Nick Davies's Blog, page 3
July 25, 2014
The pervasive power of Rupert Murdoch: an extract from Hack Attack by Nick Davies
In this first extract from his new book, the reporter who broke the phone hacking story looks at Rebekah Brookss 2009 wedding and how it was a perfect display of the nature of Rupert Murdochs hold on British life
On a bright Saturday afternoon in the middle of June 2009, in the rolling green downland of west Oxfordshire, there is a wedding party. Several hundred men and women are gathered by the side of a great lake, 350 metres long, crowned at the far end with an 18th-century boathouse disguised as a Doric temple. The sun pours down. The guests sparkle like the champagne in their gleaming flute glasses. The bride arrives to the sound of Handels Rejoice!, written for the arrival of the Queen of Sheba. Among the onlookers, two men lean their heads towards each other.
So what do you make of all this? one asks quietly.
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July 2, 2014
Phone hacking: Met had the evidence. How will it explain five years of failure?
It is not only David Cameron and Rupert Murdoch who are caught in the sticky web of the phone-hacking scandal. Scotland Yard too remains tangled in troubling questions revived by evidence disclosed in the Old Bailey trial that ended last week.
The questions remain unanswered because while the Yard's leadership has run a sprawling inquiry into allegations of crime by journalists and public officials, it has opted not to commission any kind of investigation into what went wrong under its own roof.
Continue reading...Phone hacking: how the police investigation unfolded
On 26 January 2011, News International passed Scotland Yard three email messages containing possible evidence of crime. Three-and-a-half years on, the investigation launched that day has morphed into 12 operations, and 210 people have been arrested or interviewed under caution about phone or email hacking, payments to public officials, accessing data on allegedly stolen phones and perverting the course of justice.
From that first day, this was not simply an inquiry into allegations of crime but an attempt to rescue Scotland Yard from crisis, to prove it was capable of taking on the power of Rupert Murdoch's company where earlier attempts had failed.
Continue reading...June 26, 2014
Phone-hacking trial failed to clear up mystery of Milly Dowler's voicemail
On 14 December 2011, the barrister representing the family of Milly Dowler rose to his feet at the Leveson inquiry to complain of a "storm of misreporting" which had blown up around the release of new evidence about the hacking of the 13-year-old schoolgirl's phone by the News of the World.
Five months earlier, in July 2011, the Guardian reported that the News of the World had intercepted the missing girl's voicemail and had deleted some of her messages, causing her mother to have a moment of "false hope" that her daughter might be alive and using her phone. The new evidence confirmed the hacking. It also confirmed that Mrs Dowler had experienced the false-hope moment and that this had been caused by the deletion of messages.
Continue reading...June 25, 2014
Phone-hacking trial was officially about crime; but in reality, it was about power
Rupert Murdoch's money washed through the 'trial of the century' like a Rolls-Royce. The story behind the News of the World scandal was not about journalists behaving badly, but the power of money and its abuses
This was no ordinary trial.
It was unusual in its sheer scale: more than three years of police work; 42,000 pages of crown evidence; seven months of hearings; up to 18 barristers in court at any one time; 12 defendants facing allegations of crime spreading back over a decade.
Continue reading...News UK could face contempt case for allegedly targeting witness protection
Rupert Murdoch's UK company could face a possible action for contempt of court over allegations that the News of the World penetrated Scotland Yard's highly secret witness protection programme.
Detectives working for the Operation Weeting inquiry into phone hacking are understood to have found evidence that the paper's £92,000-a-year specialist hacker, Glenn Mulcaire, targeted the voicemail messages of officers who were working on the programme.
Continue reading...Five chances Cameron had to uncover the truth about Andy Coulson
Five moments when the prime minister could have discovered that Andy Coulson was not telling the truth about phone hacking at the News of the World:
Continue reading...Andy Coulson verdict: questions remain for David Cameron and others
Ex-NoW editors reputation is tarnished but the fallout could also damage the politicians who appointed him to No 10
Long before the jury returned its verdict, evidence disclosed at the Old Bailey trial had devastated Andy Coulsons reputation, clearly suggesting that he had misled the prime minister and parliament about his knowledge of crime at the News of the World. His conviction for conspiring to hack phones on Tuesday will add a possible prison sentence to the ruin of his career.
The ease with which he was able to fool the Conservative leadership will also add weight to questions about David Camerons judgment in hiring the former News of the World editor without checking his background and about the reliability of evidence that the prime minister gave under oath to the Leveson inquiry.
Continue reading...June 24, 2014
Rupert Murdoch: Scotland Yard want interview about crime at his UK papers
Rupert Murdoch has been officially informed by Scotland Yard that detectives want to interview him as a suspect as part of their inquiry into allegations of crime at his British newspapers.
It is understood that detectives first contacted Murdoch last year to arrange to question him but agreed to a request from his lawyers to wait until the phone-hacking trial was finished.
Continue reading...Rebekah Brooks: ‘she’s always been able to get what she wants from people’
From charming the powerful to threatening foes, the ex-News International chief is adored and loathed in equal measure
When Elisabeth Murdoch celebrated her 40th birthday in the summer of 2008, Rebekah Brooks produced a 32-page souvenir edition of the Sun for the guests at her party with joke stories, a spoof agony aunt column and a Page 3 picture with Elisabeth’s head grafted on to the body of a naked woman (headline: “Lizzie’s the breast”).
Among the parody, Brooks had also secured personal messages from the then prime minister, Gordon Brown; his predecessor, Tony Blair; and his eventual successor, David Cameron; as well as two serving cabinet ministers, John Reid and Tessa Jowell. All were effusive, if not sycophantic. “Liz is fabulous, fantastic and funny” was Blair’s opening line.
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