Blair offered to advise Murdoch on hacking
Print Edition
Former British prime minister Tony Blair offered to act as a secret adviser to Rupert Murdoch during his media empire’s phone-hacking scandal, suggesting the firm follow steps he took to calm public anger over the Iraq war, a London court heard yesterday.
Rebekah Brooks, the ex-boss of Murdoch’s British newspapers, wrote an e-mail to Murdoch’s son James detailing advice Blair had given her during an hour-long phone call in July 2011 at the height of a furore over phone-hacking allegations at the media mogul’s News of the World tabloid.
The disclosure came as the prosecution wrapped up its case against Brooks, who is on trial at London’s Old Bailey on charges relating to phone-hacking, which she denies.
“He (Blair) is available to you, KRM and me as an unofficial adviser but needs to be between us,” said the e-mail from Brooks to James Murdoch, who at the time ran News Corp. operations in Britain. KRM refers to Rupert Murdoch’s initials.
Brooks said Blair counselled: “It will pass. Tough up.” Four days later she quit her job and was arrested two days after that.
The e-mail was sent the day after News Corp closed the 168-year-old News of the World in the face of huge public anger over revelations that its staff hacked into the voicemail messages of a murdered schoolgirl.
Blair’s suggestions to Brooks contrast with a public statement he made three days before their phone call, when he had denounced the hacking scandal as “beyond disgusting.”
The e-mail shows how close Brooks and Rupert Murdoch were to Britain’s elite, a relationship critics said allowed him to use his British newspapers to influence politicians for the benefit of his business interests.
A spokesman for Blair, now a Middle East peace envoy, said the he was “simply giving informal advice.”
According to Brooks’s e-mail, Blair’s advice included setting up an internal investigation, led by a member of the “great and the good.” The scenario was based on the investigation which cleared him of wrongdoing in the build-up to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
“Get them to investigate me and others and publish a Hutton style report,” Brooks said in the e-mail relaying the comments.
“Publish part one of the report at same time as the police closes its inquiry and clear you and accept shortcomings and new solutions and process,” the e-mail said.
Lord Hutton was appointed by Blair to investigate the circumstances which led to the BBC reporting that the government had “sexed up” the case for the invasion of Iraq.
That investigation cleared the government of any wrongdoing, but a poll of Britons afterwards found that half believed the report was a “whitewash.”
Prosecutors yesterday concluded their case against Brooks and six others over phone-hacking and other offenses, which they deny. Brooks is due to take the stand today.
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