MORE CONFESSIONS OF PHONE HACKING BY U.K. TABLOID REPORTERS

A former deputy features editor at Rupert Murdoch’s London tabloid News of the World has claimed that 13 former colleagues have “confessed” to hacking into the voicemails of celebrities and politicians with the knowledge of former editor Andy Coulson, currently Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications director, the London Financial Times reported today (Monday). The features editor, Paul McMullan, told the FT, “I am perplexed [that] Andy Coulson keeps making absolute denials. Surely the best course would be [for Mr Coulson] to say, Some of my journalists hacked into people’s phones because that is the best way to get … a decent investigation in the public interest about matters of corruption.” However, an unnamed Conservative party member told the newspaper that it was “striking that none of the supposed 13 individuals” had come forth to corroborate McMullan’s claim. Labor members of Parliament, including former Columbia Pictures chief David Puttnam, now a member of the House of Lords, have claimed that Coulson acts as Murdoch’s surrogate at Cameron’s Downing Street address. On Saturday, Coulson was interviewed by Scotland Yard about the phone hacking. Downing Street later issued a statement noting, “Mr Coulson — who first offered to meet the police two months ago — was interviewed as a witness and was not cautioned or arrested.”