Tag Archives: phone hacking

The News of the World column written by Sarah Payne’s mother – before she was told they hacked her

4:55pm Thu July 28th

The mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne wrote a valedictory column in the final edition of the News of the World. The piece gushed about her “trusted friends” on the paper — but she has now been informed that hackers targeted her voicemails on a phone given to her by editor Rebekah Brooks.

Under the headline “News of the World proved it is a force for good” [hi-res image], Sara Payne defended the paper, which led a campaign to establish “Sarah’s Law” - giving parents the right to know if paedophiles live nearby:

“The News of the World, and more importantly the people there became my very good and trusted friends … God only knows why the News of the World has stuck by me for so long…but the reason I’ve stayed with them is that they have always been a paper that cares and a voice for the people”

Sara is said to be “absolutely devastated and deeply disappointed” by the news.

The full text of the article is reproduced below.

IT is fair to say I have not had the happiest or easiest of decades.

Over the past 11 years I have been in the News of the World on more than one occasion, and they have been as much of a driving force behind the Sarah’s Law campaign as I have.

In fact they have helped a great deal more than I can say and I know it would have been a longer and harder fight without them in my corner. Read More »

The Times guilt-trip their readers with a cartoon of starving children

11:15am Thu July 21st

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As the phone hacking scandal rumbles on to the dismay of News Corporation, there was speculation that Tory backbenchers had been primed by the whips to say that the public want MPs to move on to other issues, and Louise Mensch attempted to deflect the attention to Piers Morgan by taking quotes in his book out of context.

But the third and most tasteless prong of resistance has come from a graphic in The Times depicting children in Somalia, suggesting that talking about phone hacking has prolonged their starvation.

No one is stopping The Times covering both stories.

The phone hacking letter that David Cameron ignored

12:40pm Wed July 20th

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Back in October, Tom Watson sent a letter to the Prime Minister ahead of the Dispatches report ‘Tabloids, Tories and Phone Hacking’, questioning Andy Coulson’s continued employment at Number 10: “If a government minister were to be the subject of similar allegations, they would be forced to stand down immediately while an investigation is carried out.”

The letter was mentioned in the Commons earlier, and Watson’s website has gone down due to a huge surge in traffic. We’ve republished it here in full:

4 October 2010

Dear Mr Cameron,

NEWS OF THE WORLD PHONE HACKING SCANDAL

You will be aware of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s Press Standards, Privacy and Libel report of February 2010 in which Mr Andy Coulson, your Communications Director, told MPs that he had no recollection of incidences where phone hacking took place whilst he was Editor of the News of the World.

New allegations made today to Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, by a former senior executive of News International, however, claim that Mr Coulson did in fact know about hacking, and that he listened to tapes of intercepted voicemail messages. These allegations are new, far reaching and warrant investigation.

The report to be broadcast on the Dispatches programme casts doubt on the accuracy of the oral evidence provided to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on 21 July 2009 by Mr Coulson in which he said: “I was, as you know, Editor of the News of the World for four years from January 2003 until January 2007. During that time I never condoned the use of `phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where `phone hacking took place”.

Accordingly, I think it is necessary for you to make a statement in Parliament on this matter next week. If a government minister were to be the subject of similar allegations, they would be forced to stand down immediately while an investigation is carried out. We are now at the point where I firmly believe you should consider a similar course of action with regards to Mr Coulson’s conduct.

I am sure you would agree misleading a parliamentary committee of the House of Commons is a very serious matter, and therefore these allegations need to be investigated. Parliament and the public would expect nothing less from you.

I look forward to hearing from you, at the earliest opportunity, in response to the points that I have raised.

Yours sincerely

Tom Watson

Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East

UPDATE: Number 10 have now released a letter, which. Cue paroxysms from the right. Cameron didn’t even remember having replied in the chamber — because it was a stonewalling, non-reply which <em>ignored</em> the substantive allegations.

NewsCorp to launch new search engine

5:57pm Tue July 19th

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Are you lacking in specific knowledge on a particular subject? Are your search results unconvincing?

News Corporation are here to help. It’s not just the Culture Media & Sport select committee who get to question Rupert – simply visit AskMurdoch, and you too can get answers from the Dirty Digger himself.

We’ll be working hard to keep search results up to date as the evening goes on.

“Comedian” splats Rupert Murdoch with custard pie

5:29pm Tue July 19th

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As if today’s events weren’t exciting enough…

Shortly after 5pm, a man in a checked shirt, thought to be activist and comedian Jonnie Marbles, thought things needed spicing up a little. He planted a paper plate filled with shaving foam on Rupert Murdoch as he was giving evidence to the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee.

As Tom Watson pointed out at the end of the hearing, Mrs Murdoch has a mean left hook.

Up to 15% less likely to buy News International titles after hacking

12:31pm Tue July 19th

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A survey for Press Gazette shows the extent of reputational damage to other News International papers, with up to 15% of the public less likely to buy Murdoch titles because of hacking at the News of the World. The poll also suggests implications for the print media at large, with 21% of respondents saying they were less likely to buy any paper.

With pollsters ID Factor asking further questions on an alternative choice of newspaper for former News of the World readers, the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror “stand to pick up more than 400,000 extra copies each”.

We may see Murdoch launch his new Sunday red top in less than three weeks.

Rupert Murdoch’s hacking fixer is friends with “hero” Michael Gove

3:08pm Mon July 18th

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As the News International contagion spreads, Michael Gove has been conspicuously silent about his links to the Murdoch empire, including a £60,000+ annual contract and his close relationship with the man now charged with mopping up the scandal.

A journalist by trade, Gove held a highly lucrative weekly columnist for The Times until 11 January 2010. Stangely, however, the contract with News International, which effectively doubled his standard MP pay packet, remained on the books for at least nine months and into Gove’s tenure as a cabinet minister before it was finally removed from the register of members’ interests on 28 March 2011.

Gove is contracted with Murdoch owned Harper Collins to write a biography of Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, and his wife remains Beauty Editor of The Times.

Interest is also growing into his relationship with the man heading up News Corporation’s new standards committee, Joel Klein.

Many of Gove’s ideas for his free schools pet project have been borrowed from Klein, a former chancellor of the New York City school system. He came to the UK in January at Gove’s invitation to speak at the government’s Free Schools Conference, and to visit the King Solomon academy, run by a potential free schools operator.

At the conference, Klein gushed about his pal:

“This country is so lucky to have a man with Michael’s vision and commitment … In my world that makes you a hero, my friend.”

Klein stepped down from his position as schools Chancellor last year, walking straight into a $2m a year job as CEO of News Corporation’s education division. Last month, News Corp were awarded a $27m bid-free contract by the state of New York to develop software to track student test scores.

Klein has, in recent days been brought into Rupert Murdoch’s inner circle, to offer guidance on the phone hacking scandal. Murdoch has formed a “management and standards committee” to fight the crisis, which will report directly to Klein.

A figurehead of the free schools movement, Klein used his time at New York city hall to end teacher tenure and close more than 100 public schools. He and Mayor Michael Bloomberg replaced them with a free market system of charter schools, outside of public control and with selective admissions processes.

Sound familiar?

Starring Mick Hucknall …

8:54am Mon July 18th

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The choice of actors is inspired.

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