| dbo:abstract
|
- This is a chronological list of key newspaper articles that made significant new public disclosures about the illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media companies. 1.
* 20 September 2002; The Guardian published a lengthy expose by Graeme McLagan regarding Jonathan Rees involvement with corrupt police officers and the illegal acquisition of confidential information for News of the World and other newspapers. 2.
* 8 & 9 July 2009; The Guardian published three articles authored by Nick Davies and Vikram Dodd titled 1) "Murdoch papers paid £1m to gag phone-hacking victims," 2) "Trail of hacking and deceit under nose of Tory PR chief," and 3) "Ex-Murdoch editor Andrew Neil: News of the World revelations one of most significant media stories of our time." These articles alleged that Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers (NGN) entered into large settlement agreements with hacking victims that included gagging provisions, which prevented the public from learning the Metropolitan Police Service held evidence that NGN journalists repeatedly used criminal methods to get stories. The articles also alleged that many people at News of the World, including then editor Andy Coulson were aware of widespread phone hacking and that the public and Parliament had been misled about its scope. As a result of these articles, assistant police commissioner John Yates was asked to take a fresh look at the Met's previous investigations into phone hacking. Days after this became public, Max Clifford announced his intentions to sue and ultimately settled for £1,000,000. 3.
* 1 September 2010; The New York Times published an article authored by Don Van Natta Jr., Jo Becker, and Grahm Bowley titled "Tabloid Hack Attack on Royals, and Beyond." The article claimed the Metropolitan Police Service "failed to follow-up on clear leads" and "declined to pursue other evidence of criminality by others." The article also contridicted testimony by former News of the World editor Andy Coulson to Parliament that he was unaware of phone hacking. 4.
* 15 December 2010- The Guardian published an article authored by Nick Davies titled "Phone hacking approved by top News of the World executive – new files." The article disclosed that documents seized from the home of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire by Metropolitan Police Service in 2006 and only recently made available to the public by court action imply that News of the World editor Ian Edmondson specifically instructed Mulcaire to intercept voice messages of Sienna Miller, Jude Law, and several others. The documents also imply Mulcaire was engaged by others at News of the World, including chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and assistant editor Greg Miskiw, who then worked directly for Andy Coulson. This contradicted testimony to the Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Committee by newspaper executives and senior Met officials that Mulcaire acted on his own and that there was no evidence of hacking by other than him and a single "rogue reporter," namely Clive Goodman. Five weeks after the Guardian article appeared, the Met renewed its investigation into phone hacking, something it had declined to do since 2007. 5.
* 4 July 2011; The Guardian published an article authored by Nick Davies and Amelia Hill titled "Missing Milly Dowler's voicemail was hacked by News of the World." This article disclosed that voicemail messages from Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked back in 2002 by an agent of News of the World looking for a story. This disclosure inflamed public opinion and led to the closure of News of the World and resignations of senior newspaper executives and police officials. The Metropolitan Police Service later attempted to use the Official Secrets Act to find the Guardian's sources for this story. 6.
* 22 September 2011; The Independent published an article authored by James Cusick and Cahal Milmo reporting that, within weeks of the arrests of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire in August 2006, "a senior police officer" advised Rebekah Brooks there was substantial "circumstantial evidence" in the documents seized from Mulcaire that News of the World journalists in addition to Goodman were implicated in phone hacking. It also reported that in early autumn 2006, Tom Crone, legal manager for News International, contacted several other executives, including then News of the World editor Andy Coulson, informing them of what the Met told Brooks. News International executives, including Crone, maintained they were not aware of such evidence until almost two years later, in May 2008, when they received a copy of the "Transcript for Neville" in conjunction with Gordon Taylor's law suit. (en)
|
