Tag Archives: rupert murdoch

Phone Hacking Trial: Ian Edmondson halted payments to Glenn Mulcaire a year before he was arrested, Old Bailey hears – Martin Hickman

Posted on by

This story reveals that Ian Edmondson, the News of the World news editor,accused alongside Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, of conspiring to hack phone messages, moved to cancel a £2,000 a week retainer to phone hacker, Glenn Mulcaire, as part of a cost saving exercise. The decision was taken 18 months before Mulcaire was arrested. An intervention by his defence lawyer makes it clear that he will be highlighting his attempts to sack Mulcaire to defend himself against the charges.

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

????????????????Day 18: News of the World news editor Ian Edmondson halted payments to the paper’s phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire a year before he was arrested, the hacking trial heard today. Mr Edmondson is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of conspiring with Mulcaire and other former colleagues to intercept voicemail messages between 2000 and 2006.

View original post 303 more words

Phone Hacking Trial: Murdoch executive packed up phone hacking suspect’s belongings on day of his arrest, court hears – Martin Hickman

Posted on by

This extraordinary story of a successful attempt to remove evidence from the News of the World’s office after James Weatherup, a news editor, who has already pleaded guilty of plotting phone hacking was arrested. No wonder the judge asked the witness,Frances Carmen, a former newsdesk secretary, to repeat the claims. Another story of an alleged cover up in the Murdoch empire

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

James WeatherupDay 17:  One of Rupert Murdoch’s senior executives packed up the belongings of a News of the World reporter suspected of phone hacking and sent them away from the newspaper’s offices in a taxi, the Old Bailey heard today. Paul Nicholas, Deputy Managing Editor of the News of the World, acted on the day in April 2011 that former news editor James Weatherup was arrested at his home in Essex, Frances Carmen, the paper’s newsdesk secretary, told the jury.

View original post 414 more words

Phone Hacking Trial: Sun lawyer: “possible” that he gave advice to journalists on phone hacking, Old Bailey hears – Martin Hickman

Posted on by

Lawyers are now under pressure at the Hacking Trial. Sun lawyer Justin Walford is pleading that he can’t remember whether he gave advice on phone hacking – rather like evidence given by the Murdochs to Parliament. But then he admits it is possible he did. As a former journo at the Guardian I know lawyers crawl over all copy before it is published, so his answers are at the very least rather interesting.

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

Brooks arriving at Old BaileyDay 16:  A senior lawyer today said today that it was “possible” he had given advice to Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group on phone hacking. Justin Walford, editorial legal counsel at News UK, who was being asked for a second time whether he had done so, went on to say: “I cannot remember.”

View original post 381 more words

Secret Murdoch recording : Exaro nominated in 2013 British Journalism Awards

Posted on by

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: NI security guards ‘used war film codewords’ during covert operation to hide evidence – Martin Hickman

Posted on by

This latest revelation about the behaviour of News International’s security guards from the hacking trial could come from a Boys Own comic if it wasn’t such a serious matter to conceal evidence from the police. Also says something about the mentality of Rupert Murdoch’s staff!

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

where-eagles-dareDay 6: Security guards working for News International used codewords from war films and the Cold War during a covert operation to hide evidence from the police, the Old Bailey heard today.

View original post 309 more words

Phone Hacking Trial Report: Coulson cleared payments to police for Queen’s private phone book, jury hears – Martin Hickman

Posted on by

Latest revelation of Coulson’s approval of corrupt £2000 cash payments to police two Royal directories – one with the Queen’s private no on it- illustrates the excesses the tabloids went to set up the hacking scandal- and they knew in internal emails they risked jail if they were found out.

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

Clive-GoodmanAndy Coulson approved two corrupt payments to “palace cops” despite being warned by one of his reporters that he risked criminal charges, the phone hacking trial heard today. 

View original post 640 more words

Phone Hacking Trial: Coulson-Brooks affair assists Crown’s conspiracy claim – Martin Hickman

Posted on by

At last one of Fleet Street’s best known secrets – the Coulson-Brooks affair becomes public. The 6 year affair was going on, it appears, while Milly Dowler’s phone was being hacked in 2002. This the prosecution allege is why the pair could easily conspire together to commit crimes!

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

Coulson BrooksThe News of the World ordered the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone on the same day it sympathised with her distraught parents’ anguish, the phone hacking trial heard today. Milly went missing near her home in Walton on Thames, Surrey, in March 2002, sparking a large public police investigation and a parallel, covert one at the News of the World, the Old Bailey was told.

View original post 471 more words

Phone Hacking Trial Report: Brooks and Coulson would have known about phone hacking at NoTW, jury is told – Martin Hickman

Posted on by

blistering report of the opening of the prosecution case against Rebekah Brooks in the great hacking trial on the Hacked Off and Inforrm blog websites.

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

Rebekah Brooks personally approved payment of almost £40,000 to a civil servant in return for information, the phone hacking trial heard today. Mrs Brooks was editing the Sun newspaper when the payments were made to the official, Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, told the jury.

View original post 836 more words

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

Posted on by

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.

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

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.

View original post 744 more words

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

Posted on by

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.