Murdoch to pay millions over hacking of family
Source: Agencies |
October 22, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
RUPERT Murdoch's company said yesterday it has agreed to pay 2 million pounds (US$3.2 million) to the family of a murdered schoolgirl whose phone was hacked by the tabloid News of the World.
News International and the family of Milly Dowler confirmed the settlement in a joint statement.
Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World in July after evidence emerged that its reporters had eavesdropped on the telephone voicemail messages of the 13-year-old who disappeared in 2002 and was later found murdered.
The statement said Murdoch also will donate 1 million pounds to charities chosen by the Dowler family.
The family said: "Nothing that has been agreed will ever bring back Milly or undo the traumas of her disappearance and the horrendous murder trial earlier this year. The only way that a fitting tribute could be agreed was to ensure a very substantial donation to charity was made in Milly's memory. We hope that projects will be undertaken so that some good can come from this."
The revelation that reporters eavesdropped on Milly Dowler's voicemail messages while police were searching for her - and mounting evidence that phone hacking was routine at the newspaper - shook Murdoch's media empire, and sent tremors through the UK's political, police and media establishments.
The scandal has forced the resignation of two of London's senior police officers, ousted executives at Murdoch's News Corp and claimed the job of Prime Minister David Cameron's former spin doctor, Andy Coulson, an ex-News of the World editor.
Police have informed more than 450 people the newspaper might have spied on them.
News International and the family of Milly Dowler confirmed the settlement in a joint statement.
Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World in July after evidence emerged that its reporters had eavesdropped on the telephone voicemail messages of the 13-year-old who disappeared in 2002 and was later found murdered.
The statement said Murdoch also will donate 1 million pounds to charities chosen by the Dowler family.
The family said: "Nothing that has been agreed will ever bring back Milly or undo the traumas of her disappearance and the horrendous murder trial earlier this year. The only way that a fitting tribute could be agreed was to ensure a very substantial donation to charity was made in Milly's memory. We hope that projects will be undertaken so that some good can come from this."
The revelation that reporters eavesdropped on Milly Dowler's voicemail messages while police were searching for her - and mounting evidence that phone hacking was routine at the newspaper - shook Murdoch's media empire, and sent tremors through the UK's political, police and media establishments.
The scandal has forced the resignation of two of London's senior police officers, ousted executives at Murdoch's News Corp and claimed the job of Prime Minister David Cameron's former spin doctor, Andy Coulson, an ex-News of the World editor.
Police have informed more than 450 people the newspaper might have spied on them.
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