Reporting the Phone Hacking Trial – the Sun takes the wooden spoon

The phone hacking trial has now been running since 30 October 2013.  The have been 14 days of hearings.  There has been extensive online coverage (helpfully summarised by #pressreform and David Banks).  How are national newspapers doing? 

Searches on Journalisted and online databases suggest that there have been 176 articles about the trial since the prosecution opened its case on 30 October 2013.

The most extensive coverage was in the Guardian, with 38 reports of the trial.  And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Sun took the wooden spoon in terms of the number of articles published about the trial with 6.

The figures for the other national dailies were as follows:

• Daily Telegraph 28 reports
• Independent 25 reports
• Express, 25 reports
• Daily Star 20 reports
• Financial Times, 16 reports
• Times, 16 reports
• Daily Mail, 14 reports
• Daily Mirror 13 reports

These were the trial reports in the national edition of the Sun:

Hacking: ‘Justice is on trial’, 30 October 2013

3 Reporters plead guilty to hacking: Prosecution opens trial, Editors deny conspiracy, 31 October 2013

Brooks and Coulson ‘had 6 year affair’, 1 November 2013

Brooks ‘Paid £4k for pic of Wills in Bikini’, 2 November 2013

‘Editor “was hack victim”, 5 November 2013

Royal staff ‘in 1,500 hackings’, 14 November 2013

The Sun did not appear keen to remind its readers that Ms Brooks had edited the paper between 2003 and 2009.  Apart from a passing reference in one article to the fact that she “went on to be editor of the Sun”, she was described as “former News International chief exec”. Even when it was alleged that the wrongdoing was committed in the course of Ms Brooks’ six year editorship of the Sun, this fact went unmentioned it its report.

Sun (or other national newspaper) readers who wish to keep up with what is happening at the trial can follow one or more of the twelve people who are live tweeting from the trial (thank you to #press reform for the list):

We will also be trying to ensure that we publish daily reports on the trial over the next few months.