Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

News of the World axed by News International

Sunday edition of Murdoch's tabloid to be last in the aftermath of political and commercial fallout from phone-hacking scandal

News International announced on Thursday that it is closing the News of the World after this Sunday's edition, with no end in sight to the political and commercial fallout from the phone-hacking scandal after 72 hours of mounting crisis.

Sunday's edition of the paper will be the last, News International chairman James Murdoch told News of the World staff on Thursday afternoon.

Murdoch told employees at the 168-year-old title: "The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed to when it came to itself".

Murdoch said in a statement: "Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued."

Murdoch also conceded the company had "made statements to parliament without being in full possession of the facts. This was wrong".

He said "the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter" and that the company had passed information to the police which would demonstrate this.

"Those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences," he said.

Murdoch also said in his statement to staff that he had authorised out-of-court payments to victims of hacking: "I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so."

He added: "That was wrong and is a matter of serious regret."

It is the first national newspaper to close since Rupert Murdoch shut News International mid-market tabloid Today in 1995.

The News of the World was Rupert Murdoch's first UK newspaper acquisition in 1968 and its profits helped him build his publishing and broadcasting empire in this country and the US.

The title remains the UK's biggest-selling paper, with a circulation of 2.66m in May this year. In 1962, when the Audit Bureau of Circulations began publishing regular newspaper sales figures, the News of the World was selling 6.66m.

A spokesman for the company would not comment on whether News International will continue to publish a tabloid title on a Sunday.

The News of the World has been NI's most profitable title for many years.

There are already industry rumours that the News of the World's stablemate the Sun could be turned into a seven-day operation. News International has already announced plans to move to seven-day working across its four titles the Sun, News of the World, the Times and Sunday Times and the internet domain name thesunonsunday.co.uk was registered two days ago, although the purchaser's identity is unclear.

Murdoch told staff some of them would be leaving the company and said that was a matter of regret. He paid tribute to their "good work".

Source.

We have three parties who have been exposed as involved in criminal or grossly negligent behaviour:

i) the Murdoch empire and its immoral and criminal journalism;

ii) police officers who have conducted a complete non-investigation of criminal behaviour, and police officers who, according to a paper trail including News International documentation, are likely to face criminal prosecution for corruption;

iii) PM Cameron who hired Andy Coulson, after he had resigned from the NOTW over royal hacking, as the Tory Head of Propaganda, their version of Alistair "I'm telling the troof, honest" Campbell.

Now, Murdoch minor thinks he can manage the news agenda by closing down the NOTW, firing ordinary journalists and keeping senior managers who were in charge during the criminality (eg Rebekah Wade/Brooks) employed.

The closure of the NOTW shows the complete contempt of the Murdoch empire for the rest of the world. It will simply be replaced by a Sunday edition of The Sun (or some such variant), and it will be Murdoch business as usual.

The investigation of the criminal behaviour of the Murdoch empire, corrupt police officers and PM Cameron's relationship with Andy Coulson needs to continue robustly and rapidly.