Cameron won’t order inquiry into NOTW tel hacking

[Jovial Monk]

Guess he has to pay Murdoch’s bill for getting him the PMship:

PM rejects calls for phone-hacking inquiry

Calls for a public inquiry into phone hacking by the News of the World were brushed off by Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday.

Mr Cameron, who hired the newspaper's ex-editor Andy Coulson as his communications chief after he resigned over the scandal, said he hoped the police inquiry would settle any issues and urged detectives to "follow the evidence wherever it goes".

Scotland Yard is carrying out a second investigation into the eavesdropping of mobile phones amid criticism its first inquiry five years ago was not robust. Three arrests have been made in the past fortnight, but questions remain about whether the country's biggest force was less active in 2006 because of its closeness to the NOTW.

The Prime Minister said further prosecutions were clearly "an option". "I'm not sure anyone fully knew how widespread it was," he told Sky News. "Let me be clear: phone hacking is wrong, phone hacking is illegal and the police and prosecuting authorities should follow the evidence wherever it goes without fear or favour."

Asked if there should be a public inquiry, he replied: "There is always a difficulty of holding inquiries when you have active police investigations... The law is perfectly clear, the law doesn't need I think to be changed."

News International is facing a second criminal inquiry by Scotland Yard. Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said one was possible following NI's chief executive Rebekah Brooks' remarks to MPs in 2003 that: "We have paid the police for information in the past."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 69243.html

More on Murdoch

[Jovial Monk]

Six journalists who worked for the Mail on Sunday and its sister title the Daily Mail are set to be shown evidence by Scotland Yard which suggests their voicemail messages were intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the News of the World.

The fact that journalists from rival titles, several of whom are still employed by the Mail titles' owner Associated Newspapers, are being warned by the Met they were being targeted by Mulcaire signals that Operation Weeting, the Met's phone hacking investigation which began in January, is about to enter a dramatic phase.

It follows news that Dennis Rice, a Fleet Street veteran who works for the Mail on Sunday as a freelance, is suing the News of the World's owner News Group for alleged breach of privacy, joining public figures who have already launched civil actions action against the title at the high court.

The four remaining Mail on Sunday journalists, along with a Daily Mail reporter, are expected to be contacted by the Met at some point.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ma ... ournalists

Phone hacking scandal still has a long way to run!

[Jovial Monk]

The phone scandal has suddenly grown and sprouted wings.

Rupe can probably kiss the takeover of BSkyB goodbye, even Cameron can’t give it to him now.

What a scumbag!

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/07/06/now ... -children/

Matthew Norman writes a fiesty op-ed in The Independent about the need to stop Murdoch’s power now and not allow the BSkyB deal to go ahead:

“This is an amorality tale of systemic corruption as insidious, deep-rooted, all-embracing, diseased and destructive as any known to a modern Western democracy. To understand how it came to this — how prime ministers and our premier police force became the enablers of News Corporation’s abundant wickedness — you must go back several decades. When Margaret Thatcher made her Faustian pact with Mr Murdoch in the 1980s, granting him his every heart’s desire in return for his unwavering slavish support, she hastened the creation of the monster we see revealed in all its gruesome hideosity today.”

“gruesome hideosity” doesn’t that describe Murdoch well!

Bit more here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2298439/pagenum/2

National shit sheet:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/wo ... 6088651023

Hmmm just looked at Guardian, it has gotten worse:

Families of 7/7 'were phone-hacking targets'

New revelation deepens crisis at NoW after it emerges that officers will review child murder cases

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

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... ng-inquiry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... ctims-list

Scotland Yard are holding the results of an analysis of phone records which, we now know, revealed "a vast number" of people who had had their voicemail accessed; and also a spreadsheet which summarises the contents of the mass of paperwork, audio tapes and computer records which police seized from Mulcaire and which, the Guardian discovered, included 4,332 names or partial names; 2,987 mobile phone numbers; 30 audio tapes of varying length; and 91 PIN codes of a kind which are needed to access voicemail with the minority of targets who change the factory settings on their mobile phones.

[Jovial Monk]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... ed-one-way

[Jovial Monk]

Murdoch hits the panic button - Mr Murdoch has shut the newspaper to try to stop the fallout from spreading to the rest of his US-based media operation. The final edition will be published today.

The dramatic developments came amid reports that a News International executive may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the scandal.

As the phone-hacking story dominated the front pages across the world, The Guardian newspaper suggested that Mr Murdoch's son James could face charges in Britain and the US under laws that prosecute directors of companies for bad corporate behaviour

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/murdoch-hit ... z1Re2uCWRJ

[Jovial Monk]

Let it be so:

James Murdoch Could Face Criminal Charges In Phone Hacking Scandal

As if things couldn't get any worse for the Murdoch empire, new reports are emerging that James Murdoch--the head of News Corp's international holdings, and, until recently, the seeming heir apparent to father Rupert Murdoch--could face criminal charges in both the U.S. and the U.K.

Murdoch has admitted that he authorized out-of-court settlements to victims of phone hacking during his time as head of News International, the British division of News Corp--and that the company misled Parliament repeatedly. Murdoch said that he did these things without "full possession of the facts."

The Guardian reports that this admission--and reported payments to British police officers--may render Murdoch criminally liable under both British and American legislation:

The payments could leave News Corp - and possibly James Murdoch himself - facing the possibility of prosecution in the US under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) - legislation designed to stamp out bad corporate behaviour that carries severe penalties for anyone found guilty of breaching it - and in the UK under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which outlaws the interception of communications.
Section 79 of the so-called RIPA act covers "the criminal liability of directors." Speaking to the BBC, Alan Johnson, the former British Home Secretary who was responsible for the UK's criminal justice system, said he thinks Murdoch could be prosecuted under the act.

Since News Corp. is technically an American company, Murdoch could also be prosecuted under the FCPA, since the legislation, in the Justice Department's words, "was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business."

FCPA expert Mike Koehler told the Guardian he would be "very surprised" if U.S. authorities did not get involved.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/0 ... 93800.html

[The Artist formerly known as Sappho]

Sorry, didn't realise that there was a thread on this scandal already. I'll merge my posts into this thread and let Aussie delete the thread I created.

NEWS Corporation head Rupert Murdoch was expected in London late last night as staff at the News of the World were preparing the 168-year-old newspaper's final edition.

His arrival came as Rebekah Brooks, the newspaper's former editor, warned "more" revelations were to come in the phone-hacking scandal that has gripped Britain for a week.

Ms Brooks - the chief executive of News International, whose parent company is News Corporation, which also owns News Ltd, publisher of the Sunday Herald Sun - said in an emotional speech to staff later leaked to Sky News that she had been removed as head of the internal investigation into the actions of the News of the World, which used private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to hack into the voicemail messages of thousands of people, including murder victims, celebrities and royals.

The arrival of Mr Murdoch to take charge comes as attention has turned to the executive level of News International amid allegations a senior figure deleted up to five years of emails between newspaper staff and their bosses.

It is understood the police have identified the executive responsible for the alleged deletion and have tried to retrieve the lost data. The unnamed executive is facing possible charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The latest allegations followed another dramatic day that included:

THE arrest and eight-hour questioning of former NOTW editor Andy Coulson.

THE re-arrest of former NOTW royal correspondent Clive Goodman, who was jailed for four months in 2007 for intercepting royal voicemail messages, over alleged payments to police.

THE offices of Goodman's employer, the Daily Star, were searched by police.

A THIRD man, aged 63, was also arrested in connection with corruption allegations.

A SUSTAINED attack on British PM David Cameron at a press conference regarding his decision to hire Coulson, in 2007, as his press spokesman.

ALLEGATIONS Mr Cameron's office was made aware of Coulson's and the NOTW's links to the private investigator at the centre of the scandal, Jonathan Rees. It was alleged the office was told before the 2010 election about unpublished details around allegations of Coulson's involvement in ille- gal information gathering. THE announcement of two inquiries into the scandal: a judge-led one into phone-hacking allegations to start once the police investigation is over and another looking at newspaper ethics.

MR CAMERON'S belief James Murdoch, News Corporation deputy chief operating officer and chairman and CEO, international, had questions to answer.

IN HIS press conference, Mr Cameron said Ms Brooks should no longer be in her job.

RUPERT Murdoch's bid to take control of BSkyB was dented given political clearance is now unlikely. The company's share price also dropped 5 per cent.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/rupert ... 6091427701

Media scandals don't come much bigger than this.

[Jovial Monk]

When Rebekah Brooke gets fired by Murdoch you will know James is next to be investigated by the cops, either in UK or US.

[The Artist formerly known as Sappho]

I was asked by a friend what I would have done had I been a reporter and approached to listen in on private messages etc. and then report on them. I said, I would act like an investigative reporter and agree to do it, but also would report what was going on to a high level police command who would most likely want me to continue undercover. Then as the story came out and people were arrested I would apply for my reward money for each and every arrest. I'd then sell my serialized feature articles for top dollar to various media outlets and go freelance. I do not think there would be a media outlet in existance that would hire me after having played a role in the down fall of News of the World. But they would buy my feature stories.

The last News of the World is free online today. Worth a look for the sake of history if nothing else. It has a long history. It is also ad free, using the space for charity instead.

[The Artist formerly known as Sappho]

I have important things to say about the News of the World and the steps we are taking to address the very serious problems that have occurred.

It is only right that you as colleagues at News International are first to hear what I have to say and that you hear it directly from me.

You do not need to be told that the News of the World is 168 years old. That it is read by more people than any other English language newspaper. That it has enjoyed support from Britain's largest advertisers. And that it has a proud history of fighting crime, exposing wrong-doing and regularly setting the news agenda for the nation.

When I tell people why I am proud to be part of News Corporation, I say that our commitment to journalism and a free press is one of the things that sets us apart. Your work is a credit to this.

The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our Company.

The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.

In 2006, the police focused their investigations on two men. Both went to jail. But the News of the World and News International failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose. Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.

As a result, the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter. We now have voluntarily given evidence to the police that I believe will prove that this was untrue and those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences.

This was not the only fault.

The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong.

The Company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret.

Currently, there are two major and ongoing police investigations. We are cooperating fully and actively with both. You know that it was News International who voluntarily brought evidence that led to opening Operation Weeting and Operation Elveden. This full cooperation will continue until the Police's work is done.

We have also admitted liability in civil cases. Already, we have settled a number of prominent cases and set up a Compensation Scheme, with cases to be adjudicated by former High Court judge Sir Charles Gray. Apologising and making amends is the right thing to do.

Inside the Company, we set up a Management and Standards Committee that is working on these issues and that has hired Olswang to examine past failings and recommend systems and practices that over time should become standards for the industry. We have committed to publishing Olswang's terms of reference and eventual recommendations in a way that is open and transparent.

We have welcomed broad public inquiries into press standards and police practices and will cooperate with them fully.

So, just as I acknowledge we have made mistakes, I hope you and everyone inside and outside the Company will acknowledge that we are doing our utmost to fix them, atone for them, and make sure they never happen again.

Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper.

This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World.

Colin Myler will edit the final edition of the paper.

In addition, I have decided that all of the News of the World's revenue this weekend will go to good causes.

While we may never be able to make up for distress that has been caused, the right thing to do is for every penny of the circulation revenue we receive this weekend to go to organisations - many of whom are long-term friends and partners - that improve life in Britain and are devoted to treating others with dignity.

We will run no commercial advertisements this weekend. Any advertising space in this last edition will be donated to causes and charities that wish to expose their good works to our millions of readers.

These are strong measures. They are made humbly and out of respect. I am convinced they are the right thing to do.

Many of you, if not the vast majority of you, are either new to the Company or have had no connection to the News of the World during the years when egregious behaviour occurred.

I can understand how unfair these decisions may feel. Particularly, for colleagues who will leave the Company. Of course, we will communicate next steps in detail and begin appropriate consultations.

You may see these changes as a price loyal staff at the News of the World are paying for the transgressions of others. So please hear me when I say that your good work is a credit to journalism. I do not want the legitimacy of what you do to be compromised by acts of others. I want all journalism at News International to be beyond reproach. I insist that this organisation lives up to the standard of behaviour we expect of others. And, finally, I want you all to know that it is critical that the integrity of every journalist who has played fairly is restored.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/notw/pu ... World.html