WHO HIRED PRIVATE EYE TO HACK INTO CELEBRITIES’ VOICEMAILS?

Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective who is accused of hacking into the voicemails of hundreds, if not thousands, of celebrities, politicians, and others, has filed an appeal against a court ruling that he cannot rely on his self-incrimination privilege when he testifies in a civil lawsuit brought by two alleged victims. The plaintiffs, British comedian Steve Coogan and PR rep Nicola Phillips, have indicated that they want to ask Mulcaire to name the executives at the now-defunct tabloid News of the World who hired him and who instructed him to intercept the voicemails. Meanwhile, at the Leveson hearing into the ethics of the media, the panel heard from singer Charlotte Church who described how she has been regularly besieged by photographers from the time she became famous while still in her teens and how she was advised to respect the power of the press. “I remember being told that Rupert Murdoch had asked me to sing at his wedding to Wendy Deng and it would take place on his yacht, in New York. She said her managers told her that she had been offered £100,000 to perform but that they had advised her to “do it as a favor” instead and thereby receive favorable coverage. Later television anchor Anne Diamond described how she found herself being besieged by tabloid reporters and photographers with long lenses. Diamond, who was a print journalist herself, said that ethical rules and guidelines for broadcasters are far stricter to preserve “taste and decency.” Despite those rules, she said, there is still “excellent journalism in broadcasting.”