News of the World phone hacking affair

News of the World phone hacking affair is a controversy involving the News of the World, a weekly British tabloid newspaper published by News Group Newspapers of News International, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

The controversy began in 2006, when the Metropolitan Police laid charges against Clive Goodman, the News of the World's royal editor, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator, alleging that they intercepted voicemail messages left for members of the royal household. Both men were jailed in 2007. Allegations against the News of the World in relation to illegal voicemail interceptions have continued in subsequent years, implicating other journalists and staff at the paper; numerous public figures, including politicians and celebrities, were found to have been targeted by the interceptions.

The Metropolitan Police began a new investigation into phone hacking allegations in February 2011, at which time more than 20 civil cases against the News of the World were also active. Attorneys for the victims allege that as many as 7,000 people had their phones hacked by the News of the World, and have estimated that litigation over the paper's actions may cost News Corporation £40 million.

In July 2011, further allegations were made that the News of the World hacked into the voicemails of murder victim Milly Dowler, as well as victims of the 7/7 attacks and relatives of deceased British soldiers. The news was met with public outrage in the United Kingdom. Advertisers withdrew from the News of the World and other News Corporation holdings, and the company's proposed acquisition of the broadcaster BSkyB was seriously threatened.

On 6 July, British prime minister David Cameron announced to parliament that a public government inquiry would convene to further investigate the affair. The following day, James Murdoch announced that the newspaper would shut down on Sunday, 10 July 2011, after 168 years of publication.

Overview

The affair concerns the News of the World's use of private investigators to gain access to the mobile phone messages of a variety of celebrities and public figures of interest to the newspaper, by using phone hacking.

The News of the World's royal editor Clive Goodman and his associates, investigator Glenn Mulcaire and Davy Craig (Editor of the Weekly News), were arrested on 8 August 2006 due to phone hacking allegations made by the British monarchy in 2005. Goodman and Mulcaire were subsequently charged. In 2007 Goodman was jailed for four months, Mulcaire for six; the paper's then editor, Andy Coulson, had resigned two weeks earlier.

In 2009 and 2010, further revelations emerged regarding the extent of the phone hacking and the number of News of the World employees who may have been aware of the practices. By March 2010, the paper had spent over £2 million settling court cases with victims of phone hacking. In July 2009, The Guardian made a series of allegations of wider phone hacking activities at the News of the World newspaper, that were aimed at other people like the TV host Chris Tarrant.

This led to several prominent figures who were covertly snooped upon bringing legal action against the News of the World's owner and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Amongst those who began legal action were football agent Sky Andrew, the actors Sienna Miller and Steve Coogan, the television presenter Chris Tarrant and ex-Sky Sports presenter, Andy Gray.

2006: Royal phone hacking scandal

The News of the World's royal editor Clive Goodman and two associates were arrested on 8 August 2006. Goodman and investigator Glenn Mulcaire were charged with hacking the phones of members of the royal household by accessing mobile phone voicemail messages, an offence under the terms of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. The arrests were the result of a seven-month investigation by Scotland Yard. The News of the World's London office was searched by the police during their investigations. Goodman was also suspended by the newspaper.

The investigation began as a result of an article published on 13 November 2005 by Goodman. The article claimed that Prince William was in the process of borrowing a portable editing suite from ITV royal correspondent Tom Bradby. Following the publication, the Prince and Bradby met to try to figure out how the details of their arrangement had leaked out, as only two other people were aware of the situation. Prince William noted that another equally improbable leak had recently taken place regarding an appointment he had made with a knee surgeon. After some discussion, the Prince and Bradby concluded someone was breaking into mobile phone answering machine messages. The compromised voice mail accounts were found to belong to his aides, and not the Prince himself.

Their concerns were passed along to the police, whose investigation began as a localised incident involving staff at Clarence House. The list of possible victims broadened to include ministers, a Member of Parliament, military chiefs, a leading media figure, top footballers and celebrities, but the only NOTW journalist to be charged was Royal correspondent Goodman.

On 26 January 2007, Clive Goodman was jailed for four months, having pleaded guilty to the phone message interception charges. His associate private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, whom the newspaper had paid for his work, was imprisoned for six months. On the same day, it was announced that Andy Coulson had resigned as the editor of the News of the World, having given in his notice a fortnight earlier. He was immediately replaced by Colin Myler. Goodman and Mulcaire subsequently both won unfair dismissal claims.

In April 2010, The Guardian reported that the officer in charge of the investigation, Andy Hayman, "subsequently left the police to work for News International as a columnist.

2Number of victims

Beginning on 8 July 2009, The Guardian made a series of allegations that the phone hacking activities at the News of the World newspaper went far beyond the activities for which the NOTW's royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed in 2007, those activities being limited to members of the Royal household. The paper alleged that the hacking included public figures such as politician John Prescott and the Manchester United F.C. manager Sir Alex Ferguson, Tessa Jowell when she was Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Boris Johnson when he was the Opposition spokesman on higher education, public relations guru Max Clifford and even Rebekah Wade, the editor of the News of the World's sister-paper The Sun, were among the alleged victims. Prescott in particular was outraged at the fact that the police did not inform him of the phone tapping, but Assistant Commissioner John Yates stated that there was no actual evidence that Prescott's phone had been tapped.

The NOTW denied these claims and its parent company, News Corporation, invited The Guardian to share any evidence it had with the Metropolitan Police. The Metropolitan Police had declined to reopen their inquiry in response to The Guardian's reports stating that "no additional evidence has come to light" and it "therefore considered that no further investigation is required". In December 2009 a parliamentary question was tabled about the possible tapping of then-minister Tessa Jowell's phone, and footballer Sol Campbell instructed his solicitor to contact the police.

In February 2010 The Guardian reported that three mobile phone companies had discovered that over a hundred of their customers had had their answerphone messages hacked. The companies identified the customers in 2007 after Scotland Yard disclosed numbers that had been accessed by Goodman and his private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. A Freedom of Information request by The Guardian found that the police had recovered 91 PIN codes for accessing other people's voicemails in material seized from Mulcaire and Goodman. In April 2010 it was revealed from Crown Prosecution Service documents that although police had named only 8 individuals in court, the Scotland Yard enquiry had actually uncovered over 4,000 names or partial names and nearly 3,000 full or partial telephone numbers from the materials seized from Mulcaire and Goodman.

Wider knowledge of the affair

In addition, contrary to the News of the World claims in 2007, The Guardian in July 2009 stated that the activities were known to a range of persons at the paper including then editor, Andy Coulson. At the time The Guardian made these claims, Coulson had left NOTW and become director of Conservative Party communications and planning. Due to this, some claimed that the reporting was politically motivated. The Conservative Party was quick to stand by Coulson.

The Guardian revealed in July 2009 that NOTW had made payments in excess of £1 million to three people subject to phone-hacking, including Professional Footballers' Association chairman Gordon Taylor, with the out-of-court settlements subject to secrecy clauses. In July 2009, Private Eye revealed that The Guardian had, in order to avoid "all out war" with the NOTW, chosen not to tell the Commons committee that the £700,000 payment to Gordon Taylor, one of the three people with whom the NOTW reached out-of-court settlements, was signed off in June 2008 by the directors of News Group Newspapers Ltd, the News International subsidiary owning the NOTW — thus showing awareness of the matter at the highest levels. The reports led the Press Complaints Commission to re-open its inquiry into the matter (finding that it had not been "materially misled", leading Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger to resign from the PCC),and the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee to reopen its inquiry.

Select Committee report

In February 2010 the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, under the chairmanship of Conservative MP John Whittingdale, reported on the phone hacking affair as part of a wide-ranging report into privacy and libel issues. The report condemned the testimony of the NOTW witnesses that had appeared before the Committee, referring to "collective amnesia" and "deliberate obfuscation", and noted News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks' refusal to appear at all. The Committee concluded, "We strongly condemn this behaviour which reinforces the widely held impression that the press generally regard themselves as unaccountable and that News International in particular has sought to conceal the truth about what really occurred.

Other News International newspapers (The Sun, The Times) downplayed the report, devoting minimal coverage to it and emphasising the News of the World's response.

Max Clifford case

In March 2010 the News of the World settled a case brought against it by publicist Max Clifford for intercepting his voice mail. After lunch with former editor and News International executive Rebekah Brooks, the paper agreed to pay Clifford's legal fees and an undisclosed "personal payment" not described as damages, with the sum exceeding £1m. The £1m was paid in exchange for Clifford giving the News of the World exclusive stories over the next several years.

The case had been expected to reveal the details of previous settlements the paper had made, including the £1 million spent in 2009 settling with three phone hacking victims, and the unfair dismissal claim won by Clive Goodman. Clifford had won court rulings in February 2010 that meant that News of the World would have had to disclose previously secret information regarding which journalists were involved in hacking voicemail messages.

The judge ruled that Mulcaire had to disclose the names of all the journalists who targeted Clifford and also those who received transcripts of the messages. With the settlement, this information would not be made public.

Further legal action

The original Metropolitan Police investigation attracted renewed attention in April 2010, when it emerged that Andy Hayman, an assistant commissioner and the officer responsible for overseeing Scotland Yard inquiry, had left the police to work for News International as a columnist.

The following month, reports of further legal action against the News of the World emerged. Those considering litigation against the paper included a football agent and ten MPs. The legal action reopened the possibility of details emerging that the settlement with Clifford had kept secret.

2010–2011: renewed investigations

New York Times story

In September 2010, The New York Times published the results of an investigation it had begun in March, which revealed further details about the extent of the News of the World's phone hacking, and about Andy Coulson's alleged knowledge of it. The investigation also revealed that a journalist at the News of the World had been attempting to hack in to the answer phone messages of a "television personality" in 2010. The journalist was suspended from reporting, and is facing legal action by the personality.

The Times piece cited Sean Hoare, a former colleague, as saying that Coulson had "actively encouraged" phone hacking. Coulson denied the claims, and indicated that he would allow himself to be questioned by the Metropolitan Police regarding the phone hacking affair.

In the wake of the renewed allegations, the Home Affairs Select Committee opened a new inquiry into phone hacking. The Metropolitan Police has also indicated its intention to re-examine the allegations regarding the News of the World, saying that it would consider new information that it had received.

Two days after the Home Affairs Select Committee announced its inquiry, the House of Commons voted to refer allegations of phone-hacking against politicians to the Standards and Privileges Committee, with the power to compel witnesses to give evidence.

A report aired on Channel 4's Dispatches in October included remarks made by an unnamed source, said to have been a former senior journalist at the News of the World who worked alongside Andy Coulson. The source alleged that Coulson had personally listened to messages obtained through phone-hacking.

In December 2010, Coulson – while under oath as a witness in HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan – denied any knowledge of phone hacking at the News of the World or that he knew the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. The following day, the Crown Prosecution Service said that it had determined that there was insufficient evidence to charge Coulson over allegations that he was aware of phone-hacking at the publication. The CPS said that witnesses interviewed by Metropolitan Police – including those who had previously made allegations through media outlets – had not been willing to provide admissible evidence.

Allegations from litigation proceedings

In lieu of criminal proceedings, several public figures commenced litigation against the News of the World's owner and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Those who began legal action included the football agent Sky Andrew, the actress Sienna Miller and actor Steve Coogan, and the television presenter Chris Tarrant and ex-employee of Sky Sports, Andy Gray.

New allegations about the conduct of News of the World executives emerged in December 2010. Papers lodged in the High Court by lawyers acting for Sienna Miller claimed to have uncovered evidence of the involvement of Ian Edmondson, a senior editor at the publication, in work undertaken by the convicted private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

The following month, the News of the World disclosed that it had suspended Edmondson, saying that it would take "appropriate action" if the litigation or the paper's own internal investigation found evidence of wrongdoing by News of the World staff.

The Crown Prosecution Service subsequently announced a review of the evidence collected during the Metropolitan Police's original investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World. The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, said that the decision was motivated in part by developments in the civil courts.

Coulson's second resignation

Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, resigned from his position as David Cameron's communications director on 21 January 2011, citing "continued coverage of events connected to my old job at the News of the World". He had joined Cameron's communications team in 2007 after his resignation from the News of the World.