Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Magda Hassan]

Such a very interesting day at the Levison Inquiry. Where to start?

Jeremy Hunt, the secret News Corp emails and the 'absolutely illegal' tip-off

A devastating series of emails shown to the Leveson Inquiry lays bare the secret collusion between Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, and News Corporation as the company was trying to buy BSkyB.

By Gordon Rayner, and Rowena Mason

2:22PM BST 24 Apr 2012

The media empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his son James was given near-daily updates by email from Mr Hunt's office, while the Culture Secretary was in charge of scrutinising the takeover.

News Corp executives were even given private briefings on Mr Hunt's confidential discussions with regulators and other media organisations.

At one point, News Corp's chief lobbyist emailed James Murdoch to say he had "managed to get some info" on what Jeremy Hunt would announce to Parliament the next day "although absolutely illegal!".

The same lobbyist suggested an agreed "plan" between News Corp and the Government would lead to "game over for the opposition".

Mr Hunt was initially not involved in whether to the takeover should be approved. However, he given the quasi-legal job of deciding BSkyB's fate in December 2010 after the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, was stripped of the role for telling two undercover Daily Telegraph reporters he had "declared war on Mr Murdoch".


His job was to remain impartial as he weighed up whether letting News Corp take over BSKyB would hand too much power to the Murdoch family.
However, his close relationship with News Corp is revealed as part of Rupert Murdoch's evidence on the workings of the media industry.
The emails from the computer of Frederic Michel, an expert in managing reputation, who was News Corp's head of public affairs and key lobbyist in Westminster.
Throughout the conversations, Mr Michel refers to his intelligence from "Jeremy" or "JH", though he now says he used this as a "shorthand" term for Hunt's advisers Adam Smith and John Zeff.
Dozens of emails appear to have passed between "JH" and Mr Michel, during the months the Culture Secretary was in charge of the deal.
The existence of the emails was revealed as James Murdoch, the News Corp boss, gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry, the day before his father is due to appear.
James Murdoch defended the actions of his lobbyists, saying Mr Michel was "doing his job as a public affairs executive".
He said he was not convinced all the information from Mr Hunt's office was a correct reflection of the facts.
"I'm not sure how accurate they were anyway. All of this was taken with a grain of salt," he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/l...p-off.html

James Murdoch met Cameron 12 times

• Apr 24 2012
  

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James Murdoch met David Cameron 12 times while he was leader of the opposition, including four meetings also attended by Rebekah Brooks, the Leveson Inquiry has heard.
The media mogul briefly talked to Mr Cameron at a dinner about the removal of Business Secretary Vince Cable's powers to oversee News Corporation's bid to take over broadcaster BSkyB.
Mr Murdoch had drinks with the Tory leader in September 2009 to discuss The Sun's plans to endorse the Conservative Party at the following year's general election, the press standards inquiry was told. He also met Chancellor George Osborne and Foreign Secretary William Hague during the Tories' time in opposition.
After Mr Cameron entered Number 10 in May 2010, Mr Murdoch and his family had lunch with him at the Prime Minister's country retreat, Chequers in Buckinghamshire, in November 2010. Mrs Brooks and her husband, Charlie, hosted a dinner attended by the media mogul and Mr Cameron on December 23 2010.
This was two days after Mr Cable was stripped of his responsibilities for regulating the media after he was caught on tape by undercover reporters claiming to have "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire.
James Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry that he and Mr Cameron mentioned what had happened: "He reiterated what he had said publicly, which is that the behaviour had been unacceptable, and I imagine I expressed the hope that things would be dealt with in a way that was appropriate and judicial."
"It was a tiny conversation ahead of a dinner where all these people were there, so it wasn't really a discussion."
The inquiry heard that Mr Murdoch had lunch at Chequers with Tony Blair when he was prime minister in July 2004. He also held a conference call with Mr Blair in October 2005 during which he may have discussed European Commission proposals for regulating broadcasting rights for English Premier League football.
Mr Murdoch had two meetings at 10 Downing Street with then-prime minister Gordon Brown in March and December 2008. He said he could not remember exactly what was discussed, adding: "He would have told me lots of things about the economy and the like."
Mr Murdoch confirmed he was "friendly" with Mr Osborne. He said he had one discussion with the Chancellor about News Corp's bid to take over BSkyB. Mr Murdoch said his conversation about the proposed buy-out of the satellite broadcaster with the Chancellor "would have just been to be grumpy about it taking a long time and being referred to (regulator) Ofcom, which I was very clear in public about at the same time".

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