POLICE PROBE OF U.K. HACKING SCANDAL TO COST $60 MILLION

While much has been written about the enormous cost to News Corp of the telephone hacking scandal in the U.K., little has been written about the cost to the British taxpayer. But Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Sue Akers has put a figure on the costs of the three parallel investigations: Operation Weeting, which focuses on […]

FORMER NEWS INTERNATIONAL CHIEF QUESTIONED AGAIN BY POLICE

Rebekah Brooks, once regarded as the most powerful woman in the British news media, was questioned by police again today (Thursday) purportedly about new evidence of illegal activity turned over to them by News Corp’s management and standards committee. Brooks was arrested last week on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, a […]

ANOTHER MURDOCH PAPER CAUGHT IN SCANDAL — THE LONDON TIMES

Despite repeated assertions by News Corp executives, including James Murdoch, the former chairman of News International, which oversees the company’s British newspapers, that it intends to be “transparent” with the investigators probing the hacker scandal, yet another Murdoch-owned newspaper has been tainted by revelations of apparent cover-up of criminal conduct. Appearing before the inquiry on […]

WHY HAS MURDOCH RETURNED ARRESTED REPORTERS TO WORK?

Tom Watson, the Labor MP who has spearheaded the investigation into allegedly unethical and illegal activities by journalists working for Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers in the U.K., has raised questions about Murdoch’s decision to allow the 10 reporters working for The Sun who were arrested in connection with the scandal to return to work. In a […]

NEW ARREST IN NEWS CORP HACKING SCANDAL

Scotland Yard has made a 17th arrest in connection with its investigation of voicemail hacking conducted by the now-defunct News of the World. Although it did not release the name of the arrested figure, news reports indicated that the person was Cheryl Carter, who had worked as former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks’s personal assistant […]

POLICE FIND PHONE USED BY TABLOID FOR HACKING — IN ITS NEWSROOM

Scotland Yard has learned that a “secret phone” within the newsroom of the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid was used to hack into 1,150 telephone numbers between 2004 and 2006, the London Independent reported today, citing no sources. The newspaper said that the phone even had a nickname, “the hub,” and that police regard […]

CRUCIAL POLICE DOCUMENTS MISSING IN HACKING PROBE

Documents that might have revealed whether John Stevens, the former Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), frequently met with senior editors of News of the World and other executives of Rupert Murdoch’s news operations in the U.K. have suddenly gone missing, the London Independent reported today (Thursday). Responding to a Freedom of Information request, […]

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ASKS NEWS CORP ABOUT PAYMENTS TO POLICE

The Justice Department has sent a Letter of Request to News Corp officials requesting more information about allegations that its News International unit made payments to London police for information that was used in its British newspapers. News Corp is an American corporation and as such is subject to the rules of the Foreign Corrupt […]

HUGH GRANT BLASTS POLICE, M.P.S, ON PHONE HACKING PROBES

Hugh Grant, one of the most outspoken celebrity victims of telephone hacking by the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World, has decried the decision by Scotland Yard to invoke the Official Secrets Act to force journalists working for Britain’s Guardian newspaper to reveal their sources for reports alleging that News of the World reporters […]

SCOTLAND YARD CRITICIZED FOR QUESTIONING JOURNALIST

The conduct of Britain’s Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) vis-à-vis the news media has again come under the scrutiny of lawmakers after it was learned that Amelia Hill, a reporter for the Guardian newspaper who has been covering the phone-hacking scandal, was questioned by police “under caution.” (The legal terms means that the words of the […]

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