Tag Archives: phone hacking

Phone Hacking Trial: Sun political editor claimed evidence of non-existent affair between Home Sec and special adviser, court hears – Martin Hickman

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An extraordinary story of how surveillance and phone hacking were used to try and stand up a baseless story that former Labour home secretary Charles Clarke was having an affair. This time the ” victim” put an end to the tale by telling Trevor Kavanagh, then the Sun’s political editor, by refusing his offer to ” confess” and instead warning him that it was untrue and he would sue. Another murky look into the worst side of the tabloid world.

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Charles ClarkeDay 14:  The Sun’s political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, confronted a Home Secretary claiming to have “evidence” of a non-existent affair, the phone hacking trial was told today.  

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Phone Hacking Trial: Transcript and recording of Prince Harry’s voicemail found at royal editor’s home, jury told – Martin Hickman

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The scale of hacking by the News of the World into Prince Harry’s voicemail and his Royal aides is revealed after the police seized transcripts and recordings from the then Royal Editor Clive Goodman’s home. Another example of News International story searching at the time.

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harryDay 13 (cont):   The News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman had a verbatim transcript of a voicemail left by Prince Harry, the hacking trial was told today. The document and a poor-quality recording of the mobile phone message were seized by police from Mr Goodman’s home in south-west London in 2006, the court was told.

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How love cheat Andy Coulson turned over David Blunkett- Hacking Trial

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andy coulson -turned over David Blunkett Pic courtesy: Press Gazette

andy coulson -turned over David Blunkett Pic courtesy: Press Gazette

Details of how the police discovered highly personal messages between David Blunkett and Kimberley Quinn in a News International lawyer’s safe were revealed at the hacking trial today.
A report by Martin Hickman on the Hacked Off website also shows how Andy Coulson faced up David Blunkett – knowing possibly they had hacked phones of close colleagues – and was happy to intrude into Blunkett’s private life.
He reports: Transcripts of “deeply personal and intrusive” messages between Labour politician David Blunkett and his lover Kimberly Quinn were found in a safe at Britain’s biggest newspaper group, the hacking trial heard today.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC, told the jury that a series of mobile phone messages left for the publisher by the then Home Secretary were recovered from News International lawyer Tom Crone’s safe.”
…”Mr Blunkett had left voicemails on Mrs Quinn’s mobile phone in July 2004, in the weeks before the News of the World revealed the relationship in a front-page splash. A “draft” story about the affair, in which the writer chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck had used the children’s character’s Noddy and Big Ears in place of Mr Blunkett and Mrs Quinn, was also discovered in Mr Crone’s safe.”
Later Coulson faced up Blunkett.
Martin Hickman reports: “The court was later played a tape of a 20-minute meeting between Mr Coulson and Mr Blunkett on 13 August 2004 in which the journalist asked the politician to confirm the affair.

During the meeting, which took place two days before the story was published and which Mr Blunkett recorded, Mr Blunkett maintained that his private life should stay private. He asked Mr Coulson: “You’re asking me to say I’ve had a relationship with a married woman?”

Mr Coulson responded: “I want nothing more.”

One can only admire the audacity of a man putting down a Labour Cabinet minister in the very year he ended a six year clandestine relationship with Rebekah Brooks ( then Wade). The real salacious story seems to be their relationship which of course was not to be published. Obviously not in the public interest. Luckily for them nobody tapped their phones.

Secret Murdoch recording : Exaro nominated in 2013 British Journalism Awards

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Exaro has been nominated for the the ‘breaking news award’, marking the ‘best story of the year’ in the 2013 British Journalism awards.
The tale which came from one of my sources revealed what Murdoch really thought about the phone hacking and bribery scandals and disclosed his fury about the police investigation.
There is also a tale on this site.
The story put together under Mark Watts, Exaro’s editor, was a team effort with a lot of input from Alex Varley-Winter.
Separately Fiona O’Cleirigh has been nominated for her series on Coiste for the ‘new journalist of the year’. The story was about £1.3m EU aid being given to an ex IRA prisoners group.
The full list of nominations are on the UK Press Gazette’s website.
AS you can see there will be stiff competition from the nationals but last year Exaro did achieve a breakthrough when I won Political Journalist of the year for the exposure of Ed Lester’s tax arrangements while he was head of the Student Loans Company.

Phone Hacking Trial: Journalists told police they hacked Milly Dowler’s phone, court hears – Martin Hickman

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Relationships between the News of the World and Surrey police are laid bare at today’s court hearing. The police repeatedly heard the hacked messages from murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone and did nothing to investigate the hacking. The paper obviously realised it had committed a big error in revealing the hacked messages when it removed verbatim quotes on the phone from the story in its second edition on April 15 2002.

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News of the WorldDay 7: Journalists at the News of the World repeatedly told Surrey police that they had listened to messages on Milly Dowler’s phone, the hacking trial heard today. Senior members of staff investigating the 13-year-old’s disappearance told the force that the paper had heard her voicemails on at least three occasions, the Old Bailey heard.

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Life too frenetic to notice reporters hacking phones – Andy Coulson’s defence

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andy coulson - too frenetic a lifestyle to notice phone hacking. Pic courtesy: Press Gazette

andy coulson – too frenetic a lifestyle to notice phone hacking. Pic courtesy: Press Gazette

Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor and David Cameron’s press secretary is to amount an extraordinary defence that life was so busy at the News of the World that he didn’t know about phone hacking.
A report by Martin Hickman on the Hacked Off website tonight reveals Coulson plans to take the stand to defend himself on all charges.
His lawyer Timothy Langdale, QC, told the jury that they had heard “only one side of the story.”
Among the extraordinary quotes he promised the former News International employee would tell the Old Bailey trial was that life was so frentic he hadn’t noticed any phone hacking nor authorised bribery payments to police officers.
His lawyer said David Cameron’s former director of communications had not taken part in any wrongdoing and would paint a picture of the frenetic pace of life inside the News of the World, when a mass of information passed his desk.
Competition inside the Sunday tabloid was “perhaps at times unhealthy” and journalists “wanted to impress”, Mr Langdale told the Old Bailey.
Referring to the claim that his client had approved royal editor Clive Goodman’s requests to pay corrupt police officers, Mr Langdale said: “He does not believe Mr Goodman had done or was doing any such thing.”
The prosecution was mistaken in its belief that if messages were hacked by Glen Mulcaire or others at the paper that the editor must have known, he added.
Amazing what little editors know about!

Phone Hacking “Trial of the Century” begins tomorrow: eight defendants face a total of seven charges

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This is going to be very interesting as alongside Rupert Murdoch must be wondering whether his company may face corporate charges. This follows the two secret recordings of his and former chief executive Tom Mockridge released on the Exaro website over the last few weeks, particularly as Murdoch’s private views are in the hands of the Met Police.

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Brooks and CoulsonThe first phone-hacking trial begins next week before Mr Justice Saunders and a jury in Court 12 at the Central Criminal Court (the “Old Bailey”) in London on Monday 28 October 2013.  The first day or two are expected to be taken up with legal argument and the selection of the jury so the prosecution opening is not likely to begin until Tuesday or Wednesday. The trial is expected to last at least 4 months.

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Exaro Exclusive: £1bn bill for phone hacking says Murdoch ex chief exec

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Tom Mockridge Pic couretsy mediaweek.co.uk

Tom Mockridge Pic couretsy mediaweek.co.uk

In the second comprehensive leak of a meeting from the Murdoch Empire Tom Mockridge,now the former chief executive of News International, has admitted that News Corp is facing a bill of up to £1 billion just to cope with the phone hacking scandal.
He also discloses in the second transcript of a private meeting last November obtained by Exaro News that without US backing every UK paper -including the Sun and the Sunday Times – would now be closed down because of huge costs.
This is the second secret recording – the first revealed what Rupert Murdoch really thought about the hacking scandal.
In the new secret recording,Mockridge says: “There’s a shitload of just financial expense – across the civil cases,” he says. “The hacking probably, by the time it’s all over, is going to cost News Corp minimum of £500 million, if not a billion.”
On the future of NI in Britain he says: “If NI wasn’t a subsidiary to News Corporation, this company would be bankrupt now. There wouldn’t be a Sun, a Times, a Sunday Times. There’s no way this company, as a stand-alone operation, could afford to financially sustain the exposure it’s taken.”
The rest of the conversation is spiced with racy comments describing what has happened to NI as ” open heart surgery”. Lawyers who conducted the investigation into NI are described as ” bastards” and he gives the strongest commitment to saying NI will keep employing arrested journos even if found guilty in the courts.
Mr Mockridge now has a new job as chief executive of Virgin Media. News UK- the successor to News International – didn’t want to know about his comments while they employed him yesterday. A terse statement to Exaro said: “Tom Mockridge no longer works for the company”.
With a trial imminent I feel constrained from commenting except to say these figures are far higher than anything that has been revealed to shareholders and don’t include costs for other actions. However on the Inforrm blog there is a good comment piece by Michelle Stanistreet, president of the National Union of Journalists on the present situation facing journalists.

Hacking scandal:Trevor,You don’t have to bribe people to get scoops

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The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh: Defender of the Press? Pic courtesy : digitalhen

Trevor Kavanagh, the Sun’s most vociferous associate editor, has launched an extraordinary attack on the police operations which led to the arrest of a number of very senior Sun journalists. Using language I normally associate with my former employer, The Guardian, he condemns the police for disproportionate action and speaks of a police state and witch hunts against News International. (See http://bit.ly/we4MKo )

 My heart bleeds for him in one sense. Yes, you are right, it doesn’t take dawn raids and 20 police officers to arrest one unfortunate Sun hack. As far as I know they are not the equivalent of armed drugs gang. I am sure you wrote lots of articles in the Sun condemning the tactics of the Scotland Yard’s  former  assistant commissioner, John Yates, when he used the same approach against Lord Levy and Blair’s Downing Street staff in the ” Cash for Honours ” investigation. (this needed investigating but some of the tactics were disproportionate.)

Where I do quarrel with him is his implication that somehow allegations of bribing police officers ( which I gather is the reason for all this) is an essential tool of journalism to expose scandals to save Britain from turning into a corrupt cesspit.

It isn’t. If you think so it sends out all the wrong messages and puts journalism in the dock – and encourages a culture where money is the main motive and moral outrage irrelevant.

Without meaning to be pompous, I have just managed to get by in a long journalist career without paying anyone ( other than professional journalists who are making a living from passing on information) and still produced the odd exclusive.

I may appear to be naive at times but nobody needed paying to expose the ” cash for questions” scandal in the 1990s nor that Peter Mandelson had taken an undeclared £373,000 home loan from a  fellow minister.

Nor did any money change hands in the latest scandal of Ed Lester, the student loans company chief, and his tax affairs – just one  morally outraged source, a few beers, and a well targeted freedom of information request.

Of course, not all leaks are based on moral outrage. Base motives and deadly sins could be involved. By removing money from the equation – it gets rid of one motive and also stops people ” over egging” the information to make more cash.

My main disagreement with you is there has been something wrong in the practice of journalism and it does need cleaning up. I haven’t a clue whether these journalists  are guilty or innocent – or in doing their jobs have been corrupted by a culture that ended up being corrupt itself.

But I think you are being a little too disingenuous to suggest the fabric of investigative journalism is about to collapse because of these actions. There are many other practices  – not least the current financial collapse of newspapers – that are much more deadly.