Thread: Phone Hacking scandal snowballs

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp could face $100m bill for US investigation into 'police payments'
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire could face a bill of more than $100m (£62m) if US authorities launch an investigation into corruption following allegations that the News of the World routinely made payments to police officers totalling more than £100,000.



Rupert Murdoch's News Corp could be caught up in red tape for up to four years
By Katherine Rushton
If convicted the company would face a fine many times that size, lawyers have warned.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) have been increasingly aggressive in bringing cases against corporations under America's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). They have so far imposed penalties as high as $800m on companies – such as Siemens – where there has been evidence of persistent and unaccounted for bribery.
FCPA experts told The Telegraph it would be "very surprising" if the DOJ didn't take action against News Corp, and would be likely to do so this week. Any FCPA probe against News Corp would damage its reputation and could further destabilisie James Murdoch's position as Rupert Murdoch's heir apparent.
Experts said it would be likely to involve a "systematic and all encompassing" investigation of every one of its business units worldwide, to uncover unlawful bribery, legitimate payments wrongly accounted for, and to check whether sufficiently robust anti-corruption measures are in place.
News Corp would have to bear the cost of the probe, which sources said would "easily cost north of $100m" and tie the organisation up in red tape for between two and four years.

In 2008, the DOJ ordered Avon Products to carry out a worldwide investigation after there was evidence of bribery in China. The probe, which is still ongoing, has so far cost the cosmetics giant $154m, according to filings.
Mike Koehler, an FCPA expert and law professor at Butler University, said: "Enquiries often start with a limited set of facts but very quickly morph into an examination of the entire business. They tend to be very cumbersome and because they are newsworthy they cause a lot of reputational damage."
Thomas Fox, a lawyer and FCPA expert based in Houston, added: "It may be difficult to understand how expensive and all-encompassing FCPA is. If you don't have anti-corruption policies in place that's the first strike against you and it's downhill from there."
According to Mr Fox, US authorities have stepped up the number of convictions from five in 2004 to 74 last year, and convicted companies have been fined between $77m and $800m depending on the number of breaches. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp could face $100m bill for US investigation into 'police payments' - Telegraph

The Rupert and Rebekah show: 'She's my priority' says mogul as Brooks faces police quiz
James Murdoch could be interviewed by U.S. authorities
Miliband launches fresh attack on beleaguered BSkyB bid
Lib Dem Chris Huhne: Cameron took 'serious risks' hiring Coulson
Prime minister to meet Milly Dowler's family later this week
Journalism legend Carl Bernstein says scandal is 'Murdoch's Watergate'
NI 'did not hand over emails uncovered in internal inquiry' until June 20
Dow Jones chief executive could be made 'fall guy' for phone hacking
By STEPHEN WRIGHT
Last updated at 12:15 AM on 11th July 2011



Rupert Murdoch put on an extraordinary show of support for Rebekah Brooks yesterday - apparently unconcerned about her imminent interview under police caution.
Flying into London to take personal charge of the phone-hacking scandal, the billionaire flaunted his confidence in his News International chief executive.
Mrs Brooks, who has twice offered to resign over the controversy, was seen entering Mr Murdoch's Mayfair apartment at around 5.30pm yesterday.
Later, when asked what was his top priority, the 80-year-old media mogul gestured to Mrs Brooks. 'She is,' he replied.



All smiles: Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks pictured walking together this afternoon


Pleased: Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks are in talks about the phone hacking scandal


Protective: Rupert Murdoch guides Rebekah Brooks away from the media on their walk outside his London flat
DOW JONES CHIEF COULD BE 'FALL GUY' FOR CRISIS
The chief executive of News Corp firm Dow Jones could be axed for 'failing to get to grips' with the phone hacking scandal when he was in charge of NI's UK newspaper group.
Les Hinton could become the most senior casualty of the crisis in a bid to deflect blame from James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks.
He had worked for Murdoch for 52 years and was expected to retire in 2012.
A source said: 'Les will be sacrificed to save James and Rebekah. It happened on Les’s watch.'
Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, has received critical support from News Corp's larges non-family shareholder.
Prince Al Waleed-bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holdings which owns seven per cent of the company, said: 'This is the time for a loyal shareholder to stand by his friends and allies, the Murdoch family.
'This is a strong alliance. We do not chicken out when we face crisis; we get stronger.'
The pair spent an hour in the apartment discussing the scandal on the day the final edition of the News of the World hit news stands.
Then, in front of hordes of photographers, Mr Murdoch walked her out of the block of flats with his arm firmly around her.
They had beaming smiles as they crossed the road to the Stafford Hotel, where they were expected to dine together and were later joined by Mr Murdoch’s son, James, the chairman of News International.
Pictures of the 'Rupert and Rebekah show' will infuriate the victims of phone hacking and those who question her denials.
The jovial scenes come just two days after Mrs Brooks, 43, warned News of the World staff that worse revelations about the newspaper were still to emerge.
The embattled executive faces being quizzed as a potential police suspect or witness over her role in the phone-hacking scandal which brought down the 168-year-old title she once edited.
She is set to be questioned under caution in London in the next two weeks.
She will be asked to give a full account of her actions during the period from 2000 to 2003 when she was editor.
She will also be asked to clarify whether she authorised bribes to police officers in return for tip-offs.
In 2003, she told a Commons committee that News International paid officers for stories – a comment she later claimed had been misinterpreted.
It has also been revealed that at least nine former News of the World journalists, and three police officers, face charges over the hacking and corruption scandal.
Former deputy editor Neil Wallis – who had close dealings with a number of very senior Yard figures – is expected to be quizzed by police in the near future. Stuart Kuttner, the paper’s former managing editor who signed off payments to sources, is also facing a police grilling.



Family Affair: James and Rupert Murdoch pictured walking back from a Mayfair hotel to Murdoch sr's London flat
Over the weekend, Mrs Brooks remained defiant. In a letter to MPs, released on Saturday, she denied all knowledge of the Milly Dowler hacking or any other case while she was editor.
And she insisted there was ‘no reason to believe’ hacking had been used by other News International titles.

Meanwhile, a 63-year-old man arrested on Friday has been bailed. Officers would not confirm reports he was a private investigator.
Earlier on Friday, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was questioned for ten hours by police.
Ex-royal editor Clive Goodman, 53, was also detained over claims officers were bribed. Three other former senior journalists are also on police bail.
The billionaire media mogul jetted into London on Sunday morning, stopping first at News International's headquarters in Wapping, East London, where he arrived in a red Range Rover, a copy of the last edition of the News of the World in his hands.
The pressure on Murdoch and his chief executives had been ratcheted up another notch as it emerged his son James - News Corps's deputy chief operating officer - faces an investigation on both sides of the Atlantic.
One perfectly placed commentator, the journalism luminary Carl Bernstein, went as far as to compare the phone hacking scandal to Watergate, the seismic scoop in which he and Bob Woodward helped to bring down U.S. president Richard Nixon.
Writing in Newsweek, Bernstein hit out at 'Murdoch's genius at building an empire on the basis of an ever-descending lowest journalistic denominator' and referred to the 'inevitable' Watergate comparison.



Summit: Rebekah Brooks pictured arriving at the London home of Rupert Murdoch earlier this afternoon



'The circumstances of the alleged lawbreaking within News Corp. suggest more than a passing resemblance to Richard Nixon presiding over a criminal conspiracy in which he insulated himself from specific knowledge of numerous individual criminal acts while being himself responsible for and authorizing general policies that routinely resulted in lawbreaking and unconstitutional conduct.'

More...
'I failed victims of hacking with c**p investigation': Yates of the Yard apologises over News of the World investigation
Rebekah Brooks WILL face interview over hacking scandal while nine journalists 'could be jailed'
Meanwhile Murdoch's British chief executive Rebekah Brooks will be interviewed by police over the phone hacking scandal which closed the NotW. Insiders fear as many as nine journalists and three police officers could ultimately be jailed.
News Corp's multi-million pound bid to seize full control of BSkyB is also on the rocks. The deal came under fresh attack from Ed Miliband and a number of prominent Liberal Democrats today.



Rupert Murdoch turned up at News International's headquarters reading a copy of the last edition of the News of the World



End of the world as he knows it: Murdoch insisted the choice to close the News of the World was 'a collective decision'
The Labour leader threatened to force a Commons vote on suspending consideration of the proposed takeover until criminal investigations into hacking were suspended.
In a warning to Prime Minister David Cameron, Mr Miliband told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: 'He has got to understand that when the public have seen the disgusting revelations that we have seen this week, the idea that this organisation, which engaged in these terrible practices, should be allowed to take over BSkyB, to get that 100 per cent stake, without the criminal investigation having been completed and on the basis of assurances from that self-same organisation - frankly that just won't wash with the public.'
He also repeated his call for the beleaguered Brooks to quit and said David Cameron still had questions to answer about what he knew about Any Coulson's past activities when he personally appointed him.
'MURDOCH'S WATERGATE': CARL BERNSTEIN ON PHONE HACKING
The following paragraphs are excerpts from Carl Woodward's article on the phone hacking scandal for Newsweek
'Private detectives and phone hackers do not become the primary sources of a newspaper's information without the tacit knowledge and approval of the people at the top, all the more so in the case of newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch, according to those who know him best.'
'For this reporter, it is impossible not to consider these facts through the prism of Watergate.
'When Bob Woodward and I came up against difficult ethical questions, such as whether to approach grand jurors for information (which we did, and perhaps shouldn't have), we sought executive editor Ben Bradlee's counsel, and he in turn called in the company lawyers, who gave the go-ahead and outlined the legal issues in full. Publisher Katharine Graham was informed.
'Likewise, Bradlee was aware when I obtained private telephone and credit-card records of one of the Watergate figures.'
'Then there's the other inevitable Watergate comparison. The circumstances of the alleged lawbreaking within News Corp. suggest more than a passing resemblance to Richard Nixon presiding over a criminal conspiracy in which he insulated himself from specific knowledge of numerous individual criminal acts while being himself responsible for and authorizing general policies that routinely resulted in lawbreaking and unconstitutional conduct.
'Not to mention his role in the cover-up. It will remain for British authorities and, presumably, disgusted and/or legally squeezed News Corp. executives and editors to reveal exactly where the rot came from at News of the World, and whether Rupert Murdoch enabled, approved, or opposed the obvious corruption that infected his underlings.'
Deputy Liberal Democrat leader Simon Hughes indicated that he backed a pause.
Mr Hughes told Sky News: 'My recommendation to my colleagues - and it's not my final decision, it's a parliamentary party decision - would be that we as a parliamentary party make clear that it is our view that the merger should not go ahead until the criminal investigations are completed.'
And the Liberal Democrat attack dogs continued to bite as Chris Huhne weighed in with a direct attack on the judgment of David Cameron in hiring Andy Coulson.
'The Prime Minister has said that he wanted to give Andy Coulson a second chance and that's a very commendable thing to do in life,' he told Andrew Marr.
'The reality is that there were very serious risks being run there. We knew with Andy Coulson that anybody in charge of a newspaper needs to know what's going on and at the very least either Andy Coulson was complicit in criminal acts or alternatively he was a very incompetent editor by the standards of Fleet Street.'
Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown added that he had warned Downing Street about the risks of appointing Mr Coulson but had been ignored, while Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates expressed his 'extreme regret' he did not act to reopen police inquiries into the allegations two years ago.
Mr Yates, who ruled in July 2009 that there was no new evidence, told the Sunday Telegraph: 'It is a matter of massive regret we didn't deal with it earlier.'
Murdoch, now 80, appeared characteristically calm as he swept into the News International fortress at Wapping for a brief visit just 12 hours after NotW went to press for the last time.
He left after around an hour and is now meeting with Ms Brooks at his London flat.
As the NotW went to press for the last time, editor Colin Myler led his staff outside and announced they were going to the pub.
Yesterday Murdoch insisted the choice to close the News of the World was ‘a collective decision’, amid reports that his son, James, deputy chief operating officer of News Corp, could face criminal charges in America over News of the World payments to police officers.



Haunted: Rebekah Brooks leaving the NotW offices on Thursday after making the announcement the newspaper would close
Murdoch snr also said that embattled News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks had his ‘total support’. He added: 'I am not throwing innocent people under the bus.'
However, Brooks came under fierce criticism again from Labour Leader Ed Miliband, who told the Andrew Marr show: 'I think it beggars belief that Rebekah Brooks is still in her post - Rebekah Brooks was the editor at the time that Milly Dowler's phone was hacked.'
Mr Miliband is reported to be preparing to force a Commons vote this week on whether consideration of News Corp's proposed takeover of satellite broadcaster BSkyB should be halted.
In a warning to Prime Minister David Cameron, Mr Miliband added: 'He has got to understand that when the public have seen the disgusting revelations that we have seen this week.
'The idea that this organisation, which engaged in these terrible practices, should be allowed to take over BSkyB, to get that 100 per cent stake, without the criminal investigation having been completed and on the basis of assurances from that self-same organisation - frankly that just won't wash with the public.'
Meanwhile, the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler will press for 'stronger, clearer and faster action' from the Government over phone hacking in meetings this week with senior politicians.
Milly's parents Bob and Sally Dowler are suing the News of the World over claims their daughter's phone was targeted by the newspaper when she went missing in 2002.
Her mother and sister Gemma will be among victims and campaigners meeting Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg tomorrow.
They will all be trying to secure a sufficiently comprehensive inquiry.


Read more: The Rupert and Rebekah show: 'She's my priority' says mogul as Brooks faces police quiz | Mail Online



The Knives are out now!

^
Silly old Fart's losing the plot!

'Brook, criminal enterprise, catastrophe': How Rebekah's clueless proofreaders failed to spot parting shot in NotW crossword
Host of sardonic phrases printed despite Brooks ‘sending in Sun men’
Clues included: ‘Mix in prison’, ‘string of recordings’ and ‘woman stares wildly at calamity’
Answers counted: ‘Deplored’, ‘stench’, ‘stir’, ‘disaster’ ‘menace’, ‘desist’, ‘racket’ and ‘tart’
Final edition printed as nine journalists and three police officers face arrest
By JULIAN GAVAGHAN
Last updated at 6:06 PM on 10th July 2011



Aware that News of the World staff might use their final edition to fire a parting shot at her, Rebekah Brooks is said to have instructed two senior executives to read the paper with a ‘fine toothcomb’.
According to sources, they received the simple instruction to ‘ensure there were no libels or any hidden mocking messages of the chief executive’ of News International.
However, while the news pages may have been sanitised of any subliminal messages, the proofreaders appear to have failed to spot some less subtle jibes in the crossword section.

Crossword crossfire: The News of the World puzzle page appears to contain several parting shots at Rebekah Brooks and News International bosses despite two senior Sun journalists allegedly being asked to proofread it
Among the clues in the ‘Quicky’ puzzle were: ‘Brook’, ‘stink’, ‘catastrophe’, ‘digital protection’, ‘cease’, ‘lamented’, ‘servant’ and ‘prestige’.
The Cryptic Crossword was perhaps even more sardonic, with clues including: ‘Criminal enterprise, ‘mix in prison’, ‘string of recordings’, ‘will fear new security measure’.
Also among them was the hint ‘woman stares wildly at calamity’ – which may refer to the photograph of Mrs Brooks’s stony-faced departure from the News International HQ in Wapping, east London, on Thursday after staff were told the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper would be shut down.
Answers printed on page 47 counted: ‘Deplored’, ‘stench’, ‘stir’, ‘disaster’ ‘menace’, ‘desist’, ‘racket’ and ‘tart’.
Also there was ‘firewall’, which may have referred to the anger felt by NotW journalists after internet access was blocked by bosses for ‘operational reasons’.
A source at the paper told MailOnline: ‘Rebekah tried everything to stop the staff having the last word and she utterly failed.

Team: NotW editor Colin Myler brandished the final ever edition of the paper in front of his staff before announcing: 'And now in the best traditions of Fleet Street, we are going to the pub'




‘She brought in two very senior Sun journalists to go though every line on every page with a fine toothcomb to ensure there were no libels or any hidden mocking messages of the chief executive.
‘But they they failed and we’ve had the last laugh.’
The apparent parting shot in print was made as editor Colin Myler led staff out to the pub after the NotW signed off after 168 years with the headline: 'Thank You & Goodbye'.


Read more: Rebekah Brooks: News of the World staff take a parting shot in crossword | Mail Online

Things were really unpredicted.

Eh ????

I wonder what she knows about Murdoch for him to be so intent on holding her close to him?

Oh dear, the shit is really hitting the Murdoch fan.

Gordon Brown is shortly to announce that his voicemails and his bank account were hacked by private dicks working for.... The Sunday Times.

LONDON — British police said Monday that they believe someone is trying to sabotage its investigation into the widening phone hacking scandal by leaking distracting details of the inquiry to the media.
In an unusual statement, Scotland Yard said that a story that appeared on the front page of London's Evening Standard — which claimed that police had sold personal details about the queen and her closest aides — was "part of a deliberate campaign to undermine the investigation into the alleged payments by corrupt journalists to corrupt police officers and divert attention from elsewhere."
The British press has furiously reporting allegations journalists at the News of the World tabloid hacked into phones of young murder victims, families of dead servicemen and terrorism victims.
The scandal, which prompted Rupert Murdoch's News International to close down the tabloid, has since spread to take in allegations that police were given bribes for tips and other information.
The Evening Standard's piece said that bosses at News Corp., News International's parent company, discovered a series of e-mails which indicated that employees had been making corrupt payments to members of Scotland Yard's royal protection officers in return for personal details about the monarch's entourage.
The Evening Standard cited "sources" without saying who the sources were or how they would be in a position to know.
Scotland Yard has declined to specifically address the claims, but in a statement directly referencing the Standard's story they said that they were "extremely concerned and disappointed that the continuous release of selected information — that is only known by a small number of people — could have a significant impact on the corruption investigation."

Here it is. Imagine, the Guardian doing the sort of decent and worthy journalism that those bottom feeders at the News of the World claimed they were doing!

They've implicated The Sun AND The Sunday Times.

Stroll on! I wonder if they paid the coppers for this information?

Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account, his legal file as well as his family's medical records.
There is also evidence that a private investigator used a serving police officer to trawl the police national computer for information about him.
That investigator also targeted another Labour MP who was the subject of hostile inquiries by the News of the World, but it has not confirmed whether News International was specifically involved in trawling police computers for information on Brown.
Separately, Brown's tax paperwork was taken from his accountant's office apparently by hacking into the firm's computer. This was passed to another newspaper.
Brown was targeted during a period of more than 10 years, both as chancellor of the exchequer and as prime minister. Some of the activity clearly was illegal. Other incidents breached his privacy but not the law. An investigation by the Guardian has found that:
• Scotland Yard has discovered references to both Brown and his wife, Sarah, in paperwork seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who specialised in phone hacking for the News of the World;
• Abbey National bank found evidence suggesting that a "blagger" acting for the Sunday Times on six occasions posed as Brown and gained details from his account;
• Brown's London lawyers, Allen & Overy, were tricked into handing over details from his file by a conman working for the Sunday Times;
• Details from his infant son's medical records were obtained by the Sun, who published a story about the child's serious illness.
Brown joins a long list of Labour politicians who are known to have been targeted by private investigators working for News International, including the former prime minister Tony Blair and his media adviser Alastair Campbell, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott and his political adviser Joan Hammell, Peter Mandelson as trade secretary, Jack Straw and David Blunkett as home secretaries, Tessa Jowell as media secretary and her special adviser Bill Bush, and Chris Bryant as minister for Europe.
The sheer scale of the data assault on Brown is unusual, with evidence of attempts to obtain his legal, financial, tax, medical and police records as well as to listen to his voicemail. All of these incidents are linked to media organisations. In many cases, there is evidence of a link to News International.
Scotland Yard recently wrote separately to Brown and to his wife to tell them that their details had been found in evidence collected by Operation Weeting, the special inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World. It is believed that this refers to handwritten notes kept by Mulcaire, which were seized by police in August 2006 and never previously investigated. Brown last year asked Scotland Yard if there was evidence that he had been targeted by the private investigator and was told there was none.
Journalists who have worked at News International say they believe that Brown's personal bank account was accessed on several occasions when he was chancellor of the exchequer. An internal inquiry by Abbey National's fraud department found that during January 2000, somebody acting on behalf of the Sunday Times contacted their Bradford call centre six times, posing as Brown, and succeeded in extracting details from his account.
Abbey National's senior lawyer sent a summary of their findings to the editor of the Sunday Times, John Witherow, concluding: "On the basis of these facts and inquiries, I am drawn to the conclusion that someone from the Sunday Times or acting on its behalf has masqueraded as Mr Brown for the purpose of obtaining information from Abbey National by deception."
Abbey National were not able to identify the bogus caller who tricked their staff. It is a matter of public record that a Sunday Times reporter frequently used the services of a former actor, John Ford, who specialised in "blagging" confidential data from banks, phone companies and the Inland Revenue (now HM Revenue & Customs).
Also in January 2000, one of the paper's reporters used a conman named Barry Beardall, who was subsequently jailed for fraud, to trick staff at Brown's solicitors, Allen & Overy, into handing over details from his personal file. A tape made by Beardall at the time reveals that he claimed to be an accountant from the "Dealson group of companies" and that they were interested in buying Brown's flat. Beardall also practised trickery in an attempt to provide Sunday Times stories about Blair, the then prime minister, and Labour's candidate for the mayor of London, Frank Dobson.
Confidential health records for Brown's family have reached the media on two different occasions. In October 2006, the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks, contacted the Browns to tell them that they had obtained details from the medical file of their four-month-old son, Fraser, which revealed that the boy was suffering from cystic fibrosis. This appears to have been a clear breach of the Data Protection Act, which would allow such a disclosure only if it was in the public interest. Friends of the Browns say the call caused them immense distress, since they were only coming to terms with the diagnosis, which had not been confirmed. The Sun published the story.
Five years earlier, when their first child, Jennifer, was born on 28 December 2001, a small group of specialist doctors and nurses was aware that she had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was dying. By some means which has not been discovered, this highly sensitive information was obtained by news organisations, who published it over the weekend before Jennifer died, on Monday 6 January 2002.
In 2003, Devon and Cornwall police discovered that one of their junior officers was providing information from the police national computer to a network of private investigators. The Guardian has established that one of these investigators, Glen Lawson of Abbey Investigations in Newcastle upon Tyne, used this contact to commission a search of police records for information about Brown on 16 November 2000. Lawson also commissioned searches related to two other Labour MPs – Nick Brown and Martin Salter.
Lawson made these searches on behalf of journalists, a previously unreported court hearing was told. Transcripts obtained by the Guardian show that the search on Martin Salter was made at a time when the News of the World, then edited by Brooks, was attacking him for refusing to support the paper's notorious "Sarah's law" campaign to name paedophiles. Lawson currently refuses to name the journalists who commissioned him.
An attempt to prosecute this network was blocked by a West Country judge, Paul Darlow, who shocked police by ruling that it would be a misuse of public money to pursue the case. However, Devon and Cornwall police contacted the office of the then chancellor to warn him that he had been a victim, as they also did with his two Labour colleagues.
Brown's tax paperwork was obtained from the offices of his accountants, Auerbach Hope, in late 1998. The first sign that the records had been taken came when a journalist from the now defunct Sunday Business called the accountants to say that they had been passed a copy of the records, including a schedule of Brown's income for the most recent year.
The journalist acknowledged that the paperwork showed no sign of any kind of wrongdoing on Brown's part but wanted to do a story about the fact that it had been stolen.
Police came and found no sign of any break-in. The originals of the documents were still in Brown's file, which ruled out the possibility that they had been taken from the firm's dustbins. Auerbach Hope discounted theft by an insider on the grounds that they would have stolen paperwork which showed wrongdoing and thus had greater media value. They concluded that the most likely explanation was that somebody had hacked into their computer systems, specifically targeting Gordon Brown.
Senior Labour figures also strongly suspect that a news organisation broke the law to obtain the emails that led to the resignation in April 2009 of Brown's close aide Damian McBride. The emails, which disclosed a scheme to smear Tory MPs, had been exchanged between McBride and a Labour party activist, Derek Draper. The Labour figures believe that the emails were hacked from Draper's computer and that their contents were then sent to the political blogger Guido Fawkes, whose stories were then followed by Fleet Street.

All Murdochs titles have been at it. News Int. should have it's licence taken from it. When will they turn to the Telegraph, Mirror .....

Mint!

What's the song..? Oh you better go now, go now, go now...
And take Cameron the con man with you...

BSkyB Group Share Price 1-Week Chart.

News group down 7.5% today in new york

It's as insidiously corrupt as any other country, just with better packaging.

Originally Posted by Sailing into trouble

Originally Posted by CaptainNemo

Whatever you might think or say about Murdoch, he's the only force capable of standing up to appalling institutions like the BBC.

Get a life! Sorry, any statement like that can only lead one to believe, that any logical discussion is a waste of time and breath with you. Only someone closed in mind and spirit could come up with that one. No doubt your reality is best identified by Fox and other closed minded networks! One view your view. No watch dog, just let the the forces of the jungle rule. Your view of the BBC is shared by some historical figures. Most of them past and present despotic leaders fearful of a body that has the mandate to be independent from political pressure.

Is the BBC faultless, free from error of judgement? No. But since its inception it has been the free worlds measuring stick on what free speech is in a democratic society.

...and he bit

it's amazing how much you manage to draw from that, "no doubt"

As it goes, although I have worked for a respected international news organisation that isn't anything to do with Murdoch, I've never watched Fox, but for epic trolling value, I'd gladly sell the BBC to them just to wind up people like you

As for the BBC, it's been losing views year on year, and it's just a matter of time before it's reign of terror is over.
The BBC has no legitimacy as a "watchdog", it's a left-wing attack dog, long since infiltrated by crypto-fascists (you, know, the typical mock-liberal elite who tell everyone what to think, and habitually play the man and not the ball, just as you've done, in order to undermine an alternative world view that they fear they are incapable of defeating by reasoned argument), but even before that, it was never impartial. It has never played by the silly rules that are it's raison d'etre; it is a hypocritical anachronism; it's only purpose is to maintain the left-wing regime in the UK, it's certainly big enough and commercial enough to survive on it's own without exorting cash from the public under threat of fines and imprisonment - even to the extent that it's illegal to not report someone who one suspects may be attempting to resist it's power.

That whole "one view your view" is exactly the modus operandi of the blessed Beeb, you can tangibly measure it's lack of impartiality by noting down the adjectives and adverbs it weaves in to flavour it's "news", "political", and "comedy" programmes - all thinly-disguised prolefeed and propaganda.

The forces of the jungle are always preferable to the unyielding power of the centralised crypto-fascist mock-liberal leftist statist state, which is what New Labour imposed even further upon the 80% of the population who never voted for the treacherous lecherous vermin.

Let's look at your sinister words again:
the "past and present despotic" organisation "fearful of a body that has the mandate to be independent from political pressure." is the BBC, and it's kissin' cousins in the public sector that seek only to control the public discourse and harry the public into the fold of the mock-liberal cult, so that they end up just like you, saying that there are three fingers being held up, when there are only two.
To even suggest that the BBC is independent of political pressure is so hopelessly naive as to be beyond laughable... you think it is operated by mindless drones with no opinions of their own? No peergroup, cultural, economic, or social pressures? Do you suppose it exists in a vacuum of unsullied purity, with only the lightest dusting of harmless, pretty, white lies upon it's smooth shimmering truthful surface? Tit.

There is no free speech in the BBC's world unless you accept their world view and their definition (as in, Machiavelli's "define your enemy, before they may define themselves") of reality; nor is there any free speech in a "democractic" (or demagogic) society.

The watchdog is the educated and liberated mind of every prole.
Your view of the BBC is shared by some historical figures. When will the BBC set free it's viewers to choose whether to purchase it's goods and services, and benchmark of truth?
Have you ever watched the amateurish presenters on BBC's shit? Al Jazeera's miles better just in terms of presentation and accuracy, yet it's news is manufactured in a feudal monarchy.

You get a life - more to the point, get an education, and open your own mind to the wonderful world of independent critical thinking.

"no doubt", ffs...

Oh gosh! the Proms!

News International: my son's medical records were hacked, says Gordon Brown
Medical records disclosing that Gordon Brown’s infant son had cystic fibrosis were illegally obtained by The Sun newspaper as part of a News International campaign against him and his family, friends of the former prime minister claims.



Gordon and Sarah Brown walk in Downing Street with their sons John, left, and Fraser. Mrs Brown said the allegations relating to Fraser’s medical records were 'really hurtful’ Photo: AFP/GETTY
By Andrew Porter, and James Kirkup9:51PM BST 11 Jul 2011145 Comments
Mr Brown was a repeated target for investigators working for the tabloid and its sister newspapers, The Sunday Times and the News of the World, it was alleged.
The newspapers obtained highly personal medical and financial information about him and his family.
The most emotive claim relates to Mr Brown’s son, Fraser, diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in 2006, soon after his birth. His condition was disclosed on The Sun’s website in November 2006, when he was four months old.
Mr Brown and his wife, Sarah, had only recently learned of their son’s condition, which often leads to a shortened lifespan. They were dismayed the paper had details of his illness.
Mrs Brown said she was sad to learn about the alleged invasions of her family’s privacy. She wrote on Twitter: “It is very personal and really hurtful if all true.”

A spokesman for her husband said that he was “shocked” by the alleged “criminality and the unethical means by which personal details have been obtained” about his family.
The allegations about the former prime minister mean that the scandal that brought down the News of the World is now spreading across Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group.
The revelations will also shift attention away from accusations of “hacking” mobile phone voicemail accounts and on to other, potentially illegal, practices known as “blagging”, getting information by trickery or deception.
Tape-recordings, letters and other records, released with Mr Brown’s co-operation, indicated that The Sunday Times and The Sun obtained confidential information about Mr Brown and his family while he was Chancellor.
The allegations about the targeting of Mr Brown and his family include the claims that:
:: Someone working for The Sunday Times posed as Mr Brown on six occasions to gain details from his Abbey bank account
:: A London law firm was tricked into handing over details from his file by a confidence trickster, said to be working for the same newspaper, in an attempt to discover how much he paid for his Westminster flat
:: Highly sensitive information that the Browns’ first child, Jennifer, was dying of a brain haemorrhage was obtained and published the weekend before she died in 2002. Mr Brown has long been convinced that he was a victim of dirty tricks by journalists.
The sensitive nature of the information obtained goes some way to explaining his anger at the media.
The couple are understood to have been “extremely distressed” when Mr Brown’s staff were contacted by journalists from The Sun, informing them that the paper had learnt of their son’s condition.
Rebekah Brooks, then the editor of The Sun and now the chief executive of News International, is understood to have telephoned one of his aides and then Mr Brown to say that the newspaper had the information.
Mr Brown was “furious” that the tabloid wanted to break an exclusive story about their “heartbreak”. But the newspaper went ahead, disclosing the condition online. The Browns were then forced to issue a statement.
A source said Mr and Mrs Brown made several phone calls to each other at a time of high anxiety.
When the phone hacking scandal broke, they suspected that mobile telephone hacking, or illegal accessing of the child’s medical records, explained how the tabloid got the private and personal information.
Some accounts suggested that The Sun obtained the information by gaining access to Fraser Brown’s medical records.
Chris Bryant, a Labour MP, said in the House of Commons: “The former prime minister’s son’s medical records were targeted by other News International papers.”
David Muir, a former aide to Mr Brown, told ITV News the information was “obtained by what could be illegal methods”.
However, sources at The Sun say the tip-off about the child’s illness came by legitimate means.
News International issued a statement asking Mr Brown to pass on “all information concerning these allegations to us”.
It also emerged that Mr Brown may have been targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for hacking phones for the News of the World.
Last year, Mr Brown asked Scotland Yard if it had any evidence he had been targeted by Mulcaire. He was told there was none.
However, the police reopened their inquiry in January. Detectives have written to Mr Brown to tell him his details were found in Mulcaire’s files.
John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Commons’ media committee, said the claims that Mr Brown’s phone had been hacked were “shocking”.
He said: “In a sense one is getting to the point where you cannot be shocked any longer. It is difficult to imagine how much worse this could get.
“What is disturbing is that it now seems to be suggested that it wasn’t just in the News of the World that this was going on.”
On a day of drama at Westminster, MPs also called on John Yates, the Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner, to resign after he admitted he was wrong not to agree to a new phone hacking inquiry two years ago.
Tom Watson, the Labour MP, said Mr Yates’s review of the evidence against Mulcaire was “not an oversight”.
He accused the officer of “misleading” MPs.
David Cameron had to field further questions about his decision to employ Andy Coulson at a speech intended to highlight his new public services White Paper.
Mr Coulson, the former News of the World editor, was arrested and questioned over phone hacking and illegal payments to police last week.
He stood by his decision saying he had given someone “a second chance”. Mr Coulson was the Prime Minister’s communications adviser until he resigned in January.
A Downing Street source denied that Mr Cameron had been warned that there was new evidence about the former editor before the Prime Minister took Mr Coulson into government as a key member of his inner circle.
The source said: “If the Prime Minister was presented with evidence about Andy he would have acted and sacked him. He wasn’t.” News International: my son's medical records were hacked, says Gordon Brown - Telegraph

Originally Posted by English Noodles

I wonder what she knows about Murdoch for him to be so intent on holding her close to him?

indeed, he probably knew it all, and if she falls, he falls

Murdoch has become the new Armand Hammer.
These companies do not belong to him alone, when are the shareholders and other directors gonna stand up ?

Originally Posted by CaptainNemo

the unyielding power of the centralised crypto-fascist mock-liberal leftist statist state

Pretty much covered all bases with that blanket.

But surely you mean..

Originally Posted by CaptainNemo

the unyielding power of the centralised crypto-fascist mock-liberal leftist statist industrial-political-military junta