoch's bid to take full control of BSkyB.
Shortly before Christmas, Cameron stripped Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary, of his powers on media takeovers after Cable was recorded telling undercover journalists that he had "declared war" on Murdoch. Cameron handed the responsibility to the Tory culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt.
Hunt is due to decide soon whether to refer the company's bid for BSkyB to the competition commission after receiving a report by the media regulator Ofcom. News Corp is making a £7.5bn bid to buy the 61% of BSkyB it does not own.
Shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis last night described Cameron's decision to meet Brooks as "extraordinary".
"People will question his judgment at a time when ministers are making a quasi-judicial decision about News Corp's bid for BSkyB," Lewis said. "The prime minister may be in breach of his own ministerial code, which requires openness and transparency. There is an arrogance about this prime minister that is slowly coming to the surface."
A Downing Street source played down the significance of the social engagement and pointed out that Brooks is one of the prime minister's constituents. The source said: "To suggest some kind of impropriety is laughable. The prime minister regularly meets newspaper executives from lots of different companies."
Cameron visited Brooks and her husband, the racehorse trainer and writer Charlie Brooks, at their Oxfordshire home over the Christmas period. Cameron is MP for Witney and his constituency home is near the couple's house.
The disclosure of the meeting comes as News International faces pressure over allegations of illegal phone hacking at the News of the World. Andy Coulson, Cameron's communications director, resigned as editor of the News of the World in 2007 shortly after the jailing of the paper's former royal editor, Clive Goodman, and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire for phone hacking. Coulson has always denied knowledge of illegal phone hacking.
Ian Edmondson, the paper's assistant editor (news), was suspended last month after the News of the World was alerted that Mulcaire would say in evidence that the executive had instructed him to hack the phone of the football agent Sky Andrew.
One senior Tory said that News International's central defence that a "rogue reporter" was responsible appeared to be crumbling. "This all appears to be closing in. It has always been obvious there were others. People just didn't know the names."
Cameron, who declined to say on the Today programme earlier this week whether Coulson had offered to resign, said that his communications director was embarrassed by the revelations. "Of course he, as anyone who is human would be, is extremely embarrassed by the endless publicity and speculation about what happened many years ago when he was editor of the News of the World. Of course he is embarrassed about that."
![[Image: Rebekah-Brooks-007.jpg]](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/1/19/1295472205651/Rebekah-Brooks-007.jpg)
Phone hacking scandal deepens - David Guyatt - 21-01-2011
Andy Coulson has resigned!
Cameron's spin doctor quits!
Bye bye.
Phone hacking scandal deepens - Magda Hassan - 21-01-2011
Beat me to it!
Jan, any thoughts of applying?
Phone hacking scandal deepens - David Guyatt - 21-01-2011
Coulson's resignation is currently putting Blair's testimony at Chilcott in the shade - even though our beloved MSM keep repeating that Coulson choose today - Blair's big day - to slip the news out quietly.
It currently looks like its the other way around though.