Milly Dowler: her phone was hacked, remember? | Hacking inquiry - Hacked off. There is no evidence from Surrey Police’s records that messages on murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s mobile voicemail were deleted or caused to be deleted by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire or News of the World reporters. “So the story published by the Guardian on July 4 is a lie”, cry tabloids and broadsheets in unison.
Well, not quite. As I have said in many a Twitter row on this issue since Saturday, if the Guardian’s story was inaccurate, then by all means, they should correct it. And apologise. Which they have done since then. The Guardian story claimed that Milly’s mother, Sally, was given false hope that Milly was still alive three days after her disappearance because her voicemail inbox was not full anymore. These deniers should be reminded that, however wrong the Guardian may have been, they have apologised and corrected it.
Milly Dowler’s family deserved Murdoch’s humble apology earlier this year. “You are a campaign”, you may say. “Prior protection”: Davies and Campbell are right. Alistair Campbell blogged yesterday about his appearance and evidence to the Leveson inquiry. He had plenty to say, but I won’t repeat it – read the transcript of his evidence, and the statement he provided. What interests me especially is what he writes in that blogpost about the regime of regulation that should replace the PCC. He says PCC replacement body should be established by Parliament but independent of all political and all current media interests. No serving political or media figures on it.The PCC code is an excellent basis for a new code of standards, but should be reviewed to take account of the technological changes, eg internet, and of recent events examined by the inquiry.It should have the responsibility, and the power, to see that the code is upheld.
I agree with all that. He says something else, though, with which I agree, if anything, even more strongly: The replacement body might be the body to pre-adjudicate on privacy/public interest cases. Hearings. Supplemental-Witness-Statement-of-Hugh-Grant.pdf (application/pdf Object) Phone hacking, and the art of asking a good question | John Cooper.
The work of the culture, media and sport select committee was once again under the spotlight when it questioned James Murdoch over the phone-hacking allegations. But while many might feel that Murdoch was in the parliamentary dock, the select committee process was also laid bare and ultimately exposed as being unfit for purpose. The rationale for establishing select committees remains laudable and many cite their introduction as one of the most important reforms in recent parliamentary history. Beginning their work as recently as 1979, the fundamental rule of a select committee was to hold the executive to account and influence government policy, compelling ministers and government departments to explain how policy was being implemented and to come before them if things went wrong.
Select committees have proven themselves able to significantly influence government policy, despite being underfunded and understaffed. They are also very busy. “Show us the baby” As this blog has previously set out, there is actually no such thing in England and Wales as a single "law of privacy". By this I mean that there is no free-standing general right of legal action to protect privacy against any and all threatened and actual intrusions. Instead, there is a bundle of civil and criminal laws relating to privacy which, when taken together, constitute the laws of privacy; just as a range of specific laws from copyright to patents constitute the laws of intellectual property. Some of these privacy laws are common law (or "judge-made"), most notably the laws of confidentiality and the misuse of private information, and such judge-made law always risks being dismissed as by "unelected judges".
Many of our privacy laws are on a statutory basis: blackmail under the Theft Act, the Data Protection Act, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and, often overlooked, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. A complaint to the Press Complaints Commission did not work: Phone hacking: News International paid Neil Wallis while he was at Scotland Yard. Exclusive: Murdoch execs told of hacking evidence in 2006 - Crime, UK.
New information obtained by The Independent challenges the timetable, as publicly stated by Rupert Murdoch's newspaper group, of when and how it first became aware of the extent of illegality at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid. Senior figures from NI have repeatedly stated to Parliament that the company had no significant evidence until 2008 that illegal voicemail interception went beyond the NOTW's jailed royal editor, Clive Goodman. The new evidence, which is likely to be central to the investigations into the Murdoch empire, reveals that police informed the company two years earlier that they had uncovered strong "circumstantial evidence" implicating other journalists.
A senior police officer held a meeting with Ms Brooks in the weeks after the arrest in August 2006 of Mr Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Tom Crone, News International's legal manager, contacted executives from the company in early autumn 2006 informing them of the Met's meeting with Ms Brooks. Harold Evans: 'Rupert Murdoch is the stiletto, a man of method, a cold-eyed manipulator' | Media. There is a clear connecting thread between the events I describe in Good Times, Bad Times and the dramas that led so many years later to Rupert Murdoch's "most humble day of my life". I was seated within a few feet of him in London on 19 July 2011, during his testimony to a select committee of MPs with his son James at his side.
Not many more than a score of observers were allowed into the small room at parliament's Portcullis House, across the road from the House of Commons and Big Ben. A portcullis is a defensive latticed iron grating hung over the entrance to a fortified castle, the perfect metaphor for News International, which perpetually sees itself as beset by enemies. It persisted with the unravelling story almost alone in the face of repeated denials, defamation and threats and the sloppy exonerations of News International by Scotland Yard and the Press Complaints Commission. Observers in the Portcullis room were divided on the efficacy of Murdoch's testimony.
Movie buff. Hacked Off Manifesto | Hacking inquiry - Hacked off. Hacked Off was founded to campaign for a public inquiry into illegal information-gathering by the press and into related matters including the conduct of the police, politicians and mobile phone companies. Only a full public inquiry, we argued, could put the truth of the hacking scandal before the public and ensure that necessary lessons were learned.
The summer revelations relating to Milly Dowler and others convinced the public and the political world of the need for such an inquiry and we did all we could to ensure that it was given powers to tackle all the issues effectively. Now the inquiry is established and the terms of reference are fixed, Hacked Off will campaign for a new independent system that: Much of this work will necessarily focus on the Leveson Inquiry. To achieve our aims, and with this in mind, we will: 1. Our website will be an essential, independent complement to the work of the inquiry and a support and complement to other responsible media coverage.
Phone hacking: secrecy sledgehammer | Editorial. Just over two months ago the Guardian published the story of Milly Dowler's phone – and how it was hacked by a private investigator working for the News of the World after the teenager's abduction and murder. It was a revelation which caused worldwide revulsion and outrage. It led to resignations, parliamentary debates, official inquiries and humble corporate apologies. A newspaper was closed and News Corp's bid to take control of BSkyB was stopped in its tracks by a unanimous vote of parliament. The former Metropolitan police chief Sir Paul Stephenson was gracious enough to praise the Guardian's role in persisting where three police inquiries had failed. The country should be grateful, he said, that this paper ignored his own attempts to warn us off. Incredibly, the Metropolitan police are now trying to find out the source of the Milly Dowler story.
£375 for Jeremy Clarkson, £655 for JK Rowling: the private eye's lucrative trade - Crime, UK. The Independent has examined files seized as part of Operation Motorman in 2003 and been told by the lead investigator on that inquiry that his team were forbidden from interviewing journalists from a wide range of media organisations who hired a private detective agency to track down personal information. More than 17,000 searches were carried out, many of them in breach of data protection laws.
In a signed witness statement given to this newspaper, the former police detective inspector who led Operation Motorman, accused the authorities of serious failings. "We weren't allowed to talk to journalists," said the investigator, who was working for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). "It was fear – they were frightened. " Whittamore was asked to obtain confidential information on the Duchess of Cambridge in April 2002, when she was known simply as Kate Middleton, a 20-year-old student at St Andrews University who had been linked with her fellow student Prince William.
Newspapers used me as fall guy, says convicted private eye | Media. A private investigator paid by journalists to illegally obtain information about celebrities and public figures has said he was a fall guy for the powerful newspaper groups he worked for. Steve Whittamore told Radio 4's PM programme that he had played "Oliver to the press's Fagin". He said it seemed unfair that newspaper executives and journalists who commissioned him had not been convicted of any wrongdoing. "It would appear unfair," he told the programme. "It would appear they should have stood and be counted but quite frankly I wasn't expecting any support from them.
"[Journalists] actually asked me to do it on their behalf. I suppose you could view it as my Oliver Twist to the press's Fagin. Something along those lines. Whittamore was found guilty of obtaining and disclosing information under the Data Protection Act in 2005 after passing information obtained from the police national database to newspapers. PM also interviewed former News of the World reporter Sean Hoare this month. Independent front page:"Exposed after eight years: a pri. Hacking: a lost detail | Hacking inquiry - Hacked off. By Brian Cathcart One of the minor oddities in all the accumulated evidence about phone hacking is a remark made at the Old Bailey on 26 January 2007, when Glenn Mulcaire was sentenced to six months in jail.
Almost casually, it seemed, Mr Justice Gross observed that the private investigator had had other collaborators at the News of the World besides the royal editor, Clive Goodman. That is not a controversial proposition now: News International admitted as much in January this year, and the ‘for Neville‘ email, public since 2009, points strongly to the same conclusion.
But the judge’s words stand to this day as the earliest formal, public suggestion that Goodman was not the only journalist on the paper to have hacked phones. It came at the end of a day-long sentencing hearing for Mulcaire and Goodman, as the judge rejected pleas that the defendants should avoid jail. And he was right. So the judge’s remarks have existed in a kind of limbo ever since. Mr Justice Gross: 16 to 20. Revealed: Senior MP's secret links to Murdoch - UK Politics, UK. John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, admitted he was an old friend of Mr Murdoch's close aide, Les Hinton, and had been for dinner with Ms Brooks. The Independent on Sunday has also learnt that Mr Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, seen as the future saviour of the company, has also met Mr Whittingdale a number of times. Among her 386 "friends" on Facebook, the only MP she lists is Mr Whittingdale.
He is also the only MP among 93 Facebook "friends" of Mr Hinton. It is also understood that the MP for Maldon was invited to Mr Hinton's wedding reception in 2009 but declined to accept in light of the committee's ongoing investigation into hacking. Mr Hinton resigned as chief executive of Mr Murdoch's Dow Jones company on Friday. It follows revelations that senior police officers, including Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, had dinner with senior executives from News International. Jonathan Owen What the papers say. Opinion: “The Code Breakers: Part 1″ – Brian Cathcart. Journalists are being tarnished by the activities of professional privacy invaders.
It is time they were renamed and shamed. There is a confusion at the heart of British debates about privacy. We tend to speak of journalists, of their role, their rights, their responsibilities and very often their lack of restraint and how it should be addressed. But this is misleading, and prevents us from seeing some of the complexities and possibilities, because the word ‘journalist’, in this context, covers two very different groups of people. One group is the actual journalists, as traditionally understood, and the other is those people whose principal professional activity is invading other people’s privacy for the purpose of publication. The difference between the two, when you pause to consider it, is profound.
Invading people’s privacy for the purpose of publication does not do good, though it may make money. If they are so different, why do we tend to lump them together? Like this: News: Phone Hacking Select Committee – more evidence from “News of the World” executives. The House of Commons Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport yesterday heard evidence from four former “News of the World” executives, Jon Chapman, Daniel Cloke, Colin Myler and Tom Crone (pictured). The Committee also published correspondence with a range of witnesses, including a number of solicitors. Perhaps the most interesting evidence concerned the question of whether James Murdoch was aware of the so-called “For Neville” email, which showed that phone hacking was not confined to one “rogue report”. The former Legal Manager Tom Crone told MPs he was “certain” James Murdoch was told about the email. Mr Crone said he told him about it during a 15-minute meeting in 2008 that former editor, Colin Myler also attended.
He said the email only emerged during the process of disclosure in the Gordon Taylor action against the “News of the World”: “Up to then there was no evidence that the News of the World was implicated. The published documents contained some important new material. Phone hacking: Parliament told 53 lies says Chris Bryant. The real hacking scandal.
Earlier today, before the Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport, four men sat and answered questions. The men were former News International lawyers Tom Crone and Jon Chapman, the former News of the World editor Colin Myler, and the former News International Director of Human Resources, Daniel Cloke. The first to be questioned were Cloke and Chapman, and then it was Crone and Myler. As one expected, this resulted in a complex exercise of providing answers and non-answers, of points made and points deliberately missed, and of convenient vagueness and suddenly useful precision. Certain things were remembered very well, and other things just not recalled at all. It seemed at times that the select committee hearing may have well taken place in a room full of mud and fog.
And the blame was passed around like a parcel at a children's party. In all of this, two points remain stark. Something went badly wrong and, worse still, we may never have even found out. Phone hacking and Leveson inquiry - live | Media. Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks to give evidence to Leveson inquiry | Media. Mediatwit: My favorite magazine promo... Opinion: “The PCC rearranges the deckchairs” – Brian Cathcart. Bad News - Four Corners. Labour seeks law change to stop News Corp renewing BSkyB bid | Media. ‘Murdoch tells Brooks to travel world until hacking scandal fades away’ Committee publishes further written evidence on phone-hacking. A News of the World journalist writes: — Tom Watson MP. Did Brooks mislead parliament over payments to Coulson?
News of the World's Pursuit of Missing Girl Led to Its Own Demise. Mulcaire, Investigator Jailed for Hacking Model’s Phone, Sues News Corp. Letter to David Cameron – Leveson Inquiry — Tom Watson MP. Letter Counters Hacking Avowals From News Corp. Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent. Phone hacking: News of the World reporter's letter reveals cover-up | Media. BBC iPlayer - File on 4: Revolving Doors. The Free Speech Blog: Official blog of Index on Censorship » Some ideas for the Daily Mail’s review of editorial procedures.
Frank Rich: How Rupert Murdoch Hacked America Too. Sometimes We Post Pictures of Cats, and Sometimes We Speak Truth to Power. FOI request to the Cabinet Office – the ongoing saga — Tom Watson MP. Letter Clearing The News of the World Comes Under Scrutiny. Lawyers 'furious' over criticism in hacking scandal - Home News, UK. News of the World targeted phone of Sarah Payne's mother | Media. Video - Jon Stewart has buyer's remorse for Revolutionary War - Oklahoma City TV. Tom Watson: The Man Who Humbled Murdoch. George Osborne’s meetings with the media. A Day in the life of Chancellor Osbore….. News: Phone Hacking – new investigations by the Home Affairs Select Committee. News: The trade in personal data – a new study of police disclosure of personal information. Murdoch-detector browser add-ons warn you when you're reading Murdoch-tainted news.
#WithoutPrejudice Special podcast: David Allen Green on The Myler/Crone conflict with Murdoch evidence et al. This Week in Review: Murdoch’s defense, objectivity in nonprofit news, and a new paid news project. David Allen Green on Sky News News Corp faces global investigation into bribery | Media. Sean Hoare knew how destructive the News of the World could be | Media. Special Report: Inside Rebekah Brooks' News of the World. David Cameron's meetings with the media. Phone hacking: let's break up this information cartel | Heather Brooke. Hugh Laurie as Rupert Murdoch, Stephen Fry as Clarence the Angel. The Longest Day - Rupert Newspaper phone-hacking scandal goes beyond voicemail - tech - 12 July 2011. Jon Stewart Tackles the News of the World Scandal.
News Corp withdraws its undertakings: but why? Dennis Skinner Murdoch picks up the phone to Rebekah #Hackedoff. The importance of s 79 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 to Murdoch et al. PHEW WOT A SCORCHER!!! NOTW CLOSES!!! GEDDIT?!!! Time to respect Murdoch’s need for privacy in Coulson’s hour of need ? Closing the News of the World makes no legal difference. Tabloids and the abuse of power. David Cameron is in the sewer because of his News International friends. Can it be that Rupert Murdoch really is above the law now? | Henry Porter | Comment is free | The Observer. The Free Speech Blog: Official blog of Index on Censorship » Hacking: Where are we now?
A defence of phone hacking, from ex-NotW journalist | Martin Moore.