FORMER U.K. MEDIA MINISTER CLAIMS PHONE WAS HACKED

Tessa Jowell, who held the position of Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in Tony Blair’s cabinet, is the latest public figure to claim that her phone was hacked — possibly by reporters for the Sunday tabloid News of the World. She disclosed today (Friday) that she had learned that her phone had been hacked on 28 separate occasions. In an interview with ITV News, Jowell said, “The police hold whatever information they were able to retrieve as a result of their inquiries but, without a court order, they can’t give out information to me and obviously what I’m concerned about is how, which of my friends, my family, were also hacked into at the same time.” Meanwhile, criticism of Scotland Yard for its failure to investigate the alleged hacking continues to mount. Several figures have accused police of sidestepping a complete probe because they often rely on information from News of the World reporters for their own criminal investigations. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith said, “The fact that a powerful newspaper organization has abused its position and broken laws in this way is bad enough. … But failure by the police to properly investigate it is even more serious.” However, acting police commissioner Tim Godwin told the BBC that previously, he had been “asked to act on rumor, innuendo and gossip. I have always said we will respond to any new evidence and that is exactly what we have done today.”