The Leveson Inquiry into the conduct of the newsprint media and its relationship with the Police and Politicians has taken a two week break to assess the outcome of Module I to date and to prepare for Module II which concerns the conduct of the Police and Metropolitan Police in particular.
Sue Akers, the Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner responsible for the day to day management of Police Operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta updated her written evidence of November 2011 and as the first witness last week.
On the following Saturday Fleet Street was in shock as dawn raids, reputedly arrested five senior Journalists at the Sun Newspaper and several public officials. Despite assurance immediately given by Chief Executive Tom Mockridge every employee of the British Murdoch business by mail that there was no intention of closing or immediately selling the newspaper and that he planned to visit the UK this week, all the employees and several owners and editors of other newspaper held their breadth and continue to do so.
The closure of the Sun by management choice, in order to facilitate further police inquiries, or from a dramatic drop in advertising revenue and reader purchasing will not mean increased sales for the Mirror. the Mail and the Express and while the Sunday Sun and People did gain a spike in their sales following the closure of the News of the World, this had not been maintained. The Sun remains the Murdoch cash cow which also enables the Times and Sunday Times to keep going with the two said to lose over one hundred million a year while Sun brings in half a billion from its 2.75 million copies distributed each day. While Murdoch may have been able to place News of the World staff with the Sun or help them get other jobs in Fleet Street, with the media generally or in Public relations, retiring if appropriate, if the Sun goes, so does the Sunday version as the plan to create a new Sunday for the group after the dust has settled. It was in the long term of interests of Murdoch for the mud to have been spread all around Fleet through the Leveson Inquiry although in reality it is his papers and his involvement who remains the most damaged and more so that before.
The Police arrests came two days after Leveson commenced its break and the House of Commons went on half term. Given what DAC Akers said on the Monday I am confused about the total number of individual arrested in the three investigations so far and as I mentioned previously Tom Watson, one of the leaders of the allegations against the print media in Parliament did refer to a secret fourth police Inquiry during a Select Committee meeting which he even named before being cautioned by the chairman not to expand.
DAC Akers said that Operation Weeting commenced in January 2011 following two Metropolitan police Investigations - Operation Caryatid from 2006 to 2007 and Operation Varec in 2010. The first operation led to the convictions of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire with both sentenced to short terms of imprisonment in January 2007. The second commenced in September 2010 following allegations in the New York Times that Andy Coulson had known more about phone hacking that had been admitted. Operation Weeting commenced after News International had made information available to the Police. The original investigations will be the subject of close scrutiny in Module II of Leveson together with the action taking arising from Operation Motorman
Operation Weeting commenced with 11000 pages of Mulcaire documentation. She said these contained contain 5795 names of potential victims in the November statement, subsequently adjusted to 6349 The list includes Members of the Royal Household, Actors, victims of crime Police officers mincouding senior police officers and Journalists within the the News of the World.(Omitted from the statement are Politicians).
APC Akers skated over the failure to conduct a detailed invesitgation before and after trhe 2006 criminal proceedings and said that 2900 individuals (previously) 1800 had now been contacted to inform then whether their details appear in the documents seized.
In the written statement she recorded that of 1800 contacting the police some 600 appear in the documentation and have be spoken to and given the opportunity to see the documents. Some 200 have made inquiries and asked to see if their details appeared in the material. A number have indicated their wish that their information remains confidential.
She now explained that that 1578 individuals had now been informed of their inclusion in the material and the number of those identified as likely victims was presently 829 of which only 581 had been met of the difficulty of identifying and locating the remainder.
She explained that 17(13 in statement) individuals have been arrested under Weeting with all but 2 bailed to respond to their bail in March where it is likely that a further period of bail will follow. She indicated that other suspects were being investigated as the available material which could be used as evidence is being considered. There was 90 staff involved including 35 dedicated to helping the victims
The police have established that Glenn Mulcaire had a contracted relationship with the News of the World from September 2010 and he was paid weekly at a rate which came to £92000 which increased to over £104000 by January 2007 annually plus additional payments when the information led to the publication of stories in the paper which suggests that his income was substantially higher. She outlined the kind of information which was now being investigated with includes emails (in their hundreds of millions presumably covering the whole group) recordings of telephone conversations hacked and other material such as the financial records. The Royal Reporter Goodman had been paid £140000 a year basic.
Operation Elveden had arisen from the release of information by News International and by Harbottle and Lewis Solicitors and covered corruption of public officials, initially the police but now being expanded. Electronic data has been requested from News International as is being awaited. There were 41 officers involved at present in process of being expanded to 61 The total number of arrests was stated to be 14 which included three police officers and an arrest made by the IPCC. This information is significant because it was made a week before the dawn raid on Sun management staff and which suggests that not all the names have been made public.
Published arrests to date on suspicions of being involved in telephone hacking are (1) Ian Edmonson NOW, (2) Neville Thurlbeck NOW, (3) James Weatherup NOW, (4) Andy Coulson NOW (and Sun), (5) Rebekah Brooks NOW (and Sun) (6) Clive Goodman NOW, (7) Neil Wallis (NOW), (8) Stuart Kutner NOW, (9) Greg Miskiw NOW, (10) James Westborough NOW plus freelance (11)Terenia Taras (12) Dan Evans NOW, (13) Ross Hall NOW plus (14) an unnamed 63 year old man, (15) Raoul Simons The Times,(16) Glenn Mulcaire, and (17) Cheryl Carter PA to Mrs Brooks. Two others were arrested but not bailed.
Those involved in the corruption investigation who have been named are (18) Jamie Pyatt (Sun); (19) Mike Sullivan (Sun), (20) Graham Dudman (Sun) (21)Fergus Shanahan (Sun), (22) Chris Paho (Sun), (23) Geoff Webster (Sun), (24) John Kay Sun (25) John Edwards Sun (26) Nick Parker Sun (27) John Sturgis Deputy News Editor (Sun) ( 28) unnamed Police Officer, Police Officer, (29) unnamed Police Officer (300 Ministry of Defence Employee (31) Member of armed forces and (32) Lucy Panton NOW and (33) the third unnamed police officer
Involved in Computer Hacking Operation Tuleta (33) 53 yo male. An interesting perspective on the validity of the numbers which the Inquiry extracted from a table which has not been supplied to the General Public is a that she said although not sure that up to 20 officers were involved with Tuleta with the number to be increased. This was corrected later by letter to say the number was only 8 with the request made for an increased to 16. Her lack of precision may have been deliberate for operational reasons which I hope in this case given that the Met will come under the closest scrutiny over the next month.
I have not read the High Court Judgement which has been reported to claim that the Metropolitan Police acted illegally in not advising those mentioned in the Mulcaire records of the possibility that they had been hacked and a similar move has been taken against the Information Commissioner regarding those named in the Motorman documents where the records indicate that the information was illegally obtained.
Trevor Kavanagh the celebrated defender of Murdoch and Fleet Street scum was reported by the BBC to have said in the Sun that 171 officers were involved in three separate operations the biggest police operation in British Criminal History and which included two officers from the Olympic anti terror squad. He claimed that 30 journalists had been needlessly dragged from their beds in dawn raids, arrested and held in police cells while their homes were ransacked. Wives and children have been humiliated as up to 20 officers a time ripped up floor boards and sifted through intimate posession, love letters and other documents. My understanding is that he was not referring to what happened on the Saturday but since the investigations has commenced,
According to the Telegraph some of the charges were pathetic and are said to have involved individuals buying drinks for contacts years ago. You believe this if you are bonkers, the reporter should have added. Shame on you Telegraph. The same paper had a small prologue headline that it is understood that Murdoch’s British Papers paid the police over £100000 under false names. There was more substance to the reported observation from Tom Watson Member of Parliament that it would difficult for News Corp to get out of this one. He is also reported to have drawn attention on BBC’s World at One that it was Murdoch who appointed” bullies like Kelvin McKenzie” and “children like Dominic Mohan. Good on you Tom for keeping up the pressure.
Trevor K is usually a skilled operator using more subtle language than the too clever by half immigrant Amanda Platell whose vitriol has few limits but he is clearly angry and fearful about the future for scum street as he hoped his piece and interviews would arouse public indignation about the alleged treatment of the innocent until found guilty colleagues. Tell that to the to all the victims, who often at the behest of the police, had planted damaging stories before the evidence had been presented in open court and subjected to scrutiny. While the broadcast media did it best to push the Kavanagh allegations, the population quietly chuckled and looked forward with relish to more media dirt being trampled into their carpets, Those who live by the sword die so.
If they have not got the message, selected owners, Editors and other Journalists are to be burn at stakes over the coming two years as the Police and the Politicians attempt to divert attention from their culpability and failures. Such is life. Gordon Brown may not have said directly to Murdoch’s face that he would pay him back for helping the Tories and Lib Dems into power and he may not have made the remark to anyone, but there are many on both sides of the House most of all the Prime Minister who look forward to the bonfires even though the inclination is now to wait until after the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations and the
Olympics are over for the kerosene tol be ignited, although I anticipate the Iraq Inquiry report will be published in the late summer hols before Parliament reassembles bearing in mind that this year the State Opening will take place in May after the local elections and before the celebrations get into full gear. Having said that the Queen and consort will commence their grand tour of the UK in March, They come to a school in Jarrow in July.
Of course the politicians, academics and other worthies will say how freedom of the press is important and that the British media is the envy of the world which is far from the truth given the extent to which three quarters of governments and all those on the right and extreme left detest the British media who they would like to see locked up or better still permanently shut up. You do not have more controlled public relations people in a country than journalists if you genuinely believe in a free press or pay Max Clifford £250000 a year to further your interests by selling stories and stopping others,
The Guardian did conclude that the Sun was facing its biggest crisis since it had been acquired by Murdoch in 1969. The Guardian also said but using my words that even the paper irresponsible and damage lasting lies perpetrated about the Hillsborough disaster or the labelling of Elton John which cost £1 million settle was not as bad as what had now happened. Morale at the paper was rock bottom, No doubt the staff now fears for their personal freedom as well as their livelihoods. The Sun is the 10th best selling daily in the World. One comment was that that the Sun had become embroiled in a bizarre and unprecedented outbreak of corporate cannibalism. One wonders what the advertisers and regular readers will now do, a thought which the Guardian also picked up.
Meanwhile Mark Lewis for a number of Victims did not deny that he could be travelling to the USA to pursue legal action against the US registered company in view of the latest developments. However according to the Independent Newspaper the legal firm of Mr Lewis was reported to be the advance stage of bringing their first case against News Corp in the USA in a matter of weeks which suggests such action has been planned over a period of time.
Without going over the witness statements and verbatim reports my first conclusion as Module I of Leveson has ended, although some matters are to be revisited, is that I believe some of those giving evidence lied by using such expressions as I cannot remember given the time that has passed or as in the instance of Dacre and the Daily Mail by keeping the attention focussed on phone hacking they have attempted to overlook their culpability for employing someone who organised illegal information gathering on an industrial scale and effectively got away with it.
The rest of what I have to say is no more than a preliminary impression and over the next ten days it is the intention to return to the statements and to the text of sessions to see if these impressions are valid. I will eat my words if necessary.
The most interesting example is that of Piers Morgan who appeared to categorically deny knowledge of phone hacking despite someone who worked next to the entertainment desk at the Mirror convincingly reporting that hacking was an open and regular occurence. The National Union of Journalists who provided anonymity evidence on Thursday and others made it plain that the way Newspapers were organised Editors were hands on involved with everything that goes on. Mr Morgan had opened the door wide in writing in a memorir that he had listened to a recording of Beatle Paul McCartney pleading with his then partner Heather Mills, with the implication, however unitended that if he had not listened to convesation provided by Heather Mills herself then he had listened to an illegal sourced tape. This was confirmed by Ms Mills who explained that she had received a number of messages from Paul on a particular day after they had a row and that on one message Paul had sung a song which was the point of the Morgan story. She had warned the journalist in question that she would take legal action if he printed the story and he had not done so. It is now evident that either he had played the tape to Piers or someone told Piers the story that made it his own and either way it makes Piers a conspirator however unintentional in the illegal hacking of phones as there was no attempt to argue that he was doing so in the Public Interest. I can see him being recalled especially as he has also said that phone hacking was common in Fleet street in general from the bar gossip and third party chit chat. Richard Wallace the present Editor of the Mirror who also worked on the Entertainment desk admitted that hacking could have gone on without his knowledge. The charge that it was a daily event was made by James Hipwell in his evidence.
The present Editor of the Sun has not been interviewed by the police because it is said the allegation against Sun relate to a period before his editorship. Rebeckah Brooks was the Editor of the Sun 2003 to 2009 having been at he News of the World 2000 to 2003. Given that she was also liasing with the police providing them with material which they requested and that staff at the Sun claim they are now being shafted by News International, her role in recent events is yet to be established as is that of Andy Coulson. A number of statements made by witnesses put both in the frame unless one or both are turning Queen‘s evidence.
It has also emerged from the hearings that there have been and remain a group in Fleet Street who were allowed to become a law to themselves, who regarded themselves above the rules and in some instance the law which everyone else is expected to follow and in part because of their dealings with the police and politicians.
I use the term group although as confident and powerful individualists there was evident rivalry and at times hostility between those included. In addition to the Murdochs, Brooks and Coulson and Piers Morgan there is Kalvin McKenzie, Paul Dacre and the owner of Express Newspapers with significantly the latter two still in position and therefore the obvious target. Another target is Tina Weaver the Editor of Sunday Mirror.
However given the rules by which the Inquiry is being conducted His Lordship is required to reach conclusions on the evidence and to date the strong evidence appears to centre on the findings of the Motorman Inquiry where the use of the dark arts appears to have been widespread. The other evidence centres on the News of the World and cannot be officialyl included in part one as it is the subject of part two after the Police inquiries and and prosecutions have concluded.
The problem facing the inquiry is that the rest of Fleet Street appear oo have taken steps to clean up its act from 2007 onwards although there is evidence that they continue to play in murky waters. Most claim to have severed their links with private investigator but admit to using the new industry of internet search “engines” who acquire vast quantities of information from Electoral registers and telephone directories to which is added all the information provided by everyone who uses online trading and where the information registering of telephone numbers and addresses is obligatory and where the basic information is sold on to these engines. It also has to be remembered that vast quantities of official information went missing in a series of lost disks by staff of major government departments.
One area which remains to be tightened although thwart with difficulty is the taking of intrusive pictures and the harassment of individuals in a public place. The law now prevents photo taking on private property including that used by the public such as shopping centres as I found when I wanted to take pictures of the inside of a new centre in Hull which I though amazing but was quickly stopped by a security guard even though the picture I was taking was of the ceiling and not of people including staff. The most interesting evidence came from Heather Mills who has 64 hours of video tape on the behaviour of the paparazzi where she condensed the highlights into a short film with sound for the Inquiry which proved of great interest to his Lordship. The police argue that they cannot intervene if the photograph is standing in a public area or have approval to be on private property as long as any picture is restricted to an individual also in a public area ands does not include a child. This can be questioned if there are several photographers obstructing, harassing or showing behaviour in any way which can be construed as intrusive. Hopefully they will start taking firmer action from Leveson over the next month when the issue will be again raised.
Richard Desmond the Proprietor of Express Newspapers denied he interfered in what went into his papers although he liked to be on the floor giving support and making comments on the basis that if they were not considered helpful they would ignored. He denied the paper had an anti Muslim approach and he defended the articles on The McCann’s as a genuine mistake due to the misleading information put out by the Portuguese police, He also defended his support for the criticised Editor after libel action was taken over 38 of their articles. Mr Desmond argued that after all this meant 68 of the artucles had been OK. He defended his withdtrawl from the Press Complaint Commission over his difference of opinion which he said was about dramatically increased fees that were claimed. The evidence is that some Owners do interfere with the big example that all but of the Murdoch titles world wide supported the military invasion of Iraq.
Another area for much comment is the succession of Chairmen of the Press Complaint Council have been Tory Peers, including the extraordinary Baroness Buscombe who made a point of defending Paul Dacre and said the idea that he ran the PCC was absurd. She is a curious mixture of a Cookie who let the cat out of bag that Editors yelled at her when the PCC came out with a ruling against their papers, not because allegations had not been proven but because the PCC had attacked them. She argued this showed that the despite current editors like Dacre and previously Les Hinton playing a major role, she and the independent neutrals had done a good and proper job.
Lord Leveson and others made the point that when the PPC Chairman were appointed they had been questioned and made a commitment to a non statutory form of press regulation. Lord Leveson said that he retained an open mind as to what was best for the future which by implication meant that he thought it would have better if the latest Chairman had been appointed on the same basis. Although they appeared solidly behind the proposals the New PCC Chairman had presented it is evident there are inconsistencies in that many of the things being proposed would require legislative action if they are to be effective and apply to everyone defined as coming within the terms of any measures. There was also the feeling that they were only bringing forward proposals which they believed were the most protective of their interests, understandable as that is, but which do not put at a priority the interests of the general public which in a democracy are represented through Parliament.
Fear of what any reference to Parliament would lead to is behind much of the position and at times the aggressive position being taken by the media at the inquiry and in their published comments arising from evidence at the inquiry. The fear is that however innocent, constructive and supportive are Government introduced measure the rump of Parliament will seize the opportunity to get back at the media as well as putting the boot in on behalf of the general public. This poses a dilemma for Lord Leveson because it means if he appears to side with the Newsprint industry his findings will be ignored by Parliament who will go their own way. What he has to do is come up with a package which will satisfy Parliament and the public as well as bringing along the media and without undermining the principles which everyone is said to believe. The record of the Tony Bair and Brown administration on protecting and further individual human rights is an example which makes me cautious about too great political intervention. The best solution is for some of the more offending titles to be abolished and the offending journalists to leave the profession. The would the best outcome in the interests of all the parties other than those directly affected by the cull.
Sue Akers, the Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner responsible for the day to day management of Police Operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta updated her written evidence of November 2011 and as the first witness last week.
On the following Saturday Fleet Street was in shock as dawn raids, reputedly arrested five senior Journalists at the Sun Newspaper and several public officials. Despite assurance immediately given by Chief Executive Tom Mockridge every employee of the British Murdoch business by mail that there was no intention of closing or immediately selling the newspaper and that he planned to visit the UK this week, all the employees and several owners and editors of other newspaper held their breadth and continue to do so.
The closure of the Sun by management choice, in order to facilitate further police inquiries, or from a dramatic drop in advertising revenue and reader purchasing will not mean increased sales for the Mirror. the Mail and the Express and while the Sunday Sun and People did gain a spike in their sales following the closure of the News of the World, this had not been maintained. The Sun remains the Murdoch cash cow which also enables the Times and Sunday Times to keep going with the two said to lose over one hundred million a year while Sun brings in half a billion from its 2.75 million copies distributed each day. While Murdoch may have been able to place News of the World staff with the Sun or help them get other jobs in Fleet Street, with the media generally or in Public relations, retiring if appropriate, if the Sun goes, so does the Sunday version as the plan to create a new Sunday for the group after the dust has settled. It was in the long term of interests of Murdoch for the mud to have been spread all around Fleet through the Leveson Inquiry although in reality it is his papers and his involvement who remains the most damaged and more so that before.
The Police arrests came two days after Leveson commenced its break and the House of Commons went on half term. Given what DAC Akers said on the Monday I am confused about the total number of individual arrested in the three investigations so far and as I mentioned previously Tom Watson, one of the leaders of the allegations against the print media in Parliament did refer to a secret fourth police Inquiry during a Select Committee meeting which he even named before being cautioned by the chairman not to expand.
DAC Akers said that Operation Weeting commenced in January 2011 following two Metropolitan police Investigations - Operation Caryatid from 2006 to 2007 and Operation Varec in 2010. The first operation led to the convictions of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire with both sentenced to short terms of imprisonment in January 2007. The second commenced in September 2010 following allegations in the New York Times that Andy Coulson had known more about phone hacking that had been admitted. Operation Weeting commenced after News International had made information available to the Police. The original investigations will be the subject of close scrutiny in Module II of Leveson together with the action taking arising from Operation Motorman
Operation Weeting commenced with 11000 pages of Mulcaire documentation. She said these contained contain 5795 names of potential victims in the November statement, subsequently adjusted to 6349 The list includes Members of the Royal Household, Actors, victims of crime Police officers mincouding senior police officers and Journalists within the the News of the World.(Omitted from the statement are Politicians).
APC Akers skated over the failure to conduct a detailed invesitgation before and after trhe 2006 criminal proceedings and said that 2900 individuals (previously) 1800 had now been contacted to inform then whether their details appear in the documents seized.
In the written statement she recorded that of 1800 contacting the police some 600 appear in the documentation and have be spoken to and given the opportunity to see the documents. Some 200 have made inquiries and asked to see if their details appeared in the material. A number have indicated their wish that their information remains confidential.
She now explained that that 1578 individuals had now been informed of their inclusion in the material and the number of those identified as likely victims was presently 829 of which only 581 had been met of the difficulty of identifying and locating the remainder.
She explained that 17(13 in statement) individuals have been arrested under Weeting with all but 2 bailed to respond to their bail in March where it is likely that a further period of bail will follow. She indicated that other suspects were being investigated as the available material which could be used as evidence is being considered. There was 90 staff involved including 35 dedicated to helping the victims
The police have established that Glenn Mulcaire had a contracted relationship with the News of the World from September 2010 and he was paid weekly at a rate which came to £92000 which increased to over £104000 by January 2007 annually plus additional payments when the information led to the publication of stories in the paper which suggests that his income was substantially higher. She outlined the kind of information which was now being investigated with includes emails (in their hundreds of millions presumably covering the whole group) recordings of telephone conversations hacked and other material such as the financial records. The Royal Reporter Goodman had been paid £140000 a year basic.
Operation Elveden had arisen from the release of information by News International and by Harbottle and Lewis Solicitors and covered corruption of public officials, initially the police but now being expanded. Electronic data has been requested from News International as is being awaited. There were 41 officers involved at present in process of being expanded to 61 The total number of arrests was stated to be 14 which included three police officers and an arrest made by the IPCC. This information is significant because it was made a week before the dawn raid on Sun management staff and which suggests that not all the names have been made public.
Published arrests to date on suspicions of being involved in telephone hacking are (1) Ian Edmonson NOW, (2) Neville Thurlbeck NOW, (3) James Weatherup NOW, (4) Andy Coulson NOW (and Sun), (5) Rebekah Brooks NOW (and Sun) (6) Clive Goodman NOW, (7) Neil Wallis (NOW), (8) Stuart Kutner NOW, (9) Greg Miskiw NOW, (10) James Westborough NOW plus freelance (11)Terenia Taras (12) Dan Evans NOW, (13) Ross Hall NOW plus (14) an unnamed 63 year old man, (15) Raoul Simons The Times,(16) Glenn Mulcaire, and (17) Cheryl Carter PA to Mrs Brooks. Two others were arrested but not bailed.
Those involved in the corruption investigation who have been named are (18) Jamie Pyatt (Sun); (19) Mike Sullivan (Sun), (20) Graham Dudman (Sun) (21)Fergus Shanahan (Sun), (22) Chris Paho (Sun), (23) Geoff Webster (Sun), (24) John Kay Sun (25) John Edwards Sun (26) Nick Parker Sun (27) John Sturgis Deputy News Editor (Sun) ( 28) unnamed Police Officer, Police Officer, (29) unnamed Police Officer (300 Ministry of Defence Employee (31) Member of armed forces and (32) Lucy Panton NOW and (33) the third unnamed police officer
Involved in Computer Hacking Operation Tuleta (33) 53 yo male. An interesting perspective on the validity of the numbers which the Inquiry extracted from a table which has not been supplied to the General Public is a that she said although not sure that up to 20 officers were involved with Tuleta with the number to be increased. This was corrected later by letter to say the number was only 8 with the request made for an increased to 16. Her lack of precision may have been deliberate for operational reasons which I hope in this case given that the Met will come under the closest scrutiny over the next month.
I have not read the High Court Judgement which has been reported to claim that the Metropolitan Police acted illegally in not advising those mentioned in the Mulcaire records of the possibility that they had been hacked and a similar move has been taken against the Information Commissioner regarding those named in the Motorman documents where the records indicate that the information was illegally obtained.
Trevor Kavanagh the celebrated defender of Murdoch and Fleet Street scum was reported by the BBC to have said in the Sun that 171 officers were involved in three separate operations the biggest police operation in British Criminal History and which included two officers from the Olympic anti terror squad. He claimed that 30 journalists had been needlessly dragged from their beds in dawn raids, arrested and held in police cells while their homes were ransacked. Wives and children have been humiliated as up to 20 officers a time ripped up floor boards and sifted through intimate posession, love letters and other documents. My understanding is that he was not referring to what happened on the Saturday but since the investigations has commenced,
According to the Telegraph some of the charges were pathetic and are said to have involved individuals buying drinks for contacts years ago. You believe this if you are bonkers, the reporter should have added. Shame on you Telegraph. The same paper had a small prologue headline that it is understood that Murdoch’s British Papers paid the police over £100000 under false names. There was more substance to the reported observation from Tom Watson Member of Parliament that it would difficult for News Corp to get out of this one. He is also reported to have drawn attention on BBC’s World at One that it was Murdoch who appointed” bullies like Kelvin McKenzie” and “children like Dominic Mohan. Good on you Tom for keeping up the pressure.
Trevor K is usually a skilled operator using more subtle language than the too clever by half immigrant Amanda Platell whose vitriol has few limits but he is clearly angry and fearful about the future for scum street as he hoped his piece and interviews would arouse public indignation about the alleged treatment of the innocent until found guilty colleagues. Tell that to the to all the victims, who often at the behest of the police, had planted damaging stories before the evidence had been presented in open court and subjected to scrutiny. While the broadcast media did it best to push the Kavanagh allegations, the population quietly chuckled and looked forward with relish to more media dirt being trampled into their carpets, Those who live by the sword die so.
If they have not got the message, selected owners, Editors and other Journalists are to be burn at stakes over the coming two years as the Police and the Politicians attempt to divert attention from their culpability and failures. Such is life. Gordon Brown may not have said directly to Murdoch’s face that he would pay him back for helping the Tories and Lib Dems into power and he may not have made the remark to anyone, but there are many on both sides of the House most of all the Prime Minister who look forward to the bonfires even though the inclination is now to wait until after the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations and the
Olympics are over for the kerosene tol be ignited, although I anticipate the Iraq Inquiry report will be published in the late summer hols before Parliament reassembles bearing in mind that this year the State Opening will take place in May after the local elections and before the celebrations get into full gear. Having said that the Queen and consort will commence their grand tour of the UK in March, They come to a school in Jarrow in July.
Of course the politicians, academics and other worthies will say how freedom of the press is important and that the British media is the envy of the world which is far from the truth given the extent to which three quarters of governments and all those on the right and extreme left detest the British media who they would like to see locked up or better still permanently shut up. You do not have more controlled public relations people in a country than journalists if you genuinely believe in a free press or pay Max Clifford £250000 a year to further your interests by selling stories and stopping others,
The Guardian did conclude that the Sun was facing its biggest crisis since it had been acquired by Murdoch in 1969. The Guardian also said but using my words that even the paper irresponsible and damage lasting lies perpetrated about the Hillsborough disaster or the labelling of Elton John which cost £1 million settle was not as bad as what had now happened. Morale at the paper was rock bottom, No doubt the staff now fears for their personal freedom as well as their livelihoods. The Sun is the 10th best selling daily in the World. One comment was that that the Sun had become embroiled in a bizarre and unprecedented outbreak of corporate cannibalism. One wonders what the advertisers and regular readers will now do, a thought which the Guardian also picked up.
Meanwhile Mark Lewis for a number of Victims did not deny that he could be travelling to the USA to pursue legal action against the US registered company in view of the latest developments. However according to the Independent Newspaper the legal firm of Mr Lewis was reported to be the advance stage of bringing their first case against News Corp in the USA in a matter of weeks which suggests such action has been planned over a period of time.
Without going over the witness statements and verbatim reports my first conclusion as Module I of Leveson has ended, although some matters are to be revisited, is that I believe some of those giving evidence lied by using such expressions as I cannot remember given the time that has passed or as in the instance of Dacre and the Daily Mail by keeping the attention focussed on phone hacking they have attempted to overlook their culpability for employing someone who organised illegal information gathering on an industrial scale and effectively got away with it.
The rest of what I have to say is no more than a preliminary impression and over the next ten days it is the intention to return to the statements and to the text of sessions to see if these impressions are valid. I will eat my words if necessary.
The most interesting example is that of Piers Morgan who appeared to categorically deny knowledge of phone hacking despite someone who worked next to the entertainment desk at the Mirror convincingly reporting that hacking was an open and regular occurence. The National Union of Journalists who provided anonymity evidence on Thursday and others made it plain that the way Newspapers were organised Editors were hands on involved with everything that goes on. Mr Morgan had opened the door wide in writing in a memorir that he had listened to a recording of Beatle Paul McCartney pleading with his then partner Heather Mills, with the implication, however unitended that if he had not listened to convesation provided by Heather Mills herself then he had listened to an illegal sourced tape. This was confirmed by Ms Mills who explained that she had received a number of messages from Paul on a particular day after they had a row and that on one message Paul had sung a song which was the point of the Morgan story. She had warned the journalist in question that she would take legal action if he printed the story and he had not done so. It is now evident that either he had played the tape to Piers or someone told Piers the story that made it his own and either way it makes Piers a conspirator however unintentional in the illegal hacking of phones as there was no attempt to argue that he was doing so in the Public Interest. I can see him being recalled especially as he has also said that phone hacking was common in Fleet street in general from the bar gossip and third party chit chat. Richard Wallace the present Editor of the Mirror who also worked on the Entertainment desk admitted that hacking could have gone on without his knowledge. The charge that it was a daily event was made by James Hipwell in his evidence.
The present Editor of the Sun has not been interviewed by the police because it is said the allegation against Sun relate to a period before his editorship. Rebeckah Brooks was the Editor of the Sun 2003 to 2009 having been at he News of the World 2000 to 2003. Given that she was also liasing with the police providing them with material which they requested and that staff at the Sun claim they are now being shafted by News International, her role in recent events is yet to be established as is that of Andy Coulson. A number of statements made by witnesses put both in the frame unless one or both are turning Queen‘s evidence.
It has also emerged from the hearings that there have been and remain a group in Fleet Street who were allowed to become a law to themselves, who regarded themselves above the rules and in some instance the law which everyone else is expected to follow and in part because of their dealings with the police and politicians.
I use the term group although as confident and powerful individualists there was evident rivalry and at times hostility between those included. In addition to the Murdochs, Brooks and Coulson and Piers Morgan there is Kalvin McKenzie, Paul Dacre and the owner of Express Newspapers with significantly the latter two still in position and therefore the obvious target. Another target is Tina Weaver the Editor of Sunday Mirror.
However given the rules by which the Inquiry is being conducted His Lordship is required to reach conclusions on the evidence and to date the strong evidence appears to centre on the findings of the Motorman Inquiry where the use of the dark arts appears to have been widespread. The other evidence centres on the News of the World and cannot be officialyl included in part one as it is the subject of part two after the Police inquiries and and prosecutions have concluded.
The problem facing the inquiry is that the rest of Fleet Street appear oo have taken steps to clean up its act from 2007 onwards although there is evidence that they continue to play in murky waters. Most claim to have severed their links with private investigator but admit to using the new industry of internet search “engines” who acquire vast quantities of information from Electoral registers and telephone directories to which is added all the information provided by everyone who uses online trading and where the information registering of telephone numbers and addresses is obligatory and where the basic information is sold on to these engines. It also has to be remembered that vast quantities of official information went missing in a series of lost disks by staff of major government departments.
One area which remains to be tightened although thwart with difficulty is the taking of intrusive pictures and the harassment of individuals in a public place. The law now prevents photo taking on private property including that used by the public such as shopping centres as I found when I wanted to take pictures of the inside of a new centre in Hull which I though amazing but was quickly stopped by a security guard even though the picture I was taking was of the ceiling and not of people including staff. The most interesting evidence came from Heather Mills who has 64 hours of video tape on the behaviour of the paparazzi where she condensed the highlights into a short film with sound for the Inquiry which proved of great interest to his Lordship. The police argue that they cannot intervene if the photograph is standing in a public area or have approval to be on private property as long as any picture is restricted to an individual also in a public area ands does not include a child. This can be questioned if there are several photographers obstructing, harassing or showing behaviour in any way which can be construed as intrusive. Hopefully they will start taking firmer action from Leveson over the next month when the issue will be again raised.
Richard Desmond the Proprietor of Express Newspapers denied he interfered in what went into his papers although he liked to be on the floor giving support and making comments on the basis that if they were not considered helpful they would ignored. He denied the paper had an anti Muslim approach and he defended the articles on The McCann’s as a genuine mistake due to the misleading information put out by the Portuguese police, He also defended his support for the criticised Editor after libel action was taken over 38 of their articles. Mr Desmond argued that after all this meant 68 of the artucles had been OK. He defended his withdtrawl from the Press Complaint Commission over his difference of opinion which he said was about dramatically increased fees that were claimed. The evidence is that some Owners do interfere with the big example that all but of the Murdoch titles world wide supported the military invasion of Iraq.
Another area for much comment is the succession of Chairmen of the Press Complaint Council have been Tory Peers, including the extraordinary Baroness Buscombe who made a point of defending Paul Dacre and said the idea that he ran the PCC was absurd. She is a curious mixture of a Cookie who let the cat out of bag that Editors yelled at her when the PCC came out with a ruling against their papers, not because allegations had not been proven but because the PCC had attacked them. She argued this showed that the despite current editors like Dacre and previously Les Hinton playing a major role, she and the independent neutrals had done a good and proper job.
Lord Leveson and others made the point that when the PPC Chairman were appointed they had been questioned and made a commitment to a non statutory form of press regulation. Lord Leveson said that he retained an open mind as to what was best for the future which by implication meant that he thought it would have better if the latest Chairman had been appointed on the same basis. Although they appeared solidly behind the proposals the New PCC Chairman had presented it is evident there are inconsistencies in that many of the things being proposed would require legislative action if they are to be effective and apply to everyone defined as coming within the terms of any measures. There was also the feeling that they were only bringing forward proposals which they believed were the most protective of their interests, understandable as that is, but which do not put at a priority the interests of the general public which in a democracy are represented through Parliament.
Fear of what any reference to Parliament would lead to is behind much of the position and at times the aggressive position being taken by the media at the inquiry and in their published comments arising from evidence at the inquiry. The fear is that however innocent, constructive and supportive are Government introduced measure the rump of Parliament will seize the opportunity to get back at the media as well as putting the boot in on behalf of the general public. This poses a dilemma for Lord Leveson because it means if he appears to side with the Newsprint industry his findings will be ignored by Parliament who will go their own way. What he has to do is come up with a package which will satisfy Parliament and the public as well as bringing along the media and without undermining the principles which everyone is said to believe. The record of the Tony Bair and Brown administration on protecting and further individual human rights is an example which makes me cautious about too great political intervention. The best solution is for some of the more offending titles to be abolished and the offending journalists to leave the profession. The would the best outcome in the interests of all the parties other than those directly affected by the cull.
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