Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

Murdoch and Cameron will both shortly be, ahem, dissociating themselves from NOTW editor and Tory Propaganda Chief Andy Coulson.

Phone hacking: Coulson taped backing sacked News of the World executive

Former No 10 PR chief Andy Coulson caught on tape saying Ian Edmondson was 'a great operator' who was 'doing a brilliant job'

James Robinson guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 February 2011 10.44 GMT

Andy Coulson told a reporter at the News of the World he had "total and complete faith in" Ian Edmondson, the news executive sacked by the paper last month for ordering a private investigator to hack into mobile phones.

Coulson describes Edmondson as "a great operator" who is "doing a brilliant job" in a conversation with an unnamed reporter at the title, a recording of which has been obtained by Channel 4's Dispatches, to be shown tonight.

Coulson edited the News of the World for four years until January 2007. He resigned after the paper's royal editor, Clive Goodman, was jailed for illegally intercepting voicemails left on mobile phones belonging to members of the royal household. Glenn Mulcaire, an investigator on the paper's books, was also sent to prison.

The tape, made by a former journalist without Coulson's knowledge at some point during his editorship, also records Coulson telling the reporter: "I need more stories. I need more exclusives and I need it to be self-generated stuff." The two men do not discuss phone hacking, but Dispatches says other recordings exist which "might provide damning evidence".

Coulson stepped down as David Cameron's communications director last month, saying coverage of the phone-hacking affair had made it impossible to do his job. He maintains he knew nothing about phone hacking at the paper.

The News of the World last month gave emails retrieved from Edmondson's computer to the Metropolitan police, which reopened an investigation into alleged phone hacking at the title the same day.

Separately, the News of the World's chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, has been named in evidence submitted to parliament as an executive who organised "endemic" phone hacking at the paper.

Max Mosley, former president of the FIA, the motor racing governing body, told the home affairs select committee that Thurlbeck was one of several senior journalists at the title who issued "instructions to hack phones". He told MPs that Thurlbeck, who is still employed by the paper, "commissioned potentially illegal investigations" by Mulcaire.

In written evidence published on the committee's website, Mosley said the Metropolitan police had recovered documents from Mulcaire's home in the course of the 2006 investigation leading to his arrest and that they proved Thurlbeck had instructed the private investigator to hack into phones belonging to public figures.

"Even a cursory examination of these papers will have identified a number of NoW journalists who had commissioned potentially illegal investigations by Mulcaire," Mosley said.

"There appears to be endemic criminality on a significant scale within the News Group organisation."

He added: "It must have been clear to [the police] on the face of the papers seized from Mulcaire, that instructions to hack phones came from journalists other than Goodman, including the NoW news editor, Ian Edmondson, and the NoW chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck."

A growing number of well-known figures are suing the paper's owner News Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire. They include actor Sienna Miller, comedian Steve Coogan, former Sky Sports pundit Andy Gray and sports agent Sky Andrew.

Evidence of Thurlbeck's involvement in the practice has emerged previously. The Guardian published an email 18 months ago that was sent to Mulcaire by a reporter on the News of the World which contained a transcript of hacked voicemails and the message: "Hello, this is the transcript for Neville."

A spokesman for News International said: "If presented with any evidence of further wrongdoing, we will act quickly and decisively on it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb...ne-hacking

I've worked and got drunk with many tabloid journalists, including some who've worked for Murdoch's News of the World.

The recorded quote from Coulson - "I need more stories. I need more exclusives and I need it to be self-generated stuff." - rings absolutely true.

Huge pressure is put on all Fleet Street journalists to get exclusive stories. Self-generation is "code" for getting a story by hook or by crook.

Phone hacking is but one way to get the evidence necessary to run a story with legal protection. Manipulation or manufacturing of a situation to provoke a target emotionally, and then tape or record the ensuing carnage to create supposedly "objective" legal evidence, is another means.

The only thing that may provide Coulson with some leverage is that he knows some of the nasty secrets of both the Conservative government and the Murdoch empire.

As a footnote, according to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme this evening, Murdoch journalists were routinely taping conversations with each other and their bosses in both The Sun and NOTW newsrooms. :piethrow: