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Hacking 'discussed openly at newspaper'
Source: Agencies |
August 17, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PHONE hacking was widely discussed at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, according to a reporter who was blamed as the sole culprit, contradicting repeated denials by senior executives and dragging the UK's prime minister back into the scandal.
In a letter written four years ago to appeal against his dismissal from the newspaper, former royal reporter Clive Goodman said the practice of hacking was openly discussed until the then editor Andy Coulson banned open talk about it.
Coulson, who has repeatedly denied all knowledge of the practice, went on to become the official spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron, a move which took the affair into the political arena and forced the government to turn on Murdoch after years of courting his favor.
"This practice was widely discussed in the daily editorial conference, until explicit reference to it was banned by the editor," Goodman wrote. "Other members of staff were carrying out the same illegal procedures."
Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 along with private detective Glenn Mulcaire, said he had been told he could keep his job if he agreed not to implicate the newspaper, but was fired nonetheless after being imprisoned.
Yesterday the committee investigating the scandal said it will probably recall James Murdoch after receiving the Goodman letter and statements from other parties which appeared to contradict his previous evidence.
Committee chairman John Whittingdale said: "When we have the further information we are seeking, it is very likely we will want to put those points to James Murdoch."
Tom Watson, the parliamentarian who has most doggedly pursued the scandal, told Sky News it could be months if not years before the full picture of what happened at the newspaper emerged. "If this letter is accurate, the whole foundation of the company's defence collapses," he said.
Allegations of widespread hacking at News Corp's UK newspaper arm, and in particular reports that journalists had used investigators to hack into the voicemails of murder victims, sparked an uproar that dominated global headlines for much of July.
It forced the company to close the 168-year-old News of the World, drop its most important acquisition in decades - the US$12 billion purchase of BSkyB - and accept the resignation of two senior newspaper executives.
Two of Britain's most senior police officers have also quit over the failure to investigate the scandal properly, and 12 people have so far been arrested.
In a letter written four years ago to appeal against his dismissal from the newspaper, former royal reporter Clive Goodman said the practice of hacking was openly discussed until the then editor Andy Coulson banned open talk about it.
Coulson, who has repeatedly denied all knowledge of the practice, went on to become the official spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron, a move which took the affair into the political arena and forced the government to turn on Murdoch after years of courting his favor.
"This practice was widely discussed in the daily editorial conference, until explicit reference to it was banned by the editor," Goodman wrote. "Other members of staff were carrying out the same illegal procedures."
Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 along with private detective Glenn Mulcaire, said he had been told he could keep his job if he agreed not to implicate the newspaper, but was fired nonetheless after being imprisoned.
Yesterday the committee investigating the scandal said it will probably recall James Murdoch after receiving the Goodman letter and statements from other parties which appeared to contradict his previous evidence.
Committee chairman John Whittingdale said: "When we have the further information we are seeking, it is very likely we will want to put those points to James Murdoch."
Tom Watson, the parliamentarian who has most doggedly pursued the scandal, told Sky News it could be months if not years before the full picture of what happened at the newspaper emerged. "If this letter is accurate, the whole foundation of the company's defence collapses," he said.
Allegations of widespread hacking at News Corp's UK newspaper arm, and in particular reports that journalists had used investigators to hack into the voicemails of murder victims, sparked an uproar that dominated global headlines for much of July.
It forced the company to close the 168-year-old News of the World, drop its most important acquisition in decades - the US$12 billion purchase of BSkyB - and accept the resignation of two senior newspaper executives.
Two of Britain's most senior police officers have also quit over the failure to investigate the scandal properly, and 12 people have so far been arrested.
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