Phone-Hacking Scandal (merged)

I just knew this was going to involve Princess Di sooner or later...

You were so right, Bonny.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/07/21/lucian-freud-obit.html

I reckon this will also get a mention by the Bennetts somehow......

An excellent piece by one of Anna's co-bloggers putting the whole business in perspective:

http://www.annaraccoon.com/reflections/the-writing-is-on-the-mall/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AnnaRaccoon+%28Anna+Raccoon%29

Hacking the phone of politicos and celebs is naughty but causes me no loss of sleep. It may be a criminal offence, but frankly I would rather our police were out on the streets catching burglars. I take on board the logical inconsistency, but hacking the e-mails of a murdered teenager or a fallen soldier is a serious matter, and requires a rigorous police investigation to establish two issues: who did it, and who authorised it, and to bring a prosecution. It does not require circuses, roving inquiries and MP’s grandstanding and exacting political revenge.

Precisely.

BBC UK News:

22 July 2011 Last updated at 09:39 GMT

Labour MP Tom Watson to ask police to investigate James Murdoch

Labour MP Tom Watson says he will ask the police to investigate evidence given by News International chairman James Murdoch after it was called into question by two former executives.

Mr Murdoch told the culture committee he had not been "aware" of an email suggesting the practice went wider than a "rogue" News of the World reporter.

But ex-NoW editor Colin Myler and legal manager Tom Crone said they told him.

Mr Murdoch later said he "stands by his testimony" to the committee on Tuesday.

Mr Watson said he was going to formally bring it to the attention of Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, who is leading Operating Weeting, the investigation into phone hacking.

He told the BBC: "This is the most significant moment of two years of investigation into phone hacking."

At the committee hearing on Tuesday, Labour's Tom Watson asked Mr Murdoch: "When you signed off the Taylor payment, did you see or were you made aware of the full email suggesting hacking was more widespread than had been admitted."

Mr Murdoch replied: "No, I was not aware of that at the time".

He went on: "There was every reason to settle the case, given the likelihood of losing the case and given the damages - we had received counsel - that would be levied."

In their statement issued on Thursday Mr Myler and Crone said: "Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday's CMS select committee hearing, we would like to point out that James Murdoch's recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken.

"In fact, we did inform him of the 'for Neville' email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor's lawyers."

In a statement issued by News Corporation, Mr Murdoch said: "I stand by my testimony to the select committee."

Meanwhile, the BBC has learned the FBI plans to contact actor Jude Law following claims his mobile phone was hacked during a visit to the US.

It is alleged a story published by the News of the World in 2003 was based on information obtained from his voicemail which, if proved, could lead to charges in the US because his phone would have been operating on a US network. News International denies the claims.

Sky News

MP To Refer James Murdoch Evidence To Police

Evidence James Murdoch gave on the phone-hacking scandal to a Commons committee is to be referred to the police, a Labour MP has said.


James Murdoch stands by the evidence he gave to MPs

Tom Watson said he would be contacting Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers - who is leading the investigation - regarding the evidence Mr Murdoch gave to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Tuesday.

Prime Minister David Cameron has added his voice to the criticism of Mr Murdoch, saying he "clearly" had questions to answer in Parliament.

"Clearly News International has got some big issues to deal with and a mess to clear up," he added.

"And clearly News International has got some big issues to deal with and a mess to clear up."

Mr Murdoch told MPs that he was "not aware" of an email suggesting the practice was not limited to one reporter.


Colin Myler poses with the News Of The World's final edition

But the News Of The World's (NOTW) former editor and chief lawyer said they had informed the chairman of News International - which published the now-defunct tabloid - about the email.

Colin Myler, who edited the paper until it was closed, and legal manager Tom Crone, have released a statement saying Mr Murdoch was "mistaken".

However, the son of Rupert Murdoch has said he stands by his evidence.

The accusations stem from a settlement paid to Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor in 2008, reportedly to the sum of £700,000, after he brought a damages claim against the NOTW.

At the committee hearing, MP Tom Watson asked James Murdoch: "When you signed off the Taylor payment, did you see or were you made aware of the full Neville email, the transcript of the hacked voicemail messages?"

He replied: "No, I was not aware of that at the time."

In their statement, Mr Myler and Mr Crone said: "Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday's CMS Select Committee hearing, we would like to point out that James Murdoch's recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken.

"In fact, we did inform him of the 'for Neville' email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor's lawyers."

John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP and chairman of the committee, told Sky News Mr Murdoch would be asked to clarify his evidence over the discrepancy.

Mr Whittingdale said Mr Murdoch had already agreed to write to the committee on issues he had been unable to address at the hearing.

However, the committee will not be recalled on the matter, Mr Whittingdale said.


Chris Bryant has called for Rupert and James Murdoch to be suspended

In a further development, MP Chris Bryant, who has been at the forefront of calls for an investigation, has written to News Corporation's non-executive directors to request the suspension of Rupert and James Murdoch.

In an email, he said: "Rupert Murdoch refused to accept any responsibility for what went on at the News of the World and relied in his defence on the fact that the paper represented just one per cent of the company's business.

"However, this in no way excuses the complete failure to tackle the original criminality at the company and the lackadaisical approach to such matters would suggest that there is no proper corporate governance within the company."

Referring to James' evidence, he said his answer either represented "really bad legal advice" or was "a plain lie".


Jude Law claims his phone was hacked at JFK airport

Further phone hacking developments:

:: Australia's competition watchdog has delivered a fresh blow to Rupert Murdoch's media empire, expressing concern at a bid by his cable television operation to buy out a rival.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the cable deal would create a "near monopoly".

:: Sky sources have revealed that a former NOTW executive - understood to be Matt Nixson, former features editor of The Sun - has been sacked by The Sun after serious allegations of wrongdoing relating to his time at the Sunday title.

:: The FBI are also reportedly planning to contact actor Jude Law after he claimed his mobile phone was hacked into while he was at JFK airport.

The allegations reportedly stem from a story published in the News Of The World in 2003, which was apparently based on information that could only have been obtained from Law's voicemail.

The claims could mean News Corp face charges in the US, because Law would have been using an American mobile network.


Well, not so difficult to predict an arrest coming up for James Murdoch.....but what about Rupert...??

bb1 wrote:I've noticed something interesting about the pitchforkers in the course of this, Tony - they seem afflicted by a strange kind of word-blindness.

They never seem to see words such as

alleged
may
sources claim
could be
possibly
it is said

One of them reading the above will interpret that as a statement of fact; the concept of evidence and proof is totally alien to them.
As is context.

There was a lot of this about in the early days of The Mirror Forum. It even took me a minute or ten to suss it out because a lot of it was barely bordering on the Alleged, or even Sources. You really had to read it slowly and carefully to know that it was not reliable.

And besides that, who would have believed that the Newspapers could be so perfidious. Or The PJ for that matter. People in my world just didn't behave like that. And so I actually believed some of it. And had a few things to say that I am now mortally ashamed of.

After that it all became Forum Truths for those who truly wish to spread hate and spite. Although most of them no longer actually think that The McCanns were involved. This is the real sickness. They spread this shite because they think it is fun.

They spread this shite because they think it is fun.

I think that for some of them it's the 'herd factor', follow the leader is the norm. And possibly fear - or stalking, ridicule, becoming the butt of obscene comments, so they toe the line and keep their heads down. I am sure that if just a few stood up and made a statement that they were not going to continue as they have been more would follow. But it's getting those first few to be brave. LL

Lamplighter wrote:

They spread this shite because they think it is fun.

I think that for some of them it's the 'herd factor', follow the leader is the norm. And possibly fear - or stalking, ridicule, becoming the butt of obscene comments, so they toe the line and keep their heads down. I am sure that if just a few stood up and made a statement that they were not going to continue as they have been more would follow. But it's getting those first few to be brave. LL

If only I believed that, LL.

Yes I do think that some of them follow the leaders, but they have to have diseased brains to have the propensity to believe this shit in the first place, let alone write about it.
I don't ever even think like this out of the top of my head.
The best I can do is shock and horror if I find that there is some truth in what has been said. Which there mostly isn't.

They are just bloody awful. Wallowing in a welter of sick horror, and thoroughly enjoying it. You can almost smell the decomposition of their brains. They are walking corpses.

I HAVE to believe it, sabot, I just can't write people off without at least having some hope they will come to their senses. I think maybe they can't come to terms with living life in a sensible manner; they are thwarted by something or other; I believe in hope, you see, if one cannot hope then I see no reason in continuing on. I know many of them are past saving, but I still hope that just a few can be recalled back to being human. Call me foolish but I will go on seeing something there that can be redeemed, however small that hope may be. LL

I whole heartily agree the hacking fiasco is wrong. It isn't up to the news media to do the deed and; if the reporters are incapable of getting a story through correct means, then they are not worth the money they take from their employers. However, I do not believe Murdoch's conglomerates are the only ones doing it. I believe they are the only ones who have been caught, thus far.

Nick Davies in his book published in 2008 blew the lid off all the devious ways in which the media/newspapers etc get their 'scoops'. No-one seems to have taken much notice of what he wrote, until now, that is. LL

It's spreading ....

More British papers dragged into hacking row
AFP By Danny Kemp 2 hours 54 minutes ago

Phone-hacking allegations spread beyond the felled News of the World to other tabloids on Saturday as media heir James Murdoch faced pressure over the extent of his knowledge of the scandal.

Former journalists at the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror -- the main tabloid competitors to Rupert Murdoch's British stable -- reportedly said the illegal hacking of voicemails was widespread at their papers too.

The scandal has also rocked the British police and even given Prime Minister David Cameron a rough ride, but has so far largely been limited to the News of the World, which Murdoch shut on July 7 amid public outrage.

James Hipwell, a former Daily Mirror financial journalist jailed in 2005 for buying shares before tipping them in the paper, said he heard hacking was being used because he worked next to the showbusiness desk where it was rife.

"You know what people around you are doing," the 45-year-old told The Independent newspaper. "They would call a celebrity with one phone and when it was answered they would then hang up. By that stage the other phone would be into their (the celebrity's) voicemail and they would key in the code. There was a great hilarity about it."

Hipwell worked at the Mirror for two years until 2000 when it was under the editorship of Piers Morgan, himself a former News of the World editor. Hipwell was sacked by the Mirror over the so-called "City Slickers" scandal.

Morgan, who is now a presenter for US television news network CNN, has denied having any knowledge that phone-hacking went on at the paper and came out fighting on Saturday.

He made a fresh demand for an apology from Louise Mensch, a British lawmaker on a parliamentary committee which quizzed Rupert and James Murdoch on Tuesday, who claimed during the hearing that Morgan had admitted to phone-hacking.

"Now then Louise Mensch -- will you be making (a) public apology for your lies in parliament about me, or do I have to write to (committee chairman) John Whittingdale?" Morgan said on Twitter.

Separately the BBC quoted an unidentified former Sunday Mirror journalist who worked on the paper in the past decade and claimed to have witnessed routine phone hacking in the newsroom.

Trinity Mirror, the group which publishes both papers, said its journalists work within the law and the code of conduct of Britain's self-regulatory Press Complaints Commission. It said Hipwell's allegations were "totally unsubstantiated."

On Thursday it emerged that police have requested files from a British data protection regulator which published a report showing the non-Murdoch Daily Mail, the Mirror and the Trinity Mirror-published People were the biggest users of private investigators to seek confidential information.

Back at the Murdoch empire, another lawmaker on the committee on Friday referred James Murdoch's testimony to the police, while Cameron said he had "questions to answer" after doubts were raised over his evidence.

James Murdoch, who is chairman of News International, his father's British newspaper wing, had said that when authorising a payout to a hacking victim he was unaware of an email suggesting knowledge of hacking at the tabloid went wider than one rogue reporter.

But Colin Myler, the last editor of the News of the World, and Tom Crone, the former News International legal manager, broke ranks on Thursday to say James Murdoch's recollection of events in 2008 was "mistaken".

The 38-year-old Murdoch has said he stands by his evidence.

The scandal has already caused the resignations of News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and Dow Jones chief Les Hinton.

Meanwhile police are to investigate claims of phone hacking in Scotland, which has its own legal system, and whether witnesses lied during a perjury trial last year.

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson -- who went on to become Cameron's media chief before resigning and being arrested this year -- was among those who gave evidence.

Also the Daily Telegraph newspaper said Saturday that British finance minister George Osborne dined with Rupert Murdoch in New York in December, two weeks before Britain's media regulator was originally due to decide on whether to approve Murdoch's bid for full control of pay-TV giant BSkyB.

Murdoch's US-based News Corp. was forced to abandon a bid for full control of the lucrative pay-TV satellite broadcaster earlier this month because of the scandal.

The Treasury refused to discuss who attended, but insisted that BSkyB was not discussed.