Phone hacking: News of the World reporter's letter reveals cover-up. Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and their former editor Andy Coulson all face embarrassing new allegations of dishonesty and cover-up after the publication of an explosive letter written by the News of the World's disgraced royal correspondent, Clive Goodman.
In the letter, which was written four years ago but published only on Tuesday, Goodman claims that phone hacking was "widely discussed" at editorial meetings at the paper until Coulson himself banned further references to it; that Coulson offered to let him keep his job if he agreed not to implicate the paper in hacking when he came to court; and that his own hacking was carried out with "the full knowledge and support" of other senior journalists, whom he named. The claims are acutely troubling for the prime minister, David Cameron, who hired Coulson as his media adviser on the basis that he knew nothing about phone hacking. Goodman's letter is dated 2 March 2007, soon after he was released from a four-month prison sentence.
Phone hacking and Leveson inquiry - live. Good morning.
It's another big day in the phone-hacking scandal. At 10.30am four former executives from News of the World face a fresh round of questioning by the parliamentary select committee that quizzed Rupert Murdoch and his son James in July. The former editor, Colin Myler, and the paper's former head of legal affairs, Tom Crone, have been called in after they accused James Murdoch of "misleading" the committee about what he knew about the phone-hacking at the defunct tabloid.
Also set to testify is News International's head of legal affairs, Jon Chapman, and the former head of resources at the company, Daniel Cloke, who now works at Vodafone. Also today is the first preliminary hearing of the Leveson inquiry – Josh Halliday will be reporting from the Royal Courts of Justice. Amelia Hill is down at the Portcullis House. 10.09am: Media lawyer Mark Stephens is one of the first to arrive at the Leveson Inquiry, reports Josh Halliday from the Royal Courts of Justice. 10.44am:
Phone hacking – Rebekah Brooks resigns: live coverage. 8.42am: Good morning and welcome to another day of live coverage of the phone-hacking scandal.
Here's a quick summary of recent developments: Rupert Murdoch has used an interview with one of his papers — the Wall Street Journal — to defend News Corporation's management of the crisis as he gears up to appear before a commons media select committee next Tuesday. These are the salient points from the interview: • The company has handled the crisis "extremely well" and made only "minor mistakes"• His son James reacted "as fast as he could, the moment he could"• Some of the things said in parliament are "total lies"• Gordon Brown "got it entirely wrong" when he accused NI of illegally obtaining information about him and his family• Report that he is mulling over a sell-off of his newspaper assets are "pure and total rubbish"• The avalanche of adverse publicity is annoying him, but: "I'll get over it" 9.01am: Nature is not alone in abhorring a (relative) vacuum.
Pereira says: