UK: Phone hacking scandal deepens
Jul 15
UK tabloid the News of the World is under renewed fire today, after evidence placed before MPs showed that its practice of hacking into phones may have been more extensive than executives initially admitted.
Appearing before the culture, media and sport committee of the House of Commons, the Guardian’s Nick Davies tabled several documents, including emails which contain communications between now-jailed private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and NoW journalists. Davies is the journalist who last week revealed that the NoW paid hush money to several victims of its illegal practices, which involved hacking into phone messages and acquiring personal records.
The parent company of NoW, Rupert Murdoch’s News International, has previously claimed that the practices were fairly limited in terms of who was involved. In testimony given before MPs in 2007, News International’s executive chairman Les Hinton claimed that former royal editor Clive Goodman, who has since been jailed, was the only journalist aware of and involved in phone hacking.
The Guardian’s explosive evidence suggests otherwise. The first document tabled by Davies, an email from 29 April 2005, indicates that a transcript of an illegally recorded phone conversation, made by Mulcaire, was to be given to chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck. Another communication appears to implicate a former NoW assistant editor.
Other documents passed to the committee by the Guardian have been heavily redacted, but the evidence and Davies’ testimony suggest that the scandal may run far deeper than News International has been prepared to admit. John Whittingdale, the chairman of the culture, media and sport committee, indicated that the Guardian’s evidence “raised questions” about past statements by executives from News International.
NoW’s current editor Colin Myler and lawyer Tom Crone are set to appear before the committee next week.
Source: The Guardian
Cyril Washbrook July 15th 2009