metgate
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.
Milly Dowler: her phone was hacked, remember? | Hacking inquiry - Hacked off
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
“Prior protection”: Davies and Campbell are right
Skip to content Search site Hearings On Tuesday 24 July 2012, the gathering of formal evidence by the examination of witnesses was concluded. Further evidence was taken as read after this date and published on the website accordingly. Search for transcripts and video footage of the sessions by clicking on ‘morning hearing’ or ‘afternoon hearing’ below.
Hearings
James Murdoch appears before the culture, media and sport select committee this month. Photograph: Reuters 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.
Phone hacking, and the art of asking a good question | John Cooper | Comment is free
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".
“Show us the baby”
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.
Exclusive: Murdoch execs told of hacking evidence in 2006 - Crime, UK
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.
Harold Evans: 'Rupert Murdoch is the stiletto, a man of method, a cold-eyed manipulator' | Media
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:
Hacked Off Manifesto | Hacking inquiry - Hacked off
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.
Phone hacking: secrecy sledgehammer | Editorial | Comment is free
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).
£375 for Jeremy Clarkson, £655 for JK Rowling: the private eye's lucrative trade - Crime, UK