Rebekah Brooks – she was arrested eight days ago following her resignation as chief executive of News International over the phone hacking scandal. Despite promising transparency in office, only very recently did David Cameron reveal he has met with New International twenty-six times since entering Number 10. Rupert Murdoch even played a key role in momentous decisions like going to war. ibid.
Murdoch’s drive to increase circulation pushed his papers ever further downmarket. ibid.
With the anything goes culture and cutthroat competition that Rupert Murdoch instilled it was inevitable that tabloid staff would look for shortcuts. And it was only a matter of time before they targeted their considerable resources on the police. And some of them were only too happy to oblige. The journalists even had a system of paying for the service. ibid.
The incestuous links between News International and the Met go all the way to the top. Which is why eight days ago Britain’s most senior police officer resigned. ibid.
The web of connections between News International, politicians and the police explains the otherwise insoluble mystery of why it’s taken a full five years for the prodigious scale of News International law-breaking to emerge. ibid.
For many years Murdoch’s power base was untouchable. ibid.
The Murdoch empire has changed the very nature of our public life. But now that its methods have been exposed, our chastened politicians must seize their chance to end an ugly system which has corrupted out police and debased British politics. ibid.
The prime minister and chancellor summoned before a judge. Dispatches: Murdoch, Cameron & the £8 Billion Deal
David Cameron launched a fierce attack on the media regulator OFCOM which Rupert Murdoch had always regarded as an obstacle to News International’s expansion. ibid.
We have paid police for information in the past. Rebekah Brooks 11th March 2003, evidence to parliamentary sub-committee
We heard the same story over and over again – this was no secret. Jo Becker, The New York Times
It was endemic ... People were scared ... That was the culture at News International. Sean Hoare, former News of the World journalist, suicide 18th July 2011
Phone-hacking scandal at News of the World: Sienna Miller’s legal action is thought to have precipitated action by the CPS.
Phone hacking probe: Key people. Phone hacking ‘endemic’ in Fleet Street.
Long way to run for phone-hacking story. As the Metropolitan Police launch a ‘robust’ new investigation into phone-hacking amid ‘significant new information’, we unpick the long-running case which refuses to go away.
What is the row about?
The increasingly complex fallout of a 2006 court case which saw the News of the World’s (NoW) royal editor and a private investigator jailed for hacking into the mobile phones of royal aides. A series of inquiries and legal cases is exploring just how widespread the practice was, with implications for the police, celebrities and politicians.
How did the NoW phone-hacking case first emerge?
The paper published a story about a knee injury to Prince William. The royal began to fear his aides’ mobile phone voicemail messages were being intercepted. Complaints by three royal staff sparked a police inquiry.
What was the outcome?
In January 2007, royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for four months and six months respectively. BBC online headline 31st January 2011
They appear to have stacks of evidence worth pursuing and investigating. They didn’t pursue and investigate. Alastair Campbell, former director of communications for No 10
I never believed it was a rogue reporter; I never believed it was just one rogue newspaper. Alastair Campbell
The Press Complaints Commission is a total joke. Alastair Campbell
I believe it was endemic in Fleet Street for many many years. Max Clifford
What was extraordinary about the Andy Coulson resignation was the lack of coverage in so many newspapers and the underplaying of the story. Roy Greenslade, former assistant editor The Sun
This is a landmark moment in the history of the press. We need to clean up our act. Roy Greenslade
Andy Coulson was found guilty of bullying at the News of the World, and this extraordinary payout of £800,000. Alan Rusbridger, editor The Guardian
That’s just ridiculous behaviour for any regulator. Alan Rusbridger
Read all about it: the backlash against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Is the man behind the headlines losing his grip on Fleet Street, Downing Street and your street? Rupert Murdoch, The Power and the Story
A week since the dramatic closure of the News of The World the phone hacking scandal continues to deliver more damning revelations and more public disgust. ibid.
A murky world of fear, secrets and lies. ibid.
When the list of potential targets expanded from celebrities to ordinary people who had suffered immense tragedy it was too much for the public mood. ibid.
Rupert Murdoch bought The Times and The Sun newspapers, but the move out of Fleet Street brought unrest ... And the ensuing violence of the battles of Wapping. ibid.
This is the most humble day of my life. Rupert Murdoch before select committee of MPs
The News of the World is less than 1% of our company. ibid.
He’s made a profit out of us, out of our prurience, out of our love for sex and grief on a Sunday morning. Geoffrey Robertson QC
It’s very funny now watching a bunch of politicians who haven’t said boo to Rupert Murdoch for twenty years suddenly finding some backbone. Greg Dyke, director general BBC 2000-2004
He had a plan to radically change Britain through scandal. But first he had to see off a rival bid from Robert Maxwell. Murdoch: The Mogul Who Screwed the News, Channel 4 2011
Murdoch in a daring move shifted his business in the single night from Fleet Street to a fortified compound in Wapping, shutting the unions out. He needed a private army to contain the violence. And he got one from the Metropolitan Police. After Wapping a close relationship developed between the top floors of News International and Scotland Yard. The paper printed pro-Met stories, and the Met fed leads on investigations. ibid.
The police concluded it was one rogue reporter. They shelved evidence on the phone hacking of four thousand people. ibid.
On 13th July ... MPs stood up to tell Murdoch your BSkyB deal is not allowed. ibid.
The merger between Sky and BSkyB was waved through by Murdoch’s friend Margaret Thatcher. ibid.
Phone hacking deep in News International had started a chain of events without precedent. Murdoch’s made a fortune out of humiliating the powerful. The Formula One boss Max Mosley was the wrong man to mess with. This multi-millionaire became the instigator for a group of people intent on lighting a fuse under the whole Murdoch empire ... He’d been exposed taking part in a Nazi sex orgy that was neither Nazi nor a sex orgy. Max sued News of the World and won. He began building an army of people against Murdoch by offering to pay legal fees for those suing News of the World for the phone hacking. ibid.
Rupert Murdoch and his son engulfed in scandal. How did the owner of the Fox Network, the Fox News Channel, the Movie Studio, the New York Journal, and a worldwide media empire come to be hounded by the press and haunted by the death of a teenager? Frontline: Murdoch’s Scandal, PBS 2012
Newspapers turned to professionals in the darker arts – private detectives were hired. ibid.
The police ... surprisingly decided to close the investigation ... Why were the police not informing more victims and taking further action? ibid.
The police contradicted the Guardian’s story. ibid.
For thirty years Rupert Murdoch had been visiting Number 10 to be thanked for his support by British prime ministers. ibid.
In a secret operation he built a new printing plant. He then fired his union print workers and moved his four papers to the new plant. ibid.
News International had been paying off victims and settling cases. ibid.
Murdoch withdrew his bid for BSkyB: his past had caught up with him. ibid.
cf.
Their [Guardian’s] potential targets may have run into hundreds of people – but our inquiries showed that they only used the tactic against a far smaller number of individuals. John Yates, assistant police commissioner