News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations
Encyclopedia
The News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations followed the revelations in 2005 of voicemail interception on behalf of News of the World
. Despite wider evidence of wrongdoing, the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal
appeared resolved with the 2007 conviction of the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman
and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, and the resignation of editor Andy Coulson
. However, a series of civil legal cases and investigations by newspapers, parliament and the police ultimately saw evidence of "industrial scale" phone hacking, leading to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011. However, the affair did not end there, developing into the News Corporation ethics scandal as wrongdoing beyond the News of the World (including the United States) and beyond phone hacking (including paying police for information) came to light.
had raised evidence of victims being targeted outside the Royal Family, but this evidence did not lead to criminal proceedings. In lieu of criminal proceedings, several public figures commenced litigation against the News of the Worlds owner News International and against the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Those who began legal action included the football agent Sky Andrew
, actress Sienna Miller
, actor Steve Coogan
, television presenter Chris Tarrant
and football pundit Andy Gray. In December 2009, footballer Sol Campbell
instructed his solicitor to contact the police in response to various media reports. The Max Clifford case, which in early 2010 had appeared to make likely the disclosure of previously secret News of the World documents, was settled out of court in March 2010, keeping the documents secret. The next month, reports of further legal action against the News of the World emerged. Those considering litigation against the paper included a football agent and ten MPs. The legal action re-opened the possibility of details emerging that the settlement with Clifford had kept secret.
for intercepting his voicemail. After a lunch with Rebekah Brooks, the paper agreed to pay Clifford's legal fees and an undisclosed "personal payment" not described as damages, with the sum exceeding £1 million. The money was paid in exchange for Clifford giving the News of the World exclusive stories over the next several years.
The case had been expected to reveal the details of previous settlements the paper had made, including the £1 million spent in 2009, settling with three phone hacking victims, and the unfair dismissal claim won by Clive Goodman. Clifford had won court rulings in February earlier that year that meant that the News of the World would have had to disclose previously secret information regarding which journalists were involved in hacking voicemail messages. A judge ruled that Glenn Mulcaire had to disclose the names of all the journalists who targeted Clifford and also those who received transcripts of the messages. With the eventual settlement, however, the information was not made public.
's Dispatches
in October included remarks made by an unnamed source said to have been a former senior journalist at the News of the World who had worked alongside Coulson. The source alleged that Coulson had personally listened to messages obtained through phone hacking.
In December 2010, Coulson – while under oath as a witness in HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
– denied any knowledge of phone hacking at the News of the World or that he knew the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. The following day, the Crown Prosecution Service
said that it had determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge Coulson over allegations that he was aware of phone hacking at the publication. The CPS said that witnesses interviewed by the Metropolitan Police – including those who had previously made allegations through media outlets – had not been willing to provide admissible evidence.
by lawyers acting for Sienna Miller
claimed to have uncovered evidence of the involvement of Ian Edmondson
, a senior editor at the paper, in work undertaken by Mulcaire.
made a series of allegations that the phone hacking activities at the News of the World went far beyond the activities for which the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman
was jailed in 2007, those activities being limited to members of the royal household. The paper alleged that hacking victims included public figures such as former deputy prime minister John Prescott
, Manchester United
manager Alex Ferguson
, Tessa Jowell
when she was Olympics Secretary, Boris Johnson
when he was the opposition's spokesman on higher education, publicist Max Clifford
and even Rebekah Brooks, then editor of the News of the Worlds sister paper The Sun.
The News of the World denied The Guardians claims and its parent company, News Corporation, implored its competitor newspaper to share any evidence it had with police.
The Guardian
reported on 8 July 2009, that News Group - the News of the World's parent company - paid out more than £1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal evidence of News of the World journalists using criminal methods (accessing mobile phone voicemails of various public figures) to obtain stories. The article further reported sources as stating that News Group staff used private investigators to access several thousand mobile phone accounts. It is claimed that celebrities and public figures whose phones were tapped included former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott
, Tessa Jowell
when she was secretary of state for media, Boris Johnson
when he was the opposition spokesman on higher education, football manager Sir Alex Ferguson, public relations guru Max Clifford
and even Rebekah Wade
, the editor of the News of the Worlds sister-paper The Sun.
Prescott in particular was outraged at the fact that the police did not inform him of the phone tapping, but Assistant Commissioner John Yates stated that there was no actual evidence that Prescott's phone had been tapped.
Contrary to claims made in 2007, by News of the World, in July 2009, The Guardian claimed that phone hacking activities were known to a range of staff at the tabloid including its then editor Andy Coulson
. At the time The Guardian made these claims, Coulson had left News International and was director of Conservative Party
communications and planning. Due to this, some claimed that the reporting was politically motivated. The Conservative Party was quick to stand by Coulson.
The Guardian also reported that the News of the World had made payments in excess of £1 million to three people subject to phone hacking, including Professional Footballers' Association
chairman Gordon Taylor, with the out-of-court settlements subject to secrecy clauses. Around the same time, Private Eye
revealed that The Guardian had, in order to avoid "all out war" with the News of the World, chosen not to tell the same Culture, Media and Sport Committee that the £700,000 payment to Taylor was signed off in June 2008, by the directors of News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary owning the News of the World - thus showing awareness of the matter at the highest levels. The reports led the Press Complaints Commission
to reopen its inquiry into the matter (finding that it had not been "materially misled", leading The Guardians editor Alan Rusbridger
to resign from the PCC) and the Culture, Media and Sport Committee to reopen its inquiry.
request by The Guardian found that the police had recovered 91 PIN codes
for accessing other people's voicemails in material seized from Mulcaire and Goodman. In April 2010, it was revealed from Crown Prosecution Service
documents that although police had named only eight individuals in court, the Scotland Yard inquiry had actually uncovered over 4,000 names or partial names and nearly 3,000 full or partial telephone numbers from the materials seized from Mulcaire and Goodman.
In February 2010 The Guardian revealed that under Coulson the News of the World had rehired a private investigator shortly after his release from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail. The News of the World had used the investigator prior to his imprisonment, at a time when Coulson was deputy editor. In February 2010, The Guardian could not name Jonathan Rees
as he was involved in a new criminal trial.
In September 2010 The Guardian revealed that in 2009 plans by the Home Office to ask Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary
to review the police investigation into the phone hacking scandal were cancelled "after intense internal lobbying", with a senior Home Office official warning that the Metropolitan Police would "deeply resent" an inquiry. Several days later the paper revealed comments by former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan on how widespread phone hacking had been under Andy Coulson; McMullan was one of six former News of the World journalists "who have independently told the Guardian that Coulson ... knew that his reporters were engaging in unlawful acts.".
published the results of an investigation it had begun in March which revealed further details about the extent of the News of the Worlds phone hacking, and about editor Andy Coulson
's alleged knowledge of it. The investigation also revealed that a journalist at the News of the World had been attempting to hack into the voicemail messages of a "television personality" in 2010. The journalist was suspended from reporting and faced legal action by the personality.
The Times piece cited Sean Hoare
, a former colleague, as saying that Coulson had "actively encouraged" phone hacking. Coulson denied the claims and indicated that he would allow himself to be questioned by the Metropolitan Police Service
regarding the phone hacking affair.
to reopen its inquiry into the matter (finding that it had not been "materially misled", leading The Guardians editor Alan Rusbridger
to resign from the PCC) and the Culture, Media and Sport Committee to reopen its inquiry.
in July 2009, the Metropolitan Police Service
commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson asked his assistant commissioner John Yates to review the original 2006 investigation for new evidence. In one 8-hour meeting, Yates reviewed the investigation and decided not to take any further action. In a public statement later, and in a July 2009, appearance at the Home Affairs Select Committee
, he said of the initial investigation that he "found it to be satisfactory." In a direct response to John Prescott, who had been particular outraged at the fact that police did not inform him of his phone being hacked, Yates specifically stated that there was no material evidence that Prescott's phone had been hacked. Yates then passed his findings back to the Chief Constable, and in agreement with lawyers and the head of the Crown Prosecution Service Keir Starmer
, agreed that no further action need be taken, and the case not re-opened. The Metropolitan Police hence declined to re-open their hacking inquiry in response to the claims in The Guardian stating that "no additional evidence has come to light" and it "therefore consider[ed] that no further investigation is required".
, an assistant commissioner and the officer responsible for overseeing the original 2006 Scotland Yard inquiry, had quit the police force to work for News International as a columnist.
In September 2010, with the opening of parliamentary inquiries following The New York Times investigation, the Metropolitan Police also indicated its intention to re-examine the allegations regarding the News of the World, saying that it would consider new information that it had received.
In April 2011 the Metropolitan Police admitted that in the previous four years it had only contacted 36 people to warn them that they might have been victims of phone hacking.
's phone.
, the Labour MP for West Bromwich East, played a key role in bringing the revelations about phone hacking into the open. Watson was concerned by alleged press misconduct, as were his colleagues Chris Bryant
, the MP for Rhondda
, Khalid Mahmood
, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, and Sion Simon
, then MP for Birmingham Erdington. Watson joined the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in 2009, under the chairmanship of Conservative MP John Whittingdale
, specifically to pose questions to leading figures in News International about the ethics at both The Sun and the News of the World, and allowing him to quiz Andy Coulson, who was director of communications for the Conservative Party, about his role at the News of the World.
In July 2009, in evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into privacy and libel issues that also covered the phone hacking affair, News of the World editor Colin Myler
placed on record that a sum of £700,000 was agreed to be paid to PFA chief Gordon Taylor by News International's head of legal affairs, Tom Crone. This was supported and agreed by Myler, with final approval given from News International executive chairman James Murdoch.
On 24 February 2010, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee issued their report. It condemned the testimony of the News of the World witnesses, referring to "collective amnesia" and "deliberate obfuscation", and noted News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks' refusal to appear at all. The Committee concluded:
Other News International newspapers, including The Sun and The Times
, downplayed the report, devoting minimal coverage to it and emphasising the News of the Worlds response.
in London opened a new inquiry into phone hacking. Two days after the Home Affairs Select Committee announced its inquiry, the House of Commons voted to refer allegations of hacking against politicians to the Standards and Privileges Committee, with the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.
. Lewis quickly came across an email which referred to "the file" at the solicitors, and in December 2010, subsequently obtained all records held by Harbottle & Lewis regarding Clive Goodman's 2007 claim for unfair dismissal. Shocked at the content within the more than 200 emails, Lewis passed the file to another law firm, Hickman Rose.
In January 2011, this firm engaged Ken Macdonald, Lord Macdonald QC, the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service
, to provide a report to the board of News Corporation on the contents of the emails. Macdonald's report stated that he found evidence of indirect hacking, breaches of national security and serious crime; he closed on advising them to immediately call the police. After a board meeting in New York chaired by Rupert Murdoch in January 2011, when Macdonald's report and recommendations were accepted in full, Macdonald immediately passed 11 emails in evidence formally to Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick
.
Subsequently the News of the World disclosed that it had suspended Ian Edmondson
, saying that it would take "appropriate action" if the litigation or the paper's own internal investigation found evidence of wrongdoing by any staff. News International announced that they had sacked Ian Edmondson
on 26 January 2011, the same day that the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Weeting
.
published an article in the New Statesman
entitled "The Bugger, Bugged" about a conversation following a chance encounter with Paul McMullan, former journalist and paparazzo for News of the World
. In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Grant, McMullan alleged that editors at the Daily Mail
and News of the World, particularly Andy Coulson
, had ordered journalists to engage in illegal phone tapping and had done so with the full knowledge of senior British politicians. McMullan also said that every British Prime Minister from Margaret Thatcher
onwards had cultivated a close relationship with Rupert Murdoch
and his senior executives. He stressed the friendship between David Cameron
and Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), agreeing when asked that both of them must have been aware of illegal phone tapping, and asserting that Cameron's inaction could be explained by self-interest:
When asked by Grant whether Cameron had encouraged the Metropolitan Police
to "drag their feet" on investigating illegal phone tapping by Murdoch's journalists, McMullan agreed that this had happened, but also stated that the police themselves had taken bribes from tabloid journalists, so had a motive to comply:
Grant's article attracted considerable interest, due to both the revelatory content of the taped conversation, and the novelty of Grant himself "turning the tables" on a tabloid journalist.
Whilst the allegations regarding the News of the World continued to receive coverage in the broadsheets and similar media (Grant appeared for example on BBC Radio 4
) it was only with the revelation that the voicemail of the then missing and subsequently murdered Millie Dowler had been hacked, and evidence in her murder enquiry had been deleted, that the coverage turned from media interest to widespread public (and eventually political) outrage. Grant became something of a spokesman against Murdoch's News Corporation
, culminating in a bravura performance on the BBC
's Question Time
in July 2011.
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
. Despite wider evidence of wrongdoing, the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal
News of the World royal phone hacking scandal
The News of the World royal phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 - 2007 around the interception of voice mail relating to the British Royal Family by a private investigator working for a News of the World journalist...
appeared resolved with the 2007 conviction of the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman is a former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.Goodman initially worked as a journalist on Nigel Dempster's gossip column in the...
and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, and the resignation of editor Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...
. However, a series of civil legal cases and investigations by newspapers, parliament and the police ultimately saw evidence of "industrial scale" phone hacking, leading to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011. However, the affair did not end there, developing into the News Corporation ethics scandal as wrongdoing beyond the News of the World (including the United States) and beyond phone hacking (including paying police for information) came to light.
Civil legal cases
The News of the World royal phone hacking scandalNews of the World royal phone hacking scandal
The News of the World royal phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 - 2007 around the interception of voice mail relating to the British Royal Family by a private investigator working for a News of the World journalist...
had raised evidence of victims being targeted outside the Royal Family, but this evidence did not lead to criminal proceedings. In lieu of criminal proceedings, several public figures commenced litigation against the News of the Worlds owner News International and against the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Those who began legal action included the football agent Sky Andrew
Sky Andrew
Skylet Andrew , is English former Olympic and Commonwealth Games table tennis player for Great Britain, who was the first Black British sports agent.-Biography:...
, actress Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
, actor Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
, television presenter Chris Tarrant
Chris Tarrant
Christopher John "Chris" Tarrant, OBE is an English radio and television broadcaster, now best known for hosting the first version of the television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in the United Kingdom and later Ireland, as the two national versions of the show merged in 2002.Chris...
and football pundit Andy Gray. In December 2009, footballer Sol Campbell
Sol Campbell
Sulzeer Jeremiah "Sol" Campbell is an English footballer who is currently a free agent. A central defender, Campbell has played for Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United, as well as the English national team.Born in East London to Jamaican parents, Campbell's...
instructed his solicitor to contact the police in response to various media reports. The Max Clifford case, which in early 2010 had appeared to make likely the disclosure of previously secret News of the World documents, was settled out of court in March 2010, keeping the documents secret. The next month, reports of further legal action against the News of the World emerged. Those considering litigation against the paper included a football agent and ten MPs. The legal action re-opened the possibility of details emerging that the settlement with Clifford had kept secret.
Max Clifford case, 2010
In March 2010 the News of the World settled out-of-court a case brought against it by publicist Max CliffordMax Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...
for intercepting his voicemail. After a lunch with Rebekah Brooks, the paper agreed to pay Clifford's legal fees and an undisclosed "personal payment" not described as damages, with the sum exceeding £1 million. The money was paid in exchange for Clifford giving the News of the World exclusive stories over the next several years.
The case had been expected to reveal the details of previous settlements the paper had made, including the £1 million spent in 2009, settling with three phone hacking victims, and the unfair dismissal claim won by Clive Goodman. Clifford had won court rulings in February earlier that year that meant that the News of the World would have had to disclose previously secret information regarding which journalists were involved in hacking voicemail messages. A judge ruled that Glenn Mulcaire had to disclose the names of all the journalists who targeted Clifford and also those who received transcripts of the messages. With the eventual settlement, however, the information was not made public.
HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
A report aired on Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's Dispatches
Dispatches (TV series)
Dispatches is the British television current affairs documentary series on Channel 4, first transmitted in 1987. The programme covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, usually featuring a mole in an organisation.-Awards:*...
in October included remarks made by an unnamed source said to have been a former senior journalist at the News of the World who had worked alongside Coulson. The source alleged that Coulson had personally listened to messages obtained through phone hacking.
In December 2010, Coulson – while under oath as a witness in HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan
Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to the earlier civil case Sheridan v News Group Newspapers.In Scotland criminal prosecutions...
– denied any knowledge of phone hacking at the News of the World or that he knew the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. The following day, the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
said that it had determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge Coulson over allegations that he was aware of phone hacking at the publication. The CPS said that witnesses interviewed by the Metropolitan Police – including those who had previously made allegations through media outlets – had not been willing to provide admissible evidence.
Sienna Miller case
New allegations about the conduct of News of the World executives emerged in December 2010. Papers lodged in the High CourtHigh Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
by lawyers acting for Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
claimed to have uncovered evidence of the involvement of Ian Edmondson
Ian Edmondson
Ian Edmondson is a British tabloid journalist. He was the news editor at the News of the World. Edmondson was arrested by the Metropolitan police in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:...
, a senior editor at the paper, in work undertaken by Mulcaire.
2009
Beginning on 8 July 2009, The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
made a series of allegations that the phone hacking activities at the News of the World went far beyond the activities for which the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman is a former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.Goodman initially worked as a journalist on Nigel Dempster's gossip column in the...
was jailed in 2007, those activities being limited to members of the royal household. The paper alleged that hacking victims included public figures such as former deputy prime minister John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
, Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
manager Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
, Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood since 1992. Formerly a member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she is currently the Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London.-Early life:Tessa Jane...
when she was Olympics Secretary, Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
when he was the opposition's spokesman on higher education, publicist Max Clifford
Max Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...
and even Rebekah Brooks, then editor of the News of the Worlds sister paper The Sun.
The News of the World denied The Guardians claims and its parent company, News Corporation, implored its competitor newspaper to share any evidence it had with police.
The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported on 8 July 2009, that News Group - the News of the World's parent company - paid out more than £1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal evidence of News of the World journalists using criminal methods (accessing mobile phone voicemails of various public figures) to obtain stories. The article further reported sources as stating that News Group staff used private investigators to access several thousand mobile phone accounts. It is claimed that celebrities and public figures whose phones were tapped included former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
, Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood since 1992. Formerly a member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she is currently the Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London.-Early life:Tessa Jane...
when she was secretary of state for media, Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...
when he was the opposition spokesman on higher education, football manager Sir Alex Ferguson, public relations guru Max Clifford
Max Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...
and even Rebekah Wade
Rebekah Wade
Rebekah Mary Brooks is a British journalist and former newspaper editor. She was chief executive of News International , having previously served as the youngest editor of a British national newspaper as editor of the News of the World and the first female editor of The Sun...
, the editor of the News of the Worlds sister-paper The Sun.
Prescott in particular was outraged at the fact that the police did not inform him of the phone tapping, but Assistant Commissioner John Yates stated that there was no actual evidence that Prescott's phone had been tapped.
Contrary to claims made in 2007, by News of the World, in July 2009, The Guardian claimed that phone hacking activities were known to a range of staff at the tabloid including its then editor Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...
. At the time The Guardian made these claims, Coulson had left News International and was director of Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
communications and planning. Due to this, some claimed that the reporting was politically motivated. The Conservative Party was quick to stand by Coulson.
The Guardian also reported that the News of the World had made payments in excess of £1 million to three people subject to phone hacking, including Professional Footballers' Association
Professional Footballers' Association
The Professional Footballers' Association is the trade union for professional footballers in England and Wales. The world's oldest professional sport trade union, it has 4,000 members....
chairman Gordon Taylor, with the out-of-court settlements subject to secrecy clauses. Around the same time, Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
revealed that The Guardian had, in order to avoid "all out war" with the News of the World, chosen not to tell the same Culture, Media and Sport Committee that the £700,000 payment to Taylor was signed off in June 2008, by the directors of News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary owning the News of the World - thus showing awareness of the matter at the highest levels. The reports led the Press Complaints Commission
Press Complaints Commission
The Press Complaints Commission is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines...
to reopen its inquiry into the matter (finding that it had not been "materially misled", leading The Guardians editor Alan Rusbridger
Alan Rusbridger
Alan Charles Rusbridger is the editor of the British newspaper The Guardian. He has also been a reporter and a columnist.-Early life:...
to resign from the PCC) and the Culture, Media and Sport Committee to reopen its inquiry.
2010
In January 2010, The Guardian revealed the out of court payment to Goodman on grounds of settling an unfair dismissal case, and the later subsequent payment to Mulcaire. This started a new series of both newspaper stories, and subsequent further written questions from the Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, to both News International and its executives. In February 2010, The Guardian reported that three mobile phone companies had discovered that over a hundred of their customers had had their voicemails hacked. The companies identified the customers in 2007, after Scotland Yard disclosed numbers that had been accessed by Goodman and Mulcaire. A freedom of informationFreedom of information in the United Kingdom
Freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom is controlled by two Acts of the United Kingdom and Scottish Parliaments respectively, which both came into force on 1 January 2005.* Freedom of Information Act 2000...
request by The Guardian found that the police had recovered 91 PIN codes
Personal identification number
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
for accessing other people's voicemails in material seized from Mulcaire and Goodman. In April 2010, it was revealed from Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
documents that although police had named only eight individuals in court, the Scotland Yard inquiry had actually uncovered over 4,000 names or partial names and nearly 3,000 full or partial telephone numbers from the materials seized from Mulcaire and Goodman.
In February 2010 The Guardian revealed that under Coulson the News of the World had rehired a private investigator shortly after his release from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail. The News of the World had used the investigator prior to his imprisonment, at a time when Coulson was deputy editor. In February 2010, The Guardian could not name Jonathan Rees
Jonathan Rees
Jonathan Rees was a private investigator, and former partner of Daniel Morgan-Biography:In 1984, with partner Daniel Morgan, he set up a detective agency, Southern Investigations, in Thornton Heath, Surrey.-Murder of Daniel Morgan:...
as he was involved in a new criminal trial.
In September 2010 The Guardian revealed that in 2009 plans by the Home Office to ask Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland in the United Kingdom have statutory responsibility for the inspection of police forces.-England and Wales:...
to review the police investigation into the phone hacking scandal were cancelled "after intense internal lobbying", with a senior Home Office official warning that the Metropolitan Police would "deeply resent" an inquiry. Several days later the paper revealed comments by former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan on how widespread phone hacking had been under Andy Coulson; McMullan was one of six former News of the World journalists "who have independently told the Guardian that Coulson ... knew that his reporters were engaging in unlawful acts.".
The New York Times
In September 2010, The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published the results of an investigation it had begun in March which revealed further details about the extent of the News of the Worlds phone hacking, and about editor Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...
's alleged knowledge of it. The investigation also revealed that a journalist at the News of the World had been attempting to hack into the voicemail messages of a "television personality" in 2010. The journalist was suspended from reporting and faced legal action by the personality.
The Times piece cited Sean Hoare
Sean Hoare
Sean Hoare was a British entertainment journalist. He contributed to articles on show business, from actors to reality television stars...
, a former colleague, as saying that Coulson had "actively encouraged" phone hacking. Coulson denied the claims and indicated that he would allow himself to be questioned by the Metropolitan Police Service
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
regarding the phone hacking affair.
Press Complaints Commission investigations
The Guardian's 2009 investigation led the Press Complaints CommissionPress Complaints Commission
The Press Complaints Commission is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines...
to reopen its inquiry into the matter (finding that it had not been "materially misled", leading The Guardians editor Alan Rusbridger
Alan Rusbridger
Alan Charles Rusbridger is the editor of the British newspaper The Guardian. He has also been a reporter and a columnist.-Early life:...
to resign from the PCC) and the Culture, Media and Sport Committee to reopen its inquiry.
2009 review of original investigation
In light of the new allegations in The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in July 2009, the Metropolitan Police Service
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson asked his assistant commissioner John Yates to review the original 2006 investigation for new evidence. In one 8-hour meeting, Yates reviewed the investigation and decided not to take any further action. In a public statement later, and in a July 2009, appearance at the Home Affairs Select Committee
Home Affairs Select Committee
The Home Affairs Select Committee is a Committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-Remit:The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons Select Committees related to government departments: its terms of reference are to examine "the expenditure,...
, he said of the initial investigation that he "found it to be satisfactory." In a direct response to John Prescott, who had been particular outraged at the fact that police did not inform him of his phone being hacked, Yates specifically stated that there was no material evidence that Prescott's phone had been hacked. Yates then passed his findings back to the Chief Constable, and in agreement with lawyers and the head of the Crown Prosecution Service Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer, QC, is a barrister in England and Wales. He became the fourteenth Director of Public Prosecutions and the sixth head of the Crown Prosecution Service on 1 November 2008...
, agreed that no further action need be taken, and the case not re-opened. The Metropolitan Police hence declined to re-open their hacking inquiry in response to the claims in The Guardian stating that "no additional evidence has come to light" and it "therefore consider[ed] that no further investigation is required".
2010
The original Metropolitan Police investigation attracted renewed attention in April 2010, when it emerged that Andy HaymanAndy Hayman
Andrew Christopher "Andy" Hayman, CBE, QPM is a retired British police officer and author of The Terrorist Hunters. Hayman held the rank of Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary and Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at London's Metropolitan Police, the highest ranking officer...
, an assistant commissioner and the officer responsible for overseeing the original 2006 Scotland Yard inquiry, had quit the police force to work for News International as a columnist.
In September 2010, with the opening of parliamentary inquiries following The New York Times investigation, the Metropolitan Police also indicated its intention to re-examine the allegations regarding the News of the World, saying that it would consider new information that it had received.
2011
In January 2011, following evidence emerging from the civil case by Sienna Miller, the Crown Prosecution Service announced a review of the evidence collected during the Metropolitan Police's original investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World. The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, said that the decision was motivated in part by developments in the civil courts.In April 2011 the Metropolitan Police admitted that in the previous four years it had only contacted 36 people to warn them that they might have been victims of phone hacking.
Operation Weeting
The Metropolitan Police announced on 26 January 2011, that it would begin a new and fresh investigation into the phone hacking affair, following the receipt of "significant new information" regarding the conduct of News of the World employees. Operation Weeting would take place alongside the previously announced review of phone hacking evidence by the Crown Prosecution Service.Parliamentary investigations
In December 2009, a parliamentary question was tabled about the possible tapping of minister Tessa JowellTessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood since 1992. Formerly a member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she is currently the Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London.-Early life:Tessa Jane...
's phone.
Select Committee report (2009 - February 2010)
Tom WatsonTom Watson (politician)
Thomas Anthony Watson is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East since 2001. Watson was a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009...
, the Labour MP for West Bromwich East, played a key role in bringing the revelations about phone hacking into the open. Watson was concerned by alleged press misconduct, as were his colleagues Chris Bryant
Chris Bryant
Christopher John Bryant is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Rhondda since 2001...
, the MP for Rhondda
Rhondda (UK Parliament constituency)
Rhondda is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
, Khalid Mahmood
Khalid Mahmood
Khalid Mahmood is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Perry Barr since 2001.-Political career:...
, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, and Sion Simon
Siôn Simon
Siôn Llewelyn Simon is a British Labour politician, who served as the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Erdington from 2001 to 2010. Simon was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Creative Industries...
, then MP for Birmingham Erdington. Watson joined the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in 2009, under the chairmanship of Conservative MP John Whittingdale
John Whittingdale
John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale OBE, , is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1992.-Education:...
, specifically to pose questions to leading figures in News International about the ethics at both The Sun and the News of the World, and allowing him to quiz Andy Coulson, who was director of communications for the Conservative Party, about his role at the News of the World.
In July 2009, in evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into privacy and libel issues that also covered the phone hacking affair, News of the World editor Colin Myler
Colin Myler
Colin Myler is a British former newspaper editor.Myler grew up in Widnes in Cheshire. He started his career working for the Catholic Pictorial news agency in Southport, before joining The Sun and then the Daily Mail. He was appointed news editor of the Sunday People, then moved to Today in 1985,...
placed on record that a sum of £700,000 was agreed to be paid to PFA chief Gordon Taylor by News International's head of legal affairs, Tom Crone. This was supported and agreed by Myler, with final approval given from News International executive chairman James Murdoch.
On 24 February 2010, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee issued their report. It condemned the testimony of the News of the World witnesses, referring to "collective amnesia" and "deliberate obfuscation", and noted News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks' refusal to appear at all. The Committee concluded:
Other News International newspapers, including The Sun and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, downplayed the report, devoting minimal coverage to it and emphasising the News of the Worlds response.
New inquiries (September 2010)
In the wake of the renewed allegations in September 2010, from The New York Times, the Home Affairs Select CommitteeHome Affairs Select Committee
The Home Affairs Select Committee is a Committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-Remit:The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons Select Committees related to government departments: its terms of reference are to examine "the expenditure,...
in London opened a new inquiry into phone hacking. Two days after the Home Affairs Select Committee announced its inquiry, the House of Commons voted to refer allegations of hacking against politicians to the Standards and Privileges Committee, with the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.
News Corporation internal re-investigation
News International started an investigation of the evidence within the companies files, headed by group general manager Will LewisWilliam Lewis (journalist)
William Lewis is a British journalist who is a member of News Corporation's Management and Standards Committee. It is responsible for helping the police and other bodies find out the facts about the News of the World phone hacking scandal. The MSC is also charged with implementing new rules for...
. Lewis quickly came across an email which referred to "the file" at the solicitors, and in December 2010, subsequently obtained all records held by Harbottle & Lewis regarding Clive Goodman's 2007 claim for unfair dismissal. Shocked at the content within the more than 200 emails, Lewis passed the file to another law firm, Hickman Rose.
In January 2011, this firm engaged Ken Macdonald, Lord Macdonald QC, the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
, to provide a report to the board of News Corporation on the contents of the emails. Macdonald's report stated that he found evidence of indirect hacking, breaches of national security and serious crime; he closed on advising them to immediately call the police. After a board meeting in New York chaired by Rupert Murdoch in January 2011, when Macdonald's report and recommendations were accepted in full, Macdonald immediately passed 11 emails in evidence formally to Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick
Cressida Dick
Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, QPM is a senior officer in London's Metropolitan Police. Before 2005 she attracted little media attention, but became well-known as having been the officer in command of the operation which led to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes...
.
Subsequently the News of the World disclosed that it had suspended Ian Edmondson
Ian Edmondson
Ian Edmondson is a British tabloid journalist. He was the news editor at the News of the World. Edmondson was arrested by the Metropolitan police in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:...
, saying that it would take "appropriate action" if the litigation or the paper's own internal investigation found evidence of wrongdoing by any staff. News International announced that they had sacked Ian Edmondson
Ian Edmondson
Ian Edmondson is a British tabloid journalist. He was the news editor at the News of the World. Edmondson was arrested by the Metropolitan police in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:...
on 26 January 2011, the same day that the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Weeting
Operation Weeting
Operation Weeting is a British police investigation that commenced on 26 January 2011, under the Specialist Crime Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service into allegations of phone hacking in the News of the World phone hacking affair...
.
Hugh Grant
In April 2011 actor Hugh GrantHugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
published an article in the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
entitled "The Bugger, Bugged" about a conversation following a chance encounter with Paul McMullan, former journalist and paparazzo for News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
. In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Grant, McMullan alleged that editors at the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
and News of the World, particularly Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...
, had ordered journalists to engage in illegal phone tapping and had done so with the full knowledge of senior British politicians. McMullan also said that every British Prime Minister from Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
onwards had cultivated a close relationship with Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
and his senior executives. He stressed the friendship between David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
and Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), agreeing when asked that both of them must have been aware of illegal phone tapping, and asserting that Cameron's inaction could be explained by self-interest:
"Cameron is very much in debt to Rebekah Wade for helping him not quite win the election... So that was my submission to parliament – that Cameron's either a liar or an idiot."
When asked by Grant whether Cameron had encouraged the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
to "drag their feet" on investigating illegal phone tapping by Murdoch's journalists, McMullan agreed that this had happened, but also stated that the police themselves had taken bribes from tabloid journalists, so had a motive to comply:
"20 per cent of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms?... And what's wrong with that, anyway? It doesn't hurt anyone particularly."
Grant's article attracted considerable interest, due to both the revelatory content of the taped conversation, and the novelty of Grant himself "turning the tables" on a tabloid journalist.
Whilst the allegations regarding the News of the World continued to receive coverage in the broadsheets and similar media (Grant appeared for example on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
) it was only with the revelation that the voicemail of the then missing and subsequently murdered Millie Dowler had been hacked, and evidence in her murder enquiry had been deleted, that the coverage turned from media interest to widespread public (and eventually political) outrage. Grant became something of a spokesman against Murdoch's News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, culminating in a bravura performance on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Question Time
Question Time (TV series)
Question Time is a topical debate BBC television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?. The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer questions put to them by the audience...
in July 2011.
Further investigations
Further investigations (beyond News of the World and/or beyond phone hacking) developed in 2011. Some of these also revealed further details of the phone hacking and of News International's handling of the phone hacking.See also
- CTB v News Group NewspapersCTB v News Group NewspapersCTB v News Group Newspapers is an English legal case between Manchester United player Ryan Giggs, given the pseudonym CTB, and defendants News Group Newspapers Limited and model Imogen Thomas....
- List of alleged victims of the News of the World phone hacking scandal
- Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited
- Politico-media complexPolitico-media complexThe politico-media complex is a name that has been given to the close, systematized, symbiotic-like network of relationships between a state's political and ruling classes, its media industry, and any interactions with or dependencies upon interest groups with other domains and agencies, such as...
- Sheridan v News InternationalSheridan v News InternationalSheridan v News Group Newspapers is a civil court case brought by Tommy Sheridan against the publishers of the News of the World, which began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 July 2006...