Month: July 2011 (Page 3 of 5)

The phone hacking story has now dominated the headlines for nearly two weeks.  Yesterday was described by the “Guardian” as “Bloody Friday”.  First, Rebekah Brooks fell victim to “Alastair Campbell’s Law” – having herself being the story for this period – resigning from her position as Chief Executive of News International.  Later on the Chief Executive of Dow Jones, Les Hinton, also resigned.  This seemed inevitable after his “one rogue reporter” evidence to the Culture Media and Sport Committee in March 2007 and September 2009. Continue reading

The phone hacking saga has, in less than two weeks, moved from the inside of the broadsheets – and blogs like this one – to front page news around the world. A number of items in the torrent of hacking stories have caught our attention. First, Select Committees have been in the news. On 12 July 2011 the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee heard evidence from Lord Blair, Peter Clarke, Andy Hayman, John Yates and Sue Akers. The evidence of the various officers has been widely commented on in the press. The transcript of the evidence is here.
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In an extraordinary statement released today the Metropolitan Police have claimed that there is a “deliberate campaign to undermine the investigation” into allegations of corrupt payments by journalists to police officers and to “divert attention from elsewhere“.  Continue reading