Rupert Murdoch and the Corruption of the British Media

[Douglas Caddy]

Thank you, Douglas.

The other bit is a reflection on the hypocrisy in dealing with these high-flying looters in the context of current events. Also there is this seemingly studied determination to not go too deep into the Murdoch clans history and reach some kind of decision that's going to end in meaning something fundamental.

Such as whether the CIA, which founded and funded certain publications without the public finding out about this until years later, may have played an undisclosed principal role in the origin and rise of the Murdoch clans' media empire?

[John Dolva]

Interesting thought, yes. There may be a CIA tie with the Dismissal of Gough Whitlam (and Murdoch of course) and a supposed note left in a Hawaiian Hotel Room. One thing Gough was possibly poised to do was to close or take control of Pine Gap. I think that was enough (on top of everything else) that made that coup essential. At the same time there was an influx of Chilean refugees into Australia from the CIA coup there. It'd be interesting to see whether there were any Murdoch influence there as in Australias bloodless coup.

[Douglas Caddy]

Murdoch told me to have someone followed: Buttrose

Australian Story

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-22/ita-buttrose-rupert-murdoch/2850338

Updated August 23, 2011 09:23:52

Photo: Ita Buttrose says Rupert Murdoch asked her to have someone followed. (ABC TV)

Media figure Ita Buttrose says Rupert Murdoch suggested she have someone followed while chasing a story in her time as editor-in-chief of the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph.

In Monday night's Australian Story, Ms Buttrose said the media mogul asked her to "go beyond what I thought I should do".

Ms Buttrose said the request came while working on a story at Mr Murdoch's request.

"I assigned a reporter to do it but [Mr Murdoch] wasn't happy with the result and said, 'No, that wasn't good enough. Have you followed this person?'."

Approaching then News Limited chief executive Ken Cowley, Ms Buttrose claims she said: "I can't give this instruction. I'm not having anybody that works for me, for whom I'm responsible, follow anybody. I don't want to be a part of it."

A News Limited spokesman in Sydney said Ms Buttrose's allegations are false.

"Mr Murdoch has never asked any journalist to do anything improper," the spokesman said.

"Mr Cowley has never been asked by Mr Murdoch to have a reporter conduct surveillance of any kind on any individual and nor would he have agreed to it had he been asked by Mr Murdoch or anyone else."

Ms Buttrose declined to reveal the subject of the print feature.

Ultimately "it was dropped, we didn't go on", she said.

"If you run a newspaper there's a responsibility that goes with it, and sometimes you have to be able to say to the boss, no, I don't think we should go down this path."

At 39, Ms Buttrose was the first woman to edit a major metropolitan newspaper in Australia.

She stayed at News Limited for four years, although "Rupert once said to me that he's got everything he wants out of an editor in 18 months".

First posted August 22, 2011 14:25:57

[John Dolva]

Love her or hate her, fellow australians, Ita's not likely to say important things lightly.

The guy who is reported to have said murdoch has never asked anything wrong to be done must spend most of his life sleeping or something.

[Douglas Caddy]

Interesting thought, yes. There may be a CIA tie with the Dismissal of Gough Whitlam (and Murdoch of course) and a supposed note left in a Hawaiian Hotel Room. One thing Gough was possibly poised to do was to close or take control of Pine Gap. I think that was enough (on top of everything else) that made that coup essential. At the same time there was an influx of Chilean refugees into Australia from the CIA coup there. It'd be interesting to see whether there were any Murdoch influence there as in Australias bloodless coup.

I found the following article, previously posted in this topic, interesting because of the willingness/eagerness of the U.K. government to brief the Murdochs and their key employees on sensitive defense and other matters on a large number of occasions without vetting these individuals first. It raised a question in my mind as to whether the Murdoch empire was connected somehow to the Australian, U.K. and/or U.S. Intelligence Agencies:

Posted 27 July 2011 - 02:19 AM

Murdochs were given secret defence briefings

Ministers held meetings with media mogul's people more than 60 times

The Independent

By Oliver Wright, Whitehall Editor

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

The extraordinary access that Cabinet ministers granted Rupert Murdoch and his children was revealed for the first time yesterday, with more than two dozen private meetings between the family and senior members of the Government in the 15 months since David Cameron entered Downing Street.

In total, Cabinet ministers have had private meetings with Murdoch executives more than 60 times and, if social events such as receptions at party conferences are included, the figure is at least 107.

On two occasions, James Murdoch and former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks were given confidential defence briefings on Afghanistan and Britain's strategic defence review by the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox. A further briefing was held with Ms Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and the Sunday Times editor John Witherow.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has had 16 separate meetings since May 2010 with News International editors and executives, including two with the Murdochs within just a month of taking office. He also invited Elisabeth Murdoch as a guest to his 40th birthday party last month.

The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, dined with Rupert Murdoch within days of the Government coming to power and, after being given quasi-judicial oversight for the Murdochs' £8bn attempted takeover of BSkyB, had two meetings with James Murdoch in which they discussed the takeover. Mr Hunt said last night that these were legitimate as part of the bid process.

But the minister who sees Rupert Murdoch the most frequently is the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, a former News International employee. Mr Gove has seen the mogul for breakfast, lunch or dinner on six occasions since last May. Overall, Mr Gove has had 12 meetings with Murdoch executives since becoming a minister.

The list, released by government departments yesterday evening, reinforces the impression of an unhealthily close relationship between the top echelons of News International and senior members of the Coalition Cabinet, which first became apparent when Mr Cameron released his list of contacts with news organisations a week ago. He revealed then that he had met News International executives on 26 occasions since entering Downing Street.

Senior executives and editors from News International have held private meetings with Cabinet ministers more than 60 times since last May.

Other newspaper groups and media organisations had significantly fewer meetings. Mr Osborne met with representatives of The Daily Telegraph group on six occasions and The Independent/London Evening Standard twice. Mr Hunt met Telegraph and Independent figures twice each and members of the BBC 11 times.

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, who was stripped of responsibility for ruling on whether the BSkyB bid should go ahead after boasting in December that he had "declared war on Rupert Murdoch", did not have as much contact as some of his colleagues. Mr Cable met the editor of The Times, James Harding, in December, although it is unclear whether this was before or after he was stripped of his responsibilities for the BSkyB bid.

The Prime Minister's chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, held a meeting shortly after the election with No 10's then communications director Andy Coulson, the former head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Paul Stephenson and Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World and then an adviser to the Met. Both Mr Coulson and Mr Wallis have since been arrested on suspicion of phone hacking and Sir Paul resigned over his handling of the scandal.

Last night a spokesman for Mr Gove insisted that his meetings with the Murdochs were of a personal nature. "Michael worked for the BBC and News International and his wife works for News International now," he said. "He has known Rupert Murdoch for over a decade. He did not discuss the BSkyB deal with the Murdochs and isn't at all embarrassed about his meetings, most of which have been about education, which is his job."

A spokesman for Mr Fox said that the defence briefings given to the Murdochs covered a range of issues and were given because of the "interest in defence matters" shown by News International papers. He did not say who initiated the meetings.

The Chancellor had said he would be happy to talk about the meetings, but the list was released just after interviews he gave on GDP figures so he was not available for comment.

The Conservative Party co-chairman, Sayeeda Warsi, said the release of the information showed that, in contrast to Labour, the Government was being open about its dealings with the Murdochs. "This Government is delivering unprecedented transparency," she said. "Ed Miliband now needs to come clean. Where is his list of Shadow Cabinet media meetings?"

Watson to write book with Independent reporter

Tom Watson, the Labour MP who has done much to uncover the extent of the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World, is to write the "full behind-the-scenes story" with The Independent correspondent Martin Hickman. The publisher Penguin promised yesterday that the book would "describe in previously unpublished detail the nexus between News Corporation, the police and politicians, and will explain how the connections between them were unravelled".

The tenacious MP for West Bromwich East led the questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch and the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks last week when they appeared before the House of Commons select committee for Culture, Media & Sport.

Hickman was named 2009 Journalist of the Year by the Foreign Press Association. Penguin said: "With unique information and access, their book will show what went wrong with some very prominent British institutions and will mark the moment when everything began to change." As yet untitled, it will be published later this year. The book is likely to be one of several documenting a scandal that has gone to the heart of British society.

[John Simkin]

James Robinson and Polly Curtis The Guardian, Tuesday 23 August 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/23/andy-coulson-news-international-tories

David Cameron is facing fresh questions about his decision to hire Andy Coulson in 2007 after it was reported that his former communications director received several hundred thousand pounds from his former employer News International after he was hired by the Conservative party.

The BBC's Robert Peston said that Coulson received cash payments from the company until the end of 2007 after his resignation as editor of the News of the World in January of that year.

Coulson resigned after Clive Goodman, the former royal editor at the paper, which was closed last month, was jailed for illegally intercepting voicemail messages.

The title's owner News International allegedly agreed to honour the remainder of Coulson's two-year contract, and the money was paid in instalments. Coulson also continued to receive other benefits, including private health insurance and a company car, for several years.

He took up his post as director of communications at the Conservative party in July 2007.

The alleged payments ended before Cameron became prime minister but the fact one of Cameron's closest advisers was receiving money from News International after he started work for the Tories will cast doubt over Coulson's impartiality. The spotlight will again fall on Cameron's close ties with the Murdoch media empire because of the revelations.

Conservative party sources insisted on Monday night they had no knowledge of any News International payments made to Coulson, after checks were made with every senior party official who might have been involved in hiring him in 2007.

Rumours of a financial relationship between Coulson and News International have circulated for some time. It is understood that, prior to him standing down as director of communications in January this year, party officials had asked Coulson directly whether he had received payments from News International during the period he had worked for them. They were seemingly confident enough to give the "categorical" assurances that he hadn't as recently as last month.

On 12 July, when asked by the Guardian, a senior Conservative party official said: "We can give categorical assurances that he wasn't paid by any other source. Andy Coulson's only salary, his only form of income, came from the party during the years he worked for the party and in government."

Coulson was asked by the Commons culture, media and sport committee in 2009 whether he had received a payment from the company. He told MPs it was a private matter but added he would be prepared to discuss it privately with John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP who chairs it.

In February, the Conservative party spokesman, Henry MacRory, told the Guardian: "I'm 100% satisfied that there is no truth in the suggestion that Andy was bankrolled by News International or by anybody else."

And Michael Spencer who was party, treasurer said: "I have no knowledge of it and would think it is highly unlikely that there was any such arrangement."

Labour MP Tom Watson, who sits on the culture, media and sport committee, said the money could be classed as a donation to the Tory party which should have been declared to the Electoral Commission.

"This is a remarkable revelation" Watson said. "Not only was Coulson being paid when he gave evidence to the committee, he failed to declare it. I will be writing to the electoral commission to invite them to look into this."

Under electoral law both the donor and recipient are obligated to report donations, meaning that if the payments are interpreted as donations in kind to the party, both News International and the party could face sanctions.

On Monday night Watson, who has vigorously pursued the hacking affair and emerged as one of Rupert Murdoch's most trenchant critics, also said: "We need to be certain that everyone involved in hiring Andy Coulson was not aware of these additional payments from NI. We need a cast iron guarantee nobody knew."

The allegations raise more questions about how closely Coulson was scrutinised by Cameron and his team before he was offered the role as one of the future prime minister's most senior advisors and whether he was subjected to the appropriate checks.

It emerged earlier this year that Coulson did not receive the same security clearance as officials of similar seniority after he entered Downing Street.

A Labour spokesman said: "David Cameron now faces allegations that one of his top advisers was also in the pay of News International. The prime minister needs to immediately make clear whether these allegations are true.

"There are serious questions to answer about Mr Coulson's employment in Downing Street and the country should not have to wait for full transparency."

News International paid off Clive Goodman, who received in £242,000, after he threatened to sue the company in 2007. Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the company, also received a payment. Both men are believed to have received their settlements in instalments.

A spokesman for News International said on Monday night: "News International consistently does not comment on the financial arrangements of any individual."

[Douglas Caddy]

Call for inquiry into News International payments to Andy CoulsonLabour

MP Tom Watson wants Electoral Commission to investigate whether payments and benefits to former No 10 communications director amounted to political donations

By Andrew Sparrow and Polly Curtis

guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday 23 August 2011 14.57 BST

The Electoral Commission is being asked to investigate whether News International payments to Andy Coulson after he started working for the Conservative party may have broken the law.

Tom Watson, a Labour MP and a member of the Commons culture committee, said he wanted the Electoral Commission to investigate whether the payments and benefits – which reportedly included private health insurance and a company car – should have been declared because they amounted to a political donation.

MPs on the committee are also angry because the reports appear to contradict evidence given to it by Coulson himself. The former News of the World editor, who worked as David Cameron's communications chief from July 2007 until January this year, is expected to face further questioning from the committee about the payments.

On Monday night, the BBC's Robert Peston said Coulson had received several hundred thousand pounds from News International after he started working for Tories.

Coulson was known to have received a payoff after he resigned from the News of the World in January 2007 following the conviction of the journalist Clive Goodman and the investigator Glenn Mulcaire for phone hacking.

But Peston said Coulson received his severance pay in instalments, and that he continued receiving money from News International until the end of 2007. Peston also said Coulson continued to receive his News International work benefits, such as healthcare, for three years and that he kept his company car.

The report casts doubt on the reliability of the evidence that Coulson gave to the culture committee in 2009. Coulson, who at the time was working for the Conservative party on a reported salary of £275,000 – roughly half what he was thought to have been earning at the News of the World – said he did not have any "secondary income".

Watson asked: "So your sole income was News International and then your sole income was the Conservative party?" Coulson replied: "Yes."

Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief executive, appeared to confirm this when she gave evidence to the committee in July. Asked if the company had "subsidised" Coulson's salary after he left the News of the World, she said: "That's not true."

On Tuesday, John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP who chairs the culture committee, said Coulson and News International should have been more open with the committee about the nature of this arrangement.

"As I understand it, these were staggered payments from a severance package. So, arguably, that's just delayed pay," Whittingdale said.

"But if it is also true that Coulson was provided with a car and health insurance, then I would have expected him to have made that clear. And I would have expected News International to have made that clear when we asked them about it."

The committee is not meeting until September, but Whittingdale said it may decide to demand further clarification on these matters from Coulson and News International.

Watson said on Tuesday the committee would have to establish whether it had been "misled".

But he said that the Electoral Commission also had to establish whether the payments and benefits constituted donations to the Conservative party that should have been declared.

"If it transpires that these payments were made in a discretionary fashion, rather than honouring the commitments of Mr Coulson's contract, then I think they probably do form a donation and they should have been declared," he said.

"Every single day there seems to be a new revelation that contradicts what has previously been said. I want the Electoral Commission to try and get to the facts of this case. They have powers of investigation."

Watson also said that Cameron should have been embarrassed to learn that Rupert Murdoch was still paying for Coulson's car and for Coulson's health insurance several years after Coulson started working for the Tories.

"I just pose the question – if Alastair Campbell when he was working for Tony Blair had had his car paid and his health insurance paid – what would the reaction of the Murdoch papers be?" Watson asked.

The commission said it had not yet received a complaint about the individual allegations and refused to spell out whether such payments might have been considered undeclared donations, directing inquiries to their rules regulating donations.

According to the rules, staff of political parties are not considered regulated donees in their own right unless they are a member of the party and they receive money for use in their political work.

Payments to a member of staff could however be considered a donation in kind to a party if it saved the party paying for items itself. As such, if the payments were in anyway considered a co-payment or top-up to subsidise his party wage it could count as a donation.

Alternatively if the health insurance or company car he reportedly enjoyed for three years after leaving News International subsidised the party paying for such items itself, it could also be considered a donation.

In July, the Conservatives denied Coulson was paid by News International while he was working for the party or the government. A senior Conservative party official told the Guardian: "We can give categorical assurances that he wasn't paid by any other source. Andy Coulson's only salary, his only form of income, came from the party during the years he worked for the party and in government."

Labour's culture spokesman, Ivan Lewis, put out a statement on Tuesday demanding more "transparency" from Cameron and News International.

"David Cameron needs to say whether he knew about the payments to Andy Coulson. The details of Mr Coulson's termination agreements with News International must be published and we need to know whether these payments, in the form of honouring a two-year contract of employment after he had been forced to resign in disgrace, were declared to the parliamentary authorities," Lewis said.

"It must be explained why Mr Coulson was getting these payments when he resigned from the News of the World.

"The longer these questions are unanswered the more damage will be done to the prime minister's reputation."

[Douglas Caddy]

Tories on defensive over Coulson's income while working for party

Conservative party sources say staggered severance payments 'different from salary'

By Polly Curtis, James Robinson and Andrew Sparrow

guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday 23 August 2011 21.22 BST

The Conservative party is struggling to defend itself against the disclosure that Andy Coulson, its former head of communications, received six-figure payments from News International while working for the party, despite having previously stated categorically that he had no other income.

The party has been asked repeatedly about Coulson's income, insisting that he was not paid by anyone else during his time at Conservative party HQ and in Downing Street. It offered comprehensive assurances that he had no other income as recently as last month, and apparently after seeking assurances directly from Coulson.

The revelation on Monday night that he received the severance payments in instalments in 2007, the first year he was employed by George Osborne and David Cameron, and also continued to use a company car and receive health insurance from News International until the beginning of 2010, raises the possibility that the payments could have been concealed from the party.

But in a sign of the continued loyalty to Coulson at the top of the government, senior sources in the Conservative party stressed that the severance payments were different from receiving a salary or co-payment from News International. The party refused to answer detailed questions about what assurances Coulson gave about his earnings, whom he had given assurances to, and when.

No 10 directed inquirers about the revelations to the prime minister's previous promise in the Commons to issue a "profound" apology should it transpire that Coulson lied to him over the extent of his knowledge of phone hacking at the News of the World, where he was editor before joining the Conservatives. But the Opposition and even some people within the coalition demanded to know whether Coulson had lied about his income too.

Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer, said: "There is a clear conflict of interest in the director of communications for the Conservative party driving a company car and using health insurance provided by News International. Clearly he didn't come clean on this with the party. Have we got to the bottom of it even now?

"The question is: did Andy Coulson conceal this from the Conservative party or not? If he didn't, who knew? This raises ever more serious questions and, rather than having to drag admissions out of them one at a time like rotten teeth, we need Cameron to say what he knew."

Ivan Lewis, Labour's culture spokesman, said: "It must be explained why Mr Coulson was getting these payments when he resigned from the News of the World. The longer these questions are unanswered the more damage will be done to the prime minister's reputation."

Tom Watson, the Labour MP who has campaigned on phone hacking, wrote to the Electoral Commission asking it to investigate the payments, arguing they could amount to an undeclared donation to the Tory party. The commission's rules suggest that a decision to investigate will rest on whether Coulson's payments benefited the party or amounted to a gift in kind that saved the party expenditure, for example by meaning it did not have to provide health insurance, which is not routinely offered at Conservative Campaign HeadquartersCCHQ.

In a statement, a spokesman for the party said: "We were not aware until last night of allegations that Andy Coulson's severance package, agreed with News International before he was employed by the Conservative party, was paid in instalments that continued into the time he was employed by the Conservative party. Any payments made to Andy Coulson as part of his severance package with News International would not constitute donations in kind to the party as they were linked to his previous employment with NI, not with the Conservative party. Severance payments are a private matter. It is not part of the HR process to discuss severance payments from previous jobs with potential employees."

Last month, a senior Conservative official told the Guardian: "We can give categorical assurances that he wasn't paid by any other source. Andy Coulson's only salary, his only form of income, came from the party during the years he worked for the party and in government."

The Guardian has also established that News International paid Coulson's legal fees up until late last year while he was still working in Downing Street.

The Cabinet Office confirmed last year that Coulson's legal fees were met by News International when the former MSP Tommy Sheridan was prosecuted for libel in December 2010. News International would not be drawn on whether Coulson's legal fees are still being paid by the company. According to insiders, however, some so-called compromise agreements signed by former staff include clauses stating that the company will meet the cost of any future legal disputes relating to their time at the company.

Two former News International editors, David Yelland and Andrew Neil, publicly disputed claims that staggered severance payments were normal at the firm.

Senior News International sources privately claimed Coulson was entitled to have his contract honoured despite having resigned from the paper in January 2007 after his royal editor was jailed for intercepting voicemails. However, Yelland, a former Sun editor, said on Twitter: "When I left NewsCorp I didn't sign or have any compromise agreement! I just left." It is understood that Yelland did not receive any money from the company. Neil, who edited the Sunday Times for 10 years, used Twitter to say: "My original NI editor contract said if I resigned I was entitled to nothing."

A spokesman for Rebekah Brooks, who resigned as chief executive of News International last month, refused to comment on whether she has received a pay-off from the company, or whether any sum agreed is being paid in instalments.

[Douglas Caddy]

Coulson to be questioned by MPs again – if police don't get him first

The Independent

By Andy McSmith

Wednesday, 24 August 2011

Andy Coulson faces the prospect of another public grilling by MPs in the next two months if the police do not charge him with illegal phone hacking.

Members of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee are angry about the replies they received when they asked whether Mr Coulson still had a financial link with Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire after he began working for David Cameron.

One member of the committee, the Labour MP Paul Farrelly, accused him yesterday of acting "like a spiv". The committee's Conservative chairman, John Whittingdale, complained that Mr Coulson should have been more "clear" in his answers.

Other MPs were astonished that he should have been appointed to such a sensitive political post as David Cameron's media strategist without anyone apparently making inquiries into his continuing financial links to the Murdoch empire.

Jack Straw, the former home secretary, said: "This shows a degree of carelessness by David Cameron in not scrutinising the appointment before it was made. It's pretty rum that a major political party placeman should have been receiving almost as much from a newspaper group as from his employer."

When Mr Coulson was giving evidence at a public session of the committee, he claimed he had no "secondary income" when he took up his post as director of communications for the Conservative Party in July 2007. It has since emerged that he received hundreds of thousands of pounds in severance pay from his job as editor of the News of the World, paid in instalments to the end of 2007. Other perks from that job, such as free health insurance, were extended for three years and he was allowed to keep his company car.

A Conservative Party spokesman said last night that the party was "not aware" of Mr Coulson's severance package until it was reported in the press.

The spokesman added: "Severance payments are a private matter. It is not part of the HR process to discuss severance payments from previous jobs with potential employees."

Tom Watson, a Labour member of the committee who has campaigned relentlessly to expose the phone-hacking scandal, is trying to uncover whether Mr Coulson declared the payments when he applied for a pass to give him access to Parliament. Passholders are required to tell the Commons authorities who is paying them.

Mr Whittingdale said the committee would meet early in September to decide whether to recall Mr Coulson for more questioning, as the position was "complicated" by the police investigation into phone hacking. Mr Coulson was arrested in July and has not been charged. Mr Whittingdale added: "If it is true that Coulson was provided with a car and health insurance, then I would have expected him to have made that clear. And I would have expected News International to have made that clear when we asked them about it."

[Douglas Caddy]

Andy Coulson 'broke' Commons pass rules by failing to declare NI payments

Cameron sponsored pass for ex-head of communications

NI 'considering ending payment of Coulson's legal fees'

By Polly Curtis and James Robinson

guardian.co.uk,

Wednesday 24 August 2011 17.14 BST

Andy Coulson appears to have broken House of Commons rules by failing to declare payments and benefits he received from News International while holding a parliamentary pass sponsored by David Cameron.

Registers held in the Commons archive, seen by the Guardian, reveal that in September 2007 – three months after Coulson was employed by Cameron's office – the former News of the World editor failed to declare the health insurance, company car and severance payments he was receiving from his old employers.

The records also show that for at least two months after he resigned from his position as No 10's head of communications in January this year, Coulson continued to hold a parliamentary pass, sponsored by Downing Street, which allowed him access to parliament as a No 10 employee.

That will raise new questions about whether Coulson – who Cameron has admitted seeing on a social basis since his resignation – continued to perform an unofficial role for the Tories after he had left.

The Labour MP Tom Watson called for the parliamentary commissioner for standards to investigate.

Commons rules say all holders of parliamentary passes sponsored by MPs, which allow unfettered access to most of the parliamentary estate, must register any paid employment, gifts or benefits worth more than £329 they receive within that calender year from sources that could "in any way" relate to their work in parliament.

The Guardian also understands that News International continued to pay Coulson's legal bills after he stepped down as the editor of the News of the World in January 2007.

The company is considering ending the arrangement after this week's revelations that Coulson had continued to receive payments after becoming Cameron's director of communications.

Coulson is understood to have consulted lawyers frequently since leaving News International after several public figures brought civil cases against the News of the World, alleging that their voicemail messages had been hacked.

News International paid his legal bills last December when he was a witness in the perjury trial of the former Scottish MP Tommy Sheridan. The company declined to comment.

Cameron and George Osborne first employed Coulson when the Conservatives were in opposition in July 2007.

He appeared on the next register for MP-sponsored passes, published in September, declaring no other employment, gifts or benefits in that calendar year. It is now known that he received hundreds of thousands of pounds in "several" instalments from News International after leaving the company.

He also failed to register the health insurance and company car he received from the company under gifts or benefits.

Coulson's pass was personally sponsored by Cameron, not the Conservative party. His register entry noted only that he was director of communications and planning for the Conservative party, making no mention of any other income.

From October, his pass switched to a journalist's pass, sponsored by the Conservatives, which operated with a separate declaration register. Declarations are only required of an "occupation or employment", earning more than £657 in that calendar year, that could be benefited from access to parliament.

For his entire period working for Cameron at Conservative campaign headquarters, and subsequently in Downing Street, Coulson declared nothing on the registers.

A Conservative spokesman said: "It is the individual's responsibility to declare relevant financial interests to the parliamentary pass office.

"We were not aware until Monday night of allegations that Andy Coulson's severance package, agreed with News International before he was employed by the Conservative party, was paid in instalments that continued into the time he was employed by the Conservative party."

Watson, a member of the culture select committee who has campaigned on the phone hacking debate, is writing to the parliamentary commission for standards to complain about the apparent breach.

"We now know that, in September 2007, Andy Coulson was receiving staggered payments, free private healthcare and apparently a motor car from News International," Watson said.

"When he applied for his House of Commons pass, Mr Coulson was expected to declare these hidden payments under parliament's transparency rules. He failed to do so.

"Moreover, instead of being allocated a political party press pass, he was placed on David Cameron's personal allocation of passes. This meant David Cameron had to personally vouch for his application, so presumably they had a discussion about it. I'm writing to the standards commissioner to request he investigates the matter."

Commons officials confirmed that it could take up to a month for people who hand their passes in to be removed from the register of journalists' interests.

Coulson resigned on 21 January and appears on the next two registers, published in March and April, but not from June. That suggests he could have continued to hold his Downing Street-sponsored pass up until May, four months after his resignation.

He resigned from News International after the jailing of two private investigators who worked for the News of the World, during his time as the paper's editor, for phone hacking.

[Douglas Caddy]

US to probe phone hacking of 9/11 families

The Independent

By Lewis Smith and Cahal Milmo

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Families of 9/11 victims have been told by the US Attorney General he is "deeply disturbed" that journalists may have hacked their phones.

Eric Holder confirmed there was sufficient reason to take the claims seriously, and he has launched an official investigation into allegations phone messages may have been intercepted by journalists from the News of the World (NOTW).

Relatives of seven 9/11 victims and two of their lawyers met Mr Holder, three officials from the FBI and five members of the Department of Justice. Members of two other victims' families took part via a video link.

During the 75-minute meeting, Mr Holder told them there was "sufficient predicate" to hold a preliminary criminal investigation. He stopped short, however, of saying what his investigators have found.

Norman Siegel, a lawyer at the meeting who represents 9/11 family organisations, said: "The Attorney General said the allegations were very disturbing and that it was a high priority for him. He confirmed there is what they called a preliminary investigation. He said this was the beginning of a dialogue with the 9/11 community. He said this was an initial meeting. I would hope we will hear from them within a few weeks – if not, I'll call them."

Separately, it has emerged that David Cameron sponsored a House of Commons pass for his communications chief, Andy Coulson, which the former NOTW editor obtained without disclosing ongoing payments and benefits worth hundreds of thousands of pounds from Rupert Murdoch's media empire. Mr Coulson may have broken parliamentary rules when he failed to declare his severance package on an official register when he obtained his first pass in September 2007. At the time, Mr Coulson was receiving health insurance, the use of a company car and the payment in instalments of two years' salary remaining on his contract from News International.

The revelation, reported by The Guardian, that Mr Cameron personally backed Mr Coulson's application for a pass increases pressure on the Prime Minister over his decision to employ the former tabloid editor. Tom Watson, the Labour MP, last night wrote to the parliamentary standards commissioner making a formal complaint against Mr Coulson and calling for an investigation.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "It is the individual's responsibility to declare relevant financial interests to the parliamentary pass office."

The extent of the financial links between Mr Coulson and News International was brought into further question yesterday with allegations that his legal fees to date – likely to run into six figures – are being paid by Mr Murdoch's company. News International, which says it is "fully co-operating" with the police investigation into phone hacking, refused to confirm or deny it was paying Mr Coulson's legal fees or whether it was considering putting an end to any such arrangement.

[Douglas Caddy]

More than 120 police investigate Murdoch empire's operations

The Independent

By James Cusick and Cahal Milmo

Friday, 26 August 2011

The number of police officers in the UK investigating claims of illegal newsgathering by Rupert Murdoch's media empire has surged past 120.

Strathclyde Police has dedicated more than 50 officers to Operation Rubicon, its investigation into allegations of perjury involving former News of the World editor Andy Coulson and wider claims of phone hacking aimed at public figures in Scotland.

Up to 60 officers are already involved in the Metropolitan Police's Operation Weeting. Scotland Yard also has over a dozen officers working on Operation Elveden, the investigation into allegations of corrupt payments to police officers, and Operation Tuleta, a separate investigation into claims of computer hacking by private detectives hired by News International.

But the decision by senior officers in Scotland to massively boost their investigation into the phone-hacking scandal is a further blow to Mr Murdoch's News International, suggesting that police believe they may have large numbers of potential victims to approach and need to devote considerable resources to the examination of evidence given by NOTW executives during the perjury trial of disgraced politician Tommy Sheridan.

From a small number of officers a few months ago, Operation Rubicon, led by Detective Superintendent John McSporran, now involves more than 50 and has been passed by Scotland the dossier of evidence seized from private detective Glenn Mulcaire.

The surge in manpower potentially reflects the political pressure now being put on the police investigating the NOTW's alleged illegal activities.

Last week, Stephen House, Chief Constable of Strathclyde, confirmed in an email to staff that he had applied to become the Met Commissioner, Britain's most senior police officer.

Six months into the main Met investigation, which began earlier this year, only 170 victims had been contacted by police out of the thousands of names contained in material seized in 2006 from the home in south London of Mr Mulcaire. Rubicon's inquiries are focused on a dossier containing 1,027 names, given to the police by the solicitor Aamer Anwar, who represented Mr Sheridan, the former Scottish Socialist Party leader who was jailed for perjury in a case involving the NOTW's Scottish edition. Mr Anwar said: "This inquiry [Operation Rubicon] has been given massive resources and is looking at allegations of phone hacking, perjury and breaches of data protection. It is an inquiry that will take months if not longer. And the question to be answered is when and who will face prosecution for these crimes committed in Scotland."

Sheridan's accusations also involve another investigator, Steve Whittamore, regularly used by the NOTW.

[Douglas Caddy]

Glenn Mulcaire names News of the World staff behind phone hacking

Private investigator passes names on to Steve Coogan's lawyers, in accordance with court order

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 26 August 2011 20.03 BST

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has revealed the names of the News of the World staff who instructed him to carry out phone hacking, his solicitor has confirmed.

The information was passed in a letter to Steve Coogan's lawyers in accordance with a court order.

Mulcaire had applied for permission to appeal against the order, which was made in February, but this was denied and he was compelled to pass over the details by Friday.

His solicitor, Sarah Webb, from Payne Hicks Beach, said she could not reveal who the NoW employees were because of "confidentiality issues".

Schillings, which is representing Coogan, has agreed not to reveal the names yet, to give Payne Hicks Beach a chance to apply for a court order stopping their release.

Mulcaire was ordered to reveal who instructed him to access Coogan's voicemails, as well as those of celebrities including Max Clifford and Elle Macpherson.

He was jailed for six months in 2007 for intercepting messages left on royal aides' phones.

A spokeswoman for News International said the firm had no comment.

[Douglas Caddy]

Andy Coulson row prompts inquiry into role of political advisers

Further embarrassment for David Cameron as MPs prepare to investigate the appointment and influence of government 'spads'

By Polly Curtis, Whitehall correspondent

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 26 August 2011 20.40 BST

David Cameron is facing another potentially embarrassing inquiry in the wake of the row over his employment of Andy Coulson, as a parliamentary committee prepares to investigate the appointment and influence of special advisers.

Bernard Jenkin, Tory chair of the public administration select committee, said the inquiry would consider the vetting procedures for new special advisers and how to avoid conflicts of interests, after this week's revelations that Coulson, a former editor of News of the World, was paid by News International while employed by the Conservative party.

Jenkin said he was keen to investigate whether advisers to ministers should be subjected to pre-appointment interviews with parliamentary committees, which are usually preserved for the most high-profile government appointments. Such interviews would be held in parliament and allow MPs to vet a minister's preferred candidate for a so-called "spad" job and question them in public.

Jenkin said that in light of the increasing influence of special advisers, they should be subject to more scrutiny. "Special advisers have historically been a confidant and personal friend and ministers have been held accountable for their actions," he said. "But it's quite clear that they are increasingly constitutionally important and the question is about whether they should more openly be held accountable.

"Andy Coulson is by no means the first special adviser who has had to resign and there were plenty of examples under the last Labour government of people who should never have been appointed special advisers," he said.

If the committee agrees to go ahead with the inquiry when parliament returns in September, it would be free to look at some of the most controversial aspects of the hiring of the former journalist by Cameron and George Osborne, including the vetting procedures he underwent before entering Downing Street.

It could also examine how to ensure that special advisers are not receiving payments from potentially conflicting sources.

The parliamentary standards commissioner confirmed this week that he is considering a complaint about Coulson's apparent failure to register payments and benefits he received from News International while holding a parliamentary pass – allowing him access to most of the parliamentary estate – sponsored by David Cameron from 2007. Archived registers of parliamentary pass holders, on which they are required to declare any income, benefits or gifts they receive from organisations that could be seen "in any way" to conflict with their work in government, reveal that throughout the time Coulson had a pass, he made no declarations about his continuing income from News International.

Tom Watson, the Labour MP and member of the media select committee who has campaigned against phone hacking at the News of the World, wrote to the standards commissioner to complain about the apparent omissions. The Conservative party was left on the defensive by the revelations because it had previously issued a "categorical" denial to the Guardian that Coulson had received income from NI during his employment, apparently after receiving assurances from Coulson.

Before the election Cameron pledged to reduce the number of special advisers after controversy over Labour's reliance on them. Brown employed 78 before last year's election and Cameron cut that number by 10. But in the past year it has crept back up to 74.

William Hague's adviser Christopher Meyer resigned last year after Hague was forced to deny rumours of an "inappropriate" relationship. It followed unease in Downing Street at his judgment in appointing a 25-year-old with little apparent expertise in foreign affairs. In 2009 Damian McBride, a special adviser to Gordon Brown, was forced to resign after it emerged he had plotted to set up a website to smear Tory politicians, communicating the plans using his Downing Street email address.

Cameron's pledge to crackdown on "spads" triggered problems with the Liberal Democrats in government claiming that they had too few advisers to properly perform their functions, and accusations that the Tories had employed loyalists on short-term contracts to the civil service, which allow them to fast-track chosen people into posts without a round of interviews. Jenkin said an inquiry would also be free to investigate the blurring of lines between civil servants and special advisers.

The home affairs committee and culture, media and sport committees are conducting inquiries into wider questions raised by the hacking scandal and the prime minister has commissioned Lord Justice Leveson to undertake a major independent inquiry.

[Douglas Caddy]

Labour seeks law change to stop News Corp renewing BSkyB bid

Fears that Rupert Murdoch could reopen bid prompts 'public interest test' motion by shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis

By Polly Curtis

guardian.co.uk,

Sunday 28 August 2011 20.22 BST

Labour is trying to secure cross-party support for an emergency change in the law to prevent News Corporation from renewing its bid to take full ownership of BSkyB.

In a move designed to capitalise on the embarrassment the phone-hacking scandal has heaped on the government, Labour said there was still a possibility that Rupert Murdoch could reopen his bid and the law should be changed to allow ministers to block it. Ivan Lewis, the shadow culture secretary, will introduce a negative motion when parliament returns next week, which – if approved by all parties – could go ahead without a vote.

He has written to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and the Lib Dem culture spokesman, Don Foster, with his proposals. The aim would be to introduce a new public interest test applicable to media barons to rule people out based on their conduct.

Under Labour's proposed amendments to Section 58 of the Enterprise Act 2002, ministers would be given the necessary powers to ask regulators to apply a wide-ranging public interest test. Ministers would be also be able to intervene at any stage in the process if new information came to light.

Lewis said: "These measures are necessary to ensure that while we wait for the outcome of the Leveson inquiry, no changes in media ownership can occur which are not in the public interest.

"It is essential we learn lessons from the BSkyB fiasco so that media integrity is the top priority when considering future ownership and merger changes.

"Ultimately, there is a strong case for removing politicians from media ownership and merger decisions. But, in the meantime, we must act to address the legal ambiguities which allowed Jeremy Hunt to disregard growing public concern and damaged public trust in the credibility of the decision making process."

In his letter to Hunt, Lewis argued that ministers should be removed from the approval process in the long term, but that while the existing legislation was in place emergency moves were urgently needed to close the loophole that could allow Murdoch to simply bid again for control of BSkyB. The negative motion will be laid in both houses of parliament when they return on 5 September