I would not have been surprised if the long summer parliamentary recess and the commencement of summer school holidays had resulted in little if anything being further in relation to the News of the World criminal scandals. I also did not anticipate further arrests of News International or Corporation employees, or police officers and private investigators until the autumn, if at all. I also anticipated there would be no further release of information of individuals contacted by the police having been advised they had been included on the Mulcaire list.
There are several factors which immediately come to mind for having such a viewpoint. The first is the absence of key politicians on holiday and their awareness that revelations made when Parliament reassembles will prove more effective in commanding the attention of national and international media.
There are the interests of victims such as the families of those killed in 7/7 or in Iraq and Afghanistan or in some individual crime horror who will not want their involvement to become pubic knowledge if possible, or at least until they have been able to digest the development, take counsel and decide if they propose to take action themselves.
There is the interest of the accused to ensure that get a fair trial. Recently a man arrested in relation to murder of a young woman resident in a small flat development where eight newspapers rivalled each other in producing lurid and fictitious stories about his private life had to admit their damaging falsehood resulting in payments and apologies, and with two papers also prosecuted by the Attorney General for action which potentially would have interfered with the course of justice had the individual been charged, whereas someone is being prosecuted. One of the papers is appealing on grounds of a technicality.
There is also the issue that in addition to any prosecution being in the public interest which evidently this subject is, there is the associated rule that a prosecution of an individual, however guilty of an offence, is unlikely to succeed if the accused can demonstrate that others in the same set of circumstances are not or have not been prosecuted. This I suspect was the situation regarding some 80 to 90 individuals who technically occupied a London store where they did not damage with the store to the property or physically attacked staff and who left the building when asked by the police to do so. All they did is to sit in store as a group and prevented normal business being conducted. The problem facing the authorities is that the use of information and communication technology by the security services, the police, large corporations, and the media has become so widespread that prosecuting everyone directly engaged, involved in authorizations and making or receiving payments could result in hundreds of prosecutions, if not thousands.
Yesterday there were two events which suggested that there are those in the media who will take any and every opportunity to keep the story in the public eye so as to keep up pressure on the politicians, the police and the rest of media to clean up its act in a fundamental and lasting way. There was an important discussion on BBC Radio 4 between several individuals including the Editor of the Guardian on the question of whether the scandal would have lasting impact for the good. The spectrum of opinion from Yes, Perhaps to Unlikely was expressed with general agreement that one of the fundamental changes required was in the way the media, politicians and the police had become meshed in a negative way leading to criminal acts being inappropriately covered up. That it had was also counter to good democracy for a few unelected media moguls to have such personal political power and it was to be hoped that senior politicians will never again become fearful of the power of the moguls to campaign against them as individuals or collectively as a Political Party. There was also need for a radical review of the police particularly the command structure of the Metropolitan Police and its needs for such a large public relations department. There was the issue of the printed press and Internet Communication regulation with an effective independent monitoring and complaints system required which should not be statutory if something proving to be effective can be established. (and my additional thought that it is unrealistic to anticipate there will be a voluntary denial of the illegal use of the technology so deterrent punishment will be required).
The second development yesterday was the arrest and house search of the former Managing Editor of the News of the World who is among those who have given evidence to the Commons Committees on how national Newspapers work and had separately explained he was the person who controlled the budgets and allocated the money for payments including payments in cash. He had authorised a six figure sum for the work of Mr Mulcaire
However while the equivalent of the finance officer in most businesses, the Treasurer of a local authority, Paymaster in the Military do have considerable power which they sometimes exercise unilaterally, they usually work to detailed frameworks and rules with their work audited and to the policies, general directions and specific instructions of more senior executives Chief Executives and General managers and to the organisation owners such as Executive Directors on behalf of the shareholders and or Ministers and Councillors on behalf of the electorate in central and local government.
This is why commentators suggested that the arrest yesterday could prove the most significant especially as the basis of the arrest covered corruption of the police as well as authorization payments to private investigations. In this respect it is significant that Mr Mulcaire who provided the police and prosecutors with all the material now being used nearly a decade later was imprisoned has not been reported to have been rearrested, unlike the Journalist who had given him a list of targets Mr Goodman.
It is difficult to keep up with the names and position of all those who have been arrested since April and I could find no immediate list via the Internet. Fortunately one of the 24 hours news channelled provided a chart with photos which filled in the missing names and numbers.
Three were arrested in April 2001. (1) James Weatherup, Assistant Editor was reported to have been involved with some major fiscal issues, "managing huge budgets" and "crisis management" at the newspaper. Weatherup was a colleague of chief reporter
(2) Neville Thurlbeck and the former assistant news editor and the subject for the For Neville emails.
(3) Ian Edmondson Assistant News Editor, suspended and arrested.
In July former News of the World editor and David Cameron's former Director of Communications
(4) Andy Coulson
(5) Neil Wallis former executive editor 2007 to 2009 who had been deputy to Mr Coulson when he joined he paper in 2003.
(6) Rebekah Brooks, who until her resignation was Chief Executive for News International having been editor of the News of the World prior to Mr Coulson.
(7) Clive Goodman previously imprisoned was rearrested.
(8) Woman 1. I have her name and who I believe is a journalist who has been told that no further action is to be taken
(9) Woman (2). I also have her name and a journalist but have no found corroborating information
(10) An unidentified private detective
And now in August
(11) Stuart Kuttner Former Managing Editor at the News of the World.
Interestingly he has been bailed to appear again next month whereas in relation to those arrested in July the stated date has been October.
In addition to the number of arrests other employees of News Corp and International have resigned, been suspended or dismissed.
News International's legal manager Tom Crone left the company on 13 July. “As part of his role at the publisher, Crone had served as the News of the World's chief lawyer and gave evidence before parliamentary committees stating that he had uncovered no evidence of phone hacking beyond the criminal offences committed by the royal editor Clive Goodman. He maintains that he did not see an internal report suggesting that phone hacking at the paper reached more widely than Goodman.” (Wikipedia)
Les Hinton resigned as the chief executive of the News Corporation subsidiary Dow Jones & Company “Hinton had served as chief executive of News International between 1997, and 2005. He had previously told parliamentary committees that there was "never any evidence" of phone hacking beyond the case of Clive Goodman. In his resignation announcement, Hinton said that he was not told of "evidence that wrongdoing went further", but indicated that he nevertheless felt it "proper" to resign from his position.”
Matt Nixson was escorted by security from the Wapping headquarters of The Sun newspaper the evening of 20 July 2011. “His computer was seized by News International officials and the police were said to have been informed. Nixson was a features editor at The Sun. It was reported that Nixson's dismissal is related to the time he spent at the News of the World from 2006, when it was edited by Coulson. At the News of the World he reported to assistant editor Ian Edmondson. “
The present Police Commissioner and Assistant Police Commissioner concerned with Anti Terrorism have resigned together with the Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission
It has also been possible to obtain an update the list of inquiries underway
(1)Crown Prosecution Service Review of Phone Hacking January 2011
(2) Operation Weeting being conducted by the Specialist Crime Directorate at Scotland Yard into the material previously accumulated in relation to phone hacking now under DAPC Akers.
(3) Operation Elveden investigating payments to Police Officers also under DAPC Akers with 3 people arrested but not known if these are those listed above
(4) Operation Tuleta into Computer hacking reporting to Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Akers.
(5) House of Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs has published a report
(6) House of Commons Select Committee on Media, Culture and Sport has taken evidence but not reported.
In addition the (7) Press Complaints Commission is investigating
An investigation of the relationship between Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and Neil Wallis, and the Commissioner's stay at Champneys health resort
An investigation into the conduct of Assistant Commissioner John Yates, with regards his review of the original investigation in 2009
An investigation into the conduct of Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, with regards his conduct within the original investigation in 2007
An investigation into the conduct of Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, with regards his conduct within the original investigation in 2007
An investigation into Met Police head of PR Dick Fedorcio, his links with Neil Wallis, and the circumstances under which the Met awarded a contract to Wallis's media consultancy firm Chamy Media
An investigation of the employment of Neil Wallis's daughter Amy with the Metropolitan Police, alleged to have been at the request of John Yates
(8) On 18 July 2011, it was announced that former parliamentary commissioner for standards Elizabeth Filkin would "recommend changes to links between the police and the media, including how to extend transparency.
(9) and (10) On 6 July 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron announced to Parliament that a public government inquiry would convene to further investigate the affair. On 13 July, Cameron named Lord Justice Leveson as chairman of the inquiry, with a remit to look into the specific claims about phone hacking at the News of the World, the initial police inquiry and allegations of illicit payments to police by the press, and a second inquiry to review the general culture and ethics of the British media.
On 20 July 2011, Mr Cameron announced in a speech to Parliament the final terms of reference of Leveson's inquiry, stating that it will extend beyond newspapers to include broadcasters and social media. He also announced a panel of six people who will work with the judge on the inquiry:
Sir David Bell, former chairman of the Financial Times
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty
Lord Currie, former Ofcom director
Elinor Goodman, former political editor of Channel 4 News
George Jones, former political editor of the Daily Telegraph
Sir Paul Scott-Lee QPM, former Chief Constable of West Midlands Police
The USA Department of Justice is also conducting an inquiry
It is also understood that the Police are re-examining the information gained in Operation Motorman conducted in 2003 with the Commissioner for Information
It has also been agreed that Senior Politicians of all parties with provide online information of their contacts, including social contacts with Executives and Owners of the (News) media.
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