Rupert Murdoch and the Corruption of the British Media

[Douglas Caddy]

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/02/rebekah-brooks-201202

[Douglas Caddy]

Rupert Murdoch squares off with Obama over online piracy legislation

News Corp chief accuses White House of siding with 'Silicon Valley paymasters' as two bills go through US Congress

By Ed Pilkington in New York

guardian.co.uk,

Sunday 15 January 2012 11.46 EST

The gathering storm over online piracy legislation being debated in the US Congress has sucked two more heavy hitters into the fray, with the Obama administration and Rupert Murdoch lining up on opposite sides of the argument.

The controversy over the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) going through the House of Representatives and its Senate equivalent, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa), has intensified. Websites including Reddit and possibly Wikipedia are planning to "go dark" on Wednesday in protest at the proposals, which they say will lead to government censorship of the internet and be disastrous for innovation.

On Saturday, the Obama administration made clear that it would not tolerate several of the more controversial aspects of the two bills, particularly the power to interfere with the architecture of the web by tampering with its Domain Name System (DNS).

"We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet," said three of Obama's top technology advisers in a statement. The authors said manipulating the DNS by forcing service providers to block access to pirating sites could damage cybersecurity by driving users to much more unscrupulous servers.

Just before the White House statement was issued, a sponsor of Sopa – the Texan congressman Lamar Smith – said the DNS blocking provision in the bill would be dropped.

Under the two bills, the US department of justice would have the power to censor foreign websites engaging in piracy by requiring search engines, payment portals and online advertising networks to desist from carrying them.

Murdoch – whose News Corporation includes the Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox, which is among the companies calling for a legislative clampdown against piracy of films, music and other copyrighted material – launched a tirade against the Obama administration for its criticism of Sopa.

"So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery," he wrote in a series of five tweets, accusing Google of hosting pirated material and selling advertising against it.

The White House statement was not a simple denunciation of Sopa and Pipa. It also makes clear that the administration is in favour of new legislation to combat online piracy, though the authors say it must be narrowly targeted. "Online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response," they say.

The two bills have led to an outpouring of criticism from proponents of a free internet, Silicon Valley giants such as Google and Facebook, and start-up entrepreneurs.

[Douglas Caddy]

Rupert Murdoch rant claims are untrue, says Gordon Brown

Former PM denies allegation at Leveson inquiry that he said he would destroy mogul after he switched papers' support to Tories

By Lisa O'Carroll

guardian.co.uk,

Monday 16 January 2012 10.07 EST Article

Gordon Brown has made a dramatic intervention in the Leveson inquiry into press ethics, categorically denying he had phoned Rupert Murdoch threatening to "destroy" him after the Sun switched allegiance from the Labour party to the Conservatives in 2009.

The former prime minister denied claims that he had phoned Murdoch and "roared" at him for 20 minutes, allegedly telling the media mogul: "You are trying to destroy me and my party. I will destroy you and your company" after he pulled the plug on Labour.

Brown's lawyers, Reed Smith, have written to Lord Justice Leveson saying "the story is completely untrue", adding that "it was important that it does not become accepted as fact" as it had received coverage in the national press following claims at the inquiry earlier in January by former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie.

Last week, the former Sun editor told Leveson that Murdoch had personally disclosed the contents of this conversation including the claim that Brown had said he would destroy him and his company. "Yes, that's waht Mr Murdoch told me," he told Leveson.

Brown's lawyers refute this. "Mr Brown has a clear recollection of the calls he had with Mr Murdoch when he was prime minister. He had no such conversation with him," said the letter from his lawyers read out by the junior counsel to the inquiry, David Barr, on Monday. "The account is not an accurate reflection of events. The words attributed to him by Mr MacKenzie were not said by him."

The intervention by Brown now sets the stage for an interesting discussion with Murdoch, who is expected to be called as a witness in the third module of the inquiry, when Leveson will examine the relationship between the press and politicians.

Behind-the-scenes relations between politicians and newspaper editors came under the spotlight for a second time at the inquiry on Monday when the Daily Mirror editor Richard Wallace gave evidence.

He told Leveson that Tony Blair had asked him to fire one of his journalists who was critical of him. The journalist Blair wanted sacked, although not named at the inquiry, has been confirmed to the Guardian as Daily Mirror political columnist Paul Routledge.

Wallace said he was invited to meet Blair when he became editor in 2004. "The first thing he did was ask me when I was going to sack one of my journalists who had been a constant critic of the government and Mr Blair in particular. Of course I did not react to it," Wallace said in his written statement.

Wallace also told the inquiry the journalist in question was still working for the Daily Mirror, adding that he viewed Blair's intervention in this case "as an aberration" and that he normally "went with the flow" in terms of media coverage.

The Leveson inquiry also heard how close the Mirror editor was to the current leader of the labour party – Ed Miliband and David Miliband attended his 50th birthday party.

When Leveson queried whether it was normal for politicians to attend editors' birthday parties, Wallace said it was not uncommon, that he had known "these individuals quite well" but there was nothing untoward about it.

"I think we cross over from time to time but we don't go around in a sort of big gang," Wallace told Leveson.

The origin of the Daily Mirror's exclusive revelations back in 2000 that Cherie Blair was pregnant with her fourth child were also the subject of dispute at the inquiry.

Tina Weaver, the then deputy editor of the paper, told the inquiry that the story had come into the then editor Piers Morgan. "He purchased it from Max Clifford. I think that's a matter of record."

This counters the suggestion by Tony Blair's spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, to the inquiry that the Mirror obtained the story through illegitimate means.

Weaver could not give a "guarantee" that phone hacking had not occurred at the Sunday Mirror in the past.

She said the paper had not complained the BBC after it reported an anonymous source alleging that they had seen someone hacking Liz Hurley's phone in the paper's newsroom.

However, she added: "I think they know we are unhappy about unsubstantiated, non-specific, anonymous allegations from seven years ago being presented as unearthing evidence."

When asked if it was correct that she was "not in a position to give a guarantee" that phone hacking did not take place, she replied: "That's correct."

Weaver also said she had not heard an alleged voicemail left on Heather Mills's phone and heard by Piers Morgan when he was editor of the Sunday Mirror's sister title the Daily Mirror, nor did she have any discussion with him about

[Douglas Caddy]

Daily Mirror editor Richard Wallace

The Independent

By Ella Pickover, Jessica Nightingale

Monday, 16 January 2012

The editors of the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror have conceded that phone hacking might have occurred at their newspapers.

The Leveson Inquiry into press standards heard that the interception of voicemail messages could have taken place in the newsrooms of both of the tabloids.

Richard Wallace, who has edited the Daily Mirror since 2004, said the practice might have taken place in the newsroom without his knowledge.

But he insisted that there are "significant positives" in tabloid journalism and he was confident that reporters who work at the newspaper act within the code of practice.

Counsel to the inquiry David Barr asked Mr Wallace if he knew about hacking at the paper.

"Not to my knowledge," replied Mr Wallace.

Mr Barr asked if it might have occurred without his knowledge.

"It might well have," said Mr Wallace.

He said it was possible that a story the newspaper ran about Sven Goran Eriksson's affair with Ulrika Jonsson in 2002 might have come from the interception of voicemail messages.

Mr Wallace, who has worked at the paper for more than two decades, said the tip about the story came from the showbusiness department, adding: "I can't even recall who actually put the story forward, to be honest."

Mr Barr asked: "Is it possible, even if you weren't told, that it was phone hacking?"

Mr Wallace replied: "It's possible, yes."

Piers Morgan, who was editor of the paper at the time, flatly denied intercepting Jonsson's messages when he appeared before the inquiry.

Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver told the hearing she was not aware of phone hacking at her newspaper but there was no guarantee that it had not occurred.

Ms Weaver was asked about a BBC article which claimed there was routine phone hacking in the newsroom of the Sunday Mirror.

She said her organisation was "not happy" about the story which contained "anonymous allegations from seven years ago".

Mr Barr asked her if it was her position that there was "no guarantee" that phone hacking had not occurred at the newspaper. She replied: "That is correct."

Ms Weaver told the inquiry that the story the Daily Mirror published about Cherie Blair's pregnancy in 1999 came from public relations guru Max Clifford.

The inquiry previously heard from Tony Blair's former communications director Alastair Campbell, who said he believed the story might have been obtained from phone hacking.

Mr Campbell admitted that he had "no evidence" that journalists intercepted the voicemails of either Mrs Blair or her lifestyle consultant Carole Caplin, but queried the source of a number of articles about the former prime minister's wife.

"I do not know if her (Ms Caplin's) phone was hacked, or if Cherie's was, but knowing what we do now about hacking and the extent of it, I think it is at least possible this is how the stories got out," he said in the statement.

But today, Ms Weaver told Lord Justice Leveson: "The information came in to the then editor, Piers Morgan, and I was his deputy and he asked me to write it.

"He purchased it from Max Clifford, I think that's a matter of record, and he told Mr Morgan where he received the original information from, I believe."

Mr Wallace also used his platform at the inquiry to apologise to Chris Jefferies, who was wrongfully arrested on suspicion of the murder of landscape architect Jo Yeates.

He said: "I wish to express my sincerest regret to Mr Jefferies, his family and friends who had to see this unfold.

"We obviously caused him and his nearest and dearest great distress which I regret, personally, greatly and I regard it as a black mark on my editing record."

Mr Jefferies, Miss Yeates's former landlord, previously told the inquiry that the national press "shamelessly vilified" him.

One Daily Mirror front page carried the headline "Jo Suspect is Peeping Tom" beneath a photograph of Mr Jefferies, and another front-page headline read "Was Killer Waiting In Jo's Flat?", with sub-headings below reading "Police seize bedding for tests" and "Landlord held until Tuesday".

Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror, which runs five national titles and more than 140 regional newspapers, said she was unaware of hacking at any of her papers and that she promoted ethics as a "general source of business".

"I have seen no evidence to show me that phone hacking has ever taken place at Trinity Mirror," she said.

In her witness statement, she added: "With regard to the print media, I believe ethics to mean that our journalism has truth, accuracy and fairness at its heart, with no tolerance of bullying, or harassment, unlawful activity or corruption in our newspapers and websites.

"I see high standards of ethics being critical to our success."

Mrs Bailey added that she had not launched an investigation into phone hacking at her company because she had seen no evidence of it.

She said the BBC Newsnight article about hacking at the Sunday Mirror was "terrible journalism".

"They were running unsubstantiated allegations as if they were fact and I think that is terrible journalism," she said.

She added that following the closure of the News of the World, she instigated a review of editorial controls and procedures.

Mrs Bailey also spoke about Mr Morgan, who lost his job as editor of the Daily Mirror in 2004 after he published fake Iraqi abuse photographs.

She said it was a "catastrophic editorial error" that lost a lot of readers for the title.

"Frankly it was not so much the publishing, which I do believe that Mr Morgan did in good faith, but what happened in the intervening period, the board lost confidence in him as editor and that is why we fired him."

The People editor Lloyd Embley categorically denied that hacking had occurred at the Sunday tabloid.

Mr Embley, who has held the position since November 2007, told the inquiry: "I do not believe that hacking has ever occurred at my newspaper.

"I have never asked anyone to hack a telephone, I have never seen anyone hack a telephone."

Tomorrow the inquiry will hear from broadcaster and editor of Private Eye Ian Hislop and executives from The Times and The Guardian.

[Douglas Caddy]

Leveson inquiry: Ian Hislop claims PCC would not give him a fair hearing

Private Eye editor explains why he is reluctant to let the satirical title join Press Complaints Commission

By Dan Sabbagh

guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday 17 January 2012 07.53 EST

The editor of Private Eye has told the Leveson inquiry that he was reluctant to let the satirical title join the Press Complaints Commission because he did not expect a fair hearing from newspaper editors unhappy with its Street of Shame column.

Ian Hislop also appeared to extract a statement from Lord Justice Leveson that he is not considering recommending the introduction of mandatory "pre-notification" of subjects of stories about them – while in turn conceding there was merit in creating a libel and privacy tribunal to adjudicate on cases before they reach court.

The editor said Private Eye gives over "two pages a week attacking individual [journalists] and [national] newspapers" and that he would not anticipate getting a "fair hearing" at the PCC, a body whose membership is partly comprised of national newspaper editors.

Private Eye has been edited by Hislop since 1986. The fortnightly magazine runs Street of Shame, a two-page column devoted to stories about journalistic hypocrisy, misbehaviour and examples of editorial or proprietorial influence in news.

Hislop, who gave evidence for an hour, also said he had "some issues" with the number of tabloid editors sitting on the press regulator – and "the amount of influence that News International has had on the PCC".

Although Hislop said it was "a bit embarrassing" that Private Eye was in the company of Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell in not being a member of the PCC, he said he did not see a need for a separate regulator. "I believe in a free press and I don't think it should be regulated, but it should abide by the law," Hislop said.

Hislop told Leveson that activities in focus such as phone hacking, contempt of court and "police taking money" are already illegal and questioned the need for a press regulation system, adding that what was required was enforcement of existing laws.

Later he added: "A reasonable editor could not have thought 'I must hack into a murdered girl's phone' … those things seem to me self-evidently unreasonable."

Hislop expressed a wariness of statutory regulation, noting: "If the state regulates the press then the press no longer regulates the state… an unfortunate state of affairs."

The Private Eye editor, who also is a long-serving team captain on Have I Got News For You, kept Leveson entertained with a series of pithy and humorous observations about the conduct of the press. Easily the most entertaining of all the editors giving evidence, Hislop was the top trend on Twitter for most of the period while he was speaking.

On phone hacking, Hislop pointed the finger of blame at a network of close relationships between News International bosses, top politicians and the police. "News International thought it could get away with whatever it liked, because the Murdoch family was deeply embedded in our political top class," Hislop said.

He added that the inquiry needed to hear from David Cameron, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to explain how they interacted with the Murdochs.

Hislop said that phone hacking was initially brushed aside because "the fact these laws were not rigorously enforced is due to the … interaction of the police and News International".

The editor also said Private Eye did not need to use private investigators because most of its stories were sourced from readers. Street of Shame, for example, was filled with the help of tips and information from newspaper reporters, it being "a loyal profession". He added: "That is Paul Foot's view – the secret of investigative journalism is people ring you and tell you things."

Hislop said he been a target of private investigator Steve Whittamore, who obtained the phone numbers of himself, his friends, family and bank manager – although he did not know who commissioned him.

He added that his bins had been opened by Benjamin Pell – "Benjy the Binman" – who was seen doing so on a camera set up by Private Eye.

Hislop said that Pell was working for Mohamed Al Fayed. When challenged on whether he had evidence to support the claim by Robert Jay QC, the editor chuckled and said that information from his bins "appeared in Al Fayed's Punch".

[Douglas Caddy]

Times reporter hacked into police blogger's email account

Newspaper article revealing identity of anonymous blogger Nightjack was based on material obtained from Hotmail account

By David Leigh

guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday 17 January 2012 15.15 EST

A controversial 2009 Times article "outing" an anonymous police blogger called Nightjack was based on material obtained by email hacking, it has emerged in evidence to the Leveson inquiry.

Times editor James Harding told the inquiry on Tuesday he had disciplined the reporter involved for accessing the email account by giving him a written warning.

He said in a witness statement: "There was an incident where the newsroom was concerned that a reporter had gained unauthorised access to an email account. When it was brought to my attention, the journalist faced disciplinary action. The reporter believed he was seeking to gain information in the public interest but we took the view he had fallen short of what was expected of a Times journalist. He was issued with a formal written warning for professional misconduct."

Times sources subsequently identified the reporter as a 24-year-old former graduate trainee, Patrick Foster. They said he openly disclosed that he guessed security questions for an anonymous email account run by a Lancashire detective, Richard Horton. Horton failed in a subsequent legal bid to protect his anonymity, and the Times "outed" the constable in June 2009. Horton's blog, which won the prestigious Orwell prize for its descriptions of a PC's life, was closed down and he was reprimanded by his police superiors.

Harding did not disclose the reporter's identity in his Leveson statement, nor did he reveal that the hacking had led to a published Times article. The Times did not state in its original story that the blogger's identity had been obtained by penetrating Horton's Hotmail account. It said Foster had "deduced" Nightjack's identity.

Earlier witness statements, by News International's chief executive Tom Mockridge and the Times' lawyer Simon Toms, did not disclose that unauthorised email access had resulted in a published article. They referred only to "attempted" access allegedly denied by the reporter. Mockridge later corrected his statement.

The "outing" of Nightjack stirred up controversy at the time, with some bloggers arguing that it was morally wrong to expose a writer and thus close down a widely-valued publication.

Foster, who has declined to speak about the affair, maintained at the time that his action was justified in the public interest because Horton had given details of sex attacks in his blog which could be traced to individual incidents, and had therefore revealed details which should have been kept confidential.

In his amended statement, Mockridge said Foster had subsequently been "dismissed following an unrelated incident". Foster has subsequently written freelance articles for both the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph.

[Douglas Caddy]

Murdoch company to pay hacking damages in 36 cases

Jan 19, 7:47 AM (ET)

By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) - Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper company on Thursday agreed to pay damages to 36 high-profile victims of tabloid phone-hacking, including actor Jude Law, soccer player Ashley Cole and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

In settlements whose financial terms were made public, amounts generally ran into the tens of thousands of pounds (dollars) - although Law received 130,000 pounds (about $200,000) to settle claims against the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid, and its sister paper, The Sun.

News Group Newspapers admitted that 16 articles about Law published in the News of the World between 2003 and 2006 had been obtained by phone hacking, and that the actor had also been placed under "repeated and sustained physical surveillance." The company also admitted that articles in The Sun tabloid misused Law's private information - although it gave no further details.

Law's lawyer said Thursday the acts had caused "considerable distress ... distrust and suspicion."

Law was one of 60 who have sued News Group Newspapers after claiming their mobile phone voicemails were hacked. Other cases settled at London's High Court on Thursday include those of former government ministers Chris Bryant and Tessa Jowell, former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, ex-model Abi Titmuss and Sara Payne, the mother of a murdered girl.

Law's ex-wife and actress Sadie Frost received 50,000 pounds (about $77,000) in damages plus legal costs for phone hacking and deceit by the News of the World. Bryant received 30,000 pounds (about $46,000) in damages plus costs, while Prescott - a prominent member of the Labour Party - accepted 40,000 pounds (about $62,000).

After each statement, News Group lawyer Michael Silverleaf stood to express the news company's "sincere apologies" for the damage and distress its illegal activity had caused.

The claimants described feeling mistrust, fear and paranoia as phone messages went missing, journalists knew their movements in advance or private information appeared in the media.

Frost said the paper's activity caused her and Law to distrust each other. Rugby player Gavin Henson said he accused the family of his then-wife singer Charlotte Church of leaking stories to the press.

Other claimants included Guy Pelly, a friend of Prince William, who was awarded 40,000 pounds (about $62,000), and Tom Rowland, a journalist who wrote for one of Murdoch's own newspapers, the Sunday Times. He received 25,000 pounds ($39,000) after News Group admitted hacking his phone.

In some cases the company admitted hacking into emails, as well as telephone voice mails. Christopher Shipman, son of serial killer Harold Shipman, had emails containing sensitive legal and medical information intercepted by the News of the Word. He was awarded "substantial" undisclosed damages.

The slew of settlements is but one consequence of the revelations of phone-hacking and other illegal tactics at the News of the World, where journalists routinely intercepted voicemails of those in the public eye in a relentless search for scoops.

The wide-ranging scandal prompted Murdoch to close the 168-year-old paper in July and several of his senior lieutenants have since lost their jobs.

British politicians and police have also been ensnared in the scandal, which exposed the cozy relationship between senior officers, top lawmakers, and newspaper executives at Murdoch's media empire. A government-commissioned inquiry set up in the wake of the scandal is currently investigating the ethics of Britain's media - and the nature of its links to police and politicians.

The settlements announced Thursday amount to more than half of the phone-hacking lawsuits facing Murdoch's company, but the number of victims is estimated in the hundreds. Mark Lewis, a lawyer for many of the phone hacking victims, said in an email that the fight against Murdoch wasn't over.

"While congratulations are due to those (lawyers) and clients who have settled their cases, it is important that we don't get carried away into thinking that the war is over," Lewis said. "Fewer than 1 percent of the people who were hacked have settled their cases. There are many more cases in the pipeline. ... This is too early to celebrate, we're not even at the end of the beginning."

Many victims had earlier settled with the company, including actress Sienna Miller and the parents of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, who were awarded 2 million pounds (about $3.1 million) in compensation.

---

Associated Press Writer Raphael Satter contributed to this report.

[Douglas Caddy]

Phone hacking settlement: NoW publisher accused of cover-up

Victims' lawyers accuse directors of deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence

By David Leigh

guardian.co.uk,

Thursday 19 January 2012 06.53 EST

The most significant new element of Thursday's hacking settlement announcements is the accusation by the hacking victims' lawyers that Murdoch company directors tried to destroy evidence.

Although the lawyers' statement does not name names, it specifically accuses directors of News Group Newspapers Ltd, the Murdoch subsidiary which controlled the News of the World, of seeking to conceal the wrongdoing by "deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence".

The directors of NGN were headed, from April 2008, by James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's son. James has already been at the centre of public allegations that he first authorised a cover-up in June 2008, by agreeing to buy the silence of Gordon Taylor, one of the hacking victims, with a lavish £700,000 secret pay-off.

The following year, former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks joined the NGN board. This was on 23 July 2009, a few days after the Guardian revealed the existence of the cover-up at the News of the World. Brooks, who by now had been promoted by Rupert Murdoch to head his entire UK newspaper operation, responded by claiming: "The Guardian coverage, we believe, has substantially and likely deliberately misled the British public."

Thursday's announcement accused NGN of a "conspiracy, a cover-up and the destruction of evidence/email archives". It does not spell out on which dates the alleged destruction of the email archive/evidence took place. But it says, under the company's new independently chaired management committee that "attempts are being made to reconstruct email archives which had been destroyed by News Group in an apparent attempt to cover up wrongdoing".

The allegations are carefully worded: the Murdoch organisation has not made any formal admission of guilt that could assist any criminal prosecution.

The announcement says: "News Group has agreed to compensation being assessed on the basis that senior employees and directors of NGN knew about the wrongdoing and sought to conceal it by deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence."

But the lawyers make plain their belief that they have obtained a sheaf of incriminating documents, the significance of which News Group does not care to attempt to contest in open court. They say that in the course of the litigation, they have: "obtained nine separate disclosure orders from the court. As a result, documents relating to the nature and scale of the conspiracy, a cover-up and the destruction of evidence/email archives by News Group have now been disclosed to the claimants".

About 60 civil cases have been steadily fought through the courts throughout last year. The disclosure battles have taken place largely behind the scenes. The Leveson inquiry public hearings may have attracted more limelight, with their lurid tales of tabloid malpractice, but the lawsuits, brought by three firms of solicitors working in a co-ordinated project, have been the driving force behind the unfolding of the entire hacking scandal.

The series of disclosure orders forced the abandonment of the News of the World's "rogue reporter" defence, the revival of a major police inquiry, which is still continuing, the departure of the prime minister's press secretary, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, and the setting up of the Leveson inquiry itself.

Leveson is likely to want to be supplied with the confidential papers detailing the reasons behind any settlements announced this morning.

This week, James Harding, the editor of the Murdoch-controlled Times, published a confessional editorial saying: "It appears that the News of the World routinely used illegal means to unearth stories of questionable, if any, public interest. As the evidence of wrongdoing came to light, News International, Rupert Murdoch's company that also owns The Times, was unable or unwilling to police itself. This was a disgrace."

Thursday's statement from Bindmans, which represented a number of the claimants, credited "the work of investigative journalists at the Guardian" in helping the victims by revealing the cover-up at the News of the World.

[Douglas Caddy]

Phone Hacking: list of people who settled with News of the World

Christopher Shipman, the son of serial killer GP Harold Shipman, and Jude Law, the actor, are among the victims of the News of the World phone-hacking who have settled their damages claims. Here is a list of the victims read out at the High Court.

Christopher Shipman had emails containing sensitive legal and medical information intercepted

Daily Telegrah

4:30PM GMT 19 Jan 2012

The awards announced were:

:: £30,000 to MP Chris Bryant

:: undisclosed damages to footballer Ashley Cole

:: £50,000 to Jude Law's ex-wife, designer Sadie Frost

:: £30,000 to Lisa Gower, who had a relationship with actor Steve Coogan

:: £60,000 to an anonymous individual known as HJK

:: £40,000 to Joan Hammell, former chief of staff to Lord Prescott

:: £40,000 to rugby player Gavin Henson

:: £40,000 to Jude Law's personal assistant Ben Jackson

:: £130,000 to actor Jude Law

:: £32,500 to Labour MP Denis MacShane

:: £35,000 to PR consultant Ciara Parkes

:: £40,000 to entrepreneur Guy Pelly

:: £40,000 to Lord Prescott

:: £25,000 to journalist Tom Rowland

:: £25,000 to solicitor Graham Shear

:: substantial undisclosed damages including aggravated damages to Christopher Shipman, son of serial killer Harold Shipman

:: £27,500 to author and journalist Joan Smith

:: substantial undisclosed damages to former Labour MP Claire Ward

[Douglas Caddy]

Editor of The Times faces questions over email hacking

Daily Telegraph

3:37PM GMT 19 Jan 2012

The editor of The Times, James Harding, is facing questions over when he learned that one of his journalists had hacked into an anonymous police blogger's email account.

In June 2009, the newspaper identified a serving Lancashire police officer, Dc Richard Horton, as the author of the popular blog called NightJack.

The Times published the story after winning a High Court ruling that said the blogger had no right to anonymity. In its evidence to Mr Justice Eady, the newspaper said its reporter had deduced the blogger’s identity using publicly available information.

But it was revealed this week that a reporter at the paper, Patrick Foster, had hacked into the policeman’s email account.

In a statement today, Mr Harding said the newspaper had "published the [NightJack] story in the strong belief that it was in the public interest even though concerns emerged about the conduct of the reporter."

"After the judge handed down his judgment overturning the injunction on the grounds of public interest, we published. We also took the decision to look into the reporter’s conduct and he was subsequently disciplined.”

In his statement on Tuesday, Mr Harding, told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that one of his reporters had hacked into a “third party’s” email account in 2009.

However, Mr Harding did not make clear if he had been told of the email hacking at the time it happened or much more recently, nor did he name the reporter.

Mr Harding referred to the incident in his witness statement to the Leveson Inquiry, dated October 14 last year: “The Times has never used or commissioned anyone who used computer hacking to source stories. There was an incident where the newsroom was concerned that a reporter had gained unauthorised access to an e-mail account.

“When it was brought to my attention, the journalist faced disciplinary action. The reporter believed he was seeking to gain information in the public interest but we took the view he had fallen short of what was expected of a Times journalist."

Tom Mockridge, the chief executive of News International, which owns the newspaper, also gave evidence to the inquiry this week.

Mr Mockridge’s initial written evidence to the inquiry, also written in October last year, stated that there had been a “suspicion” that a Times reporter “might have gained unauthorised access to a computer”.

His statement added that the reporter, also unidentified, had denied "gaining unauthorised access to a computer" but was given a formal warning.

However, Mr Mockridge submitted a second statement to the inquiry, dated December 2011, and provided additional information.

Mr Mockridge said: “Following further inquiries, I now understand that the reporter in fact admitted the conduct (email account hacking) during disciplinary proceedings, although he claimed that he was acting in the public interest.

“The journalist was disciplined as a result. He was later dismissed from the business for an unrelated matter.”

In a further development, the newspaper today identified Mr Foster as the reporter involved and stated that the reporter had informed “his managers before the story was published that he had, on his own initiative, hacked into Mr Horton’s email account”.

It admitted that the incident “raised issues about the approval process for newsgathering at the newspaper” but did not specify who those managers were and whether Mr Harding was among them, or whether he was informed that Mr Foster had hacked into the police officer's email account.

In 2009 a High Court judge agreed that there was a public interest in naming the detective and overturned an injunction that Mr Horton had obtained against The Times.

Lawyers yesterday said that if it were proven that Times executives were aware of the hacking before the injunction hearing, it “would be a scandal”.

Experts said it raised the prospect of individual executives and the newspaper being sued for invasion of privacy and prosecuted for computer hacking.

David Allen Green, legal correspondent of the New Statesman magazine, wrote on his blog that if The Times went to court over a story “which they knew to be based on computer hacking and did not inform the court, or found out later, and… still told no one about it, then that… would be a scandal”.

NightJack was a popular website which gave insights into the reality of police work. It won the Orwell Prize in 2009 for being the best political blog.

That year, Mr Horton, the NightJack author and Lancashire detective constable, won a brief injunction preventing his identity being made public.

In June of that year, Mr Justice Eady,overturned the injunction and accepted that Mr Foster had identified the blogger “by a process of deduction and detective work, mainly using information available on the Internet”.

The Times today claimed that “the role hacking played in Mr Foster’s investigation remains unclear”.

It has been reported elsewhere that Mr Foster, who has since written freelance articles for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, publicly told colleagues that he had guessed the password to Mr Horton’s email account.

[Douglas Caddy]

How News Group hid the phone-hacking scandal

Judge criticises Murdoch empire as it agrees aggravated damages for 37 victims of News of the World

By Dan Sabbagh and Amelia Hill

guardian.co.uk,

Thursday 19 January 2012 18.04 EST

A high court judge said the Murdoch-owned company behind the News of the World had made "an admission of sorts" that it engaged in a deliberate cover-up of evidence relating to phone hacking, on the day that the publisher paid an estimated seven figures in damages to settle 37 phone-hacking claims brought by public figures ranging from Jude Law to John Prescott.

Mr Justice Vos, the judge presiding over the hacking cases, told News Group Newspapers (NGN) he had seen evidence which raised "compelling questions about whether you concealed, told lies, actively tried to get off scot free".

The judge ordered the company to search a number of computers which he said could contain evidence that its executives deliberately tried to destroy evidence of phone hacking, saying that he had seen emails which showed a "startling approach to the email record of NGN".

He said he had seen emails that showed how, days after the actor Sienna Miller wrote to the company asking it to retain emails which might relate to hacking her phone, "a previously conceived plan to conceal evidence was put in train by NGN managers".

The judge read out a section from the confidential court papers detailing the cover-up allegations made by hacking victims against the company's executives and directors. It included the charge that the company "put out public statements that it knew to be false", that it had "deliberately deceived the police" and had destroyed evidence of wrongdoing including "a very substantial number of emails" as well as computers.

NGN refused to admit the allegations but agreed that damages paid to the victims could be assessed "on the basis of the facts alleged".

Earlier it emerged that while the company refused to admit its former directors and senior executives had presided over a cover-up, it agreed that "aggravated damages" could be calculated "as if" the allegations that they lied, obstructed police and destroyed evidence were true. The Murdoch subsidiary said it had made the concessions solely for the purpose of "the interest of the prompt and efficient determination" of the claims against it.

Tamsin Allen, a lawyer at Bindmans, who acted for John Prescott, and Labour MPs Chris Bryant and Denis MacShane, said it was surprising that News Corporation had agreed to the admissions on this basis. "You'd expect an organisation with the resources of the Murdoch empire to fight these sorts of allegations."

The actor Jude Law received the highest disclosed payout of £130,000 damages plus costs as payments totalling £640,000 were made in 15 cases where the amounts were made public.

Prescott received £40,000, Bryant received £30,000; Sadie Frost, Law's former wife, received £50,000; and Gavin Henson, the Welsh rugby international £40,000. However, with damages from the other settlements and costs factored in, lawyers estimated that News International's bill could hit £10m.

Law, whose former partner Miller had previously accepted a £100,000 settlement from the News of the World publisher, said he was "truly appalled" and "it is clear that I, along with many others, was kept under constant surveillance for a number of years".

He added: "No aspect of my private life was safe from intrusion by News Group Newspapers, including the lives of my children and the people who work for me. It was not just that my phone messages were listened to: News Group also paid people to watch me and my house for days at a time and to follow me and those close to me."

Until a year ago, News Corporation had maintained that phone hacking was the work of a single "rogue reporter", Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 alongside private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, during inquiries held by both parliament and the Press Complaints Commission. That defence gradually unravelled as a group of public figures – including Thursday's litigants – brought a series of civil actions against the newspaper, unearthing evidence indicating that the practice was more widespread.

Mark Thomson, of law firm Atkins Thomson, said: "After years of denials and cover-up, News Group Newspapers has finally admitted the depth and scale of the unlawful activities of many of their journalists at the News of the World and the culture of illegal conduct at their paper."

Phone hacking dated back to at least 2002, when the News of the World targeted Prince Harry's friend Guy Pelly, and ran on until 2006 with targets such as 7/7 hero Paul Dadge and Sara Payne, whose daughter Sarah was murdered. Law and his friends were also monitored.

At the heart of the hacking lay Mulcaire, who was employed by the newspaper on a £100,000-a-year contract, and who was a co-defendant in many of the civil actions. Mulcaire was asked by several News of the World journalists to target public figures and victims of crime – and he also provided information that allowed a number of reporters to conduct hacking of their own. Mulcaire's lawyer Gavin Millar, told the high court that he was "not involved" in the admissions that led to the settlements and he was not a party to them.

Many of the settlements go back to the time when Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former spin doctor, edited the News of the World – between 2003 and his resignation in 2007, after former royal reporter Goodman was jailed for hacking phones belonging to members of the Windsors' household.

A smaller number include events dating back to the editorship of Rebekah Brooks, who was Coulson's immediate predecessor, and who subsequently became chief executive of News International before her resignation last summer in the wake of revelations about the hacking of a phone belonging to Milly Dowler.

Another victim was Christopher Shipman, son of the serial killer Harold Shipman, who was told by police that the News of the World had been privy to his emails in August 2004 – less than a year after his father's death.

News Corporation said: "Today, NGN agreed settlements in respect of a number of claims against the company.

"NGN made no admission as part of these settlements that directors or senior employees knew about the wrongdoing by NGN or sought to conceal it.

"However, for the purpose of reaching these settlements only, NGN agreed that the damages to be paid to claimants should be assessed as if this was the case."

Rupert Murdoch's Twitter account, meanwhile, remained silent.

But in court, as each of 18 settlements were read out, Michael Silverleaf, QC for the company, said he was there to offer "sincere apologies to the claimant for the damages

[Douglas Caddy]

Judge orders search of News of the World computers

Laptops and deskop computers alleged to contain evidence that executives deliberately destroyed evidence of phone hacking

By Amelia Hill

guardian.co.uk,

Thursday 19 January 2012 15.45 EST

News Group Newspapers has been ordered to allow a search of computers alleged to contain evidence that News of the World executives deliberately destroyed damning phone-hacking evidence.

During legal discussions on Thursday before a civil trial scheduled for 13 February, the company failed to convince Mr Justice Vos that the search of three laptops assigned to senior employees and six desktop computers was "disproportionate".

Dinah Rose QC, for NGN, said the search was unnecessary because there had been "no policy of deliberate destruction" at the paper.

But Vos said that if he had "acceded to [NGN] suggestions back in early 2011 that disclosure was not necessary because admissions had been made, the phone-hacking history might be very different".

He said the material that might be found on the three laptops belonging to an unidentified senior employee of NGN "may well, on the evidence of the emails I have already been shown, contain documents or even emails which may bear on the policy of deletion.

"It seems to be a distinct possibility [that information on the laptops] could contain information relevant to the deliberate deletion of email and go beyond just 'colour' but indicate precisely what the deletion was taking place for, which may go far beyond scope of present admissions by NGN," he said. "I'm entirely satisfied that these laptops should be searched for purpose of relevant disclosure."

He said there were compelling questions about whether the paper had engaged in a campaign of deliberate destruction of evidence, had lied, deliberately concealed evidence, made payments to police, or had "actively tried to get off scot-free", including by destroying a "very substantial number of emails" and computers of journalists.

"The court has had an admission of sorts to the effect that NGN is content that aggravated damages should be paid on the basis of the somewhat startling admissions I have read out, but not that future claims should be assessed on that basis.

"I have been shown a number of emails ... which show a rather startling approach to the email record of NGN," he said. Three days after the solicitor for Sienna Miller had asked that NGN retained any emails in relation to phone hacking, "a previously conceived plan to conceal evidence was put in train by NGN managers".

Rose said so much had been disclosed and admitted by NGN that it was disproportionate to order the company to search the computers for further evidence. "There comes a point when we say we're three weeks away from trial and ... we can say enough is enough."

Her claim was robustly rebutted by Vos. "The day you can say 'that's enough' is the day I give judgment – although you can't even say it then because of the number of other cases waiting in the wings."

The trial, set to last three weeks, is intended to give guidance on damages for current and future lawsuits and out-of-court settlements in the five-year-old scandal.

But nine out of 10 of the claimants were still waiting for full disclosure from NGN, said their lawyer, Jeremy Reed.

In the cases of three, including Tracey Temple, John Prescott's former lover, NGN had yet to even admit liability, he said.

"I want to submit that evidence of deliberate destruction is relevant," he said, pointing out that, since Vos ordered NGN to make a full disclosure of material on 20 December 2011, the company had released just 30 more pages of information.

"This is like a jigsaw. The claimants are trying to piece it together but we're not sure we've even got all the pieces. Much has been lost or deliberately destroyed."

[Douglas Caddy]

Phone hacking: News of the World journalists lied to Milly Dowler policeSurrey police report released by MPs reveals reporters interfered with investigation as well as hacking missing girl's phone

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/23/phone-hacking-news-world-milly-dowler

Surrey police letter on the Milly Dowler investigation

By David Leigh

guardian.co.uk,

Monday 23 January 2012

07.37 EST

News of the World journalists who hacked Milly Dowler's phone told a string of lies and interfered with the investigation into her disappearance in 2002, according to a Surrey police report released by a parliamentary committee.

In a month that has already seen the News of the World apologise for hacking three dozen celebrities and crime victims, the Surrey report released on Monday paints an even more graphic picture of tabloid methods. It parallels the evidence revealed at the current Leveson inquiry into press behaviour.

However, the Surrey police report does not shed any further light on the still unresolved question of how voicemails came to be deleted from Dowler's phone. They say the Metropolitan police, which are investigating phone hacking at the News of the World, have still not reached a final conclusion.

"When and the extent to which Milly's mobile phone voicemail was unlawfully accessed (and whether any messages were deleted) are matters which form part of the MPS's ongoing investigation."

Last July, the Guardian reported that the NoW hacked Dowler's phone and deleted messages in the first few days after her disappearance in March 2002. After further inquiries, the Metropolitan police suggested in December that while the tabloid did hack Dowler's phone, it was unlikely to have been responsible for specific deletions that caused her parents to have false hopes that she was alive.

Today's published Surrey timeline, based on police logs from 2002, depicts a news organisation that tried to bully detectives into backing its own misguided theories, as police searched desperately for clues about the girl who went missing on March 21 2002.

According to the file, the reporters were so confident of their own power that they openly admitted the paper had obtained tapes of the voicemails on Dowler's phone. Their misinterpretation of the messages then made them mistakenly believe she was still alive.

Rather than tell her family and police of this important information, however, it appears they concentrated on getting a scoop. Reporters made calls to an employment agency with which they thought she had registered, and sent what the agency called "hordes" of reporters to harass them. Only on the Saturday immediately before publication, did they contact the authorities.

The Surrey files have been edited to withold the names of the journalists, two of whom are currently under criminal investigation by the Metropolitan police's Operation Weeting. What Surrey police do describe, however, is the way they first learned of interference in their investigation.

In mid-April 2002, an employment agency in the north of England, which had no involvement whatever with Dowler, rang to complain. Staff arrived for work "to find hordes of reporters from the News of the World waiting". The firm said: "We have had a News of the World reporter harassing us today. He says that our agency has recruited Milly as an employee, demanding to know what we know and saying he is working in full co-operation with the police." However, the Surrey report says "the NoW reporter's assertion that he was working with the police was untrue".

The previous day, someone also had rung the agency pretending to be Milly's mother. The files show a NoW reporter subsequently claimed to police that the agency had admitted the 13-year-old Dowler was registered for employment with them. This claim also proved untrue.

On 13 April, the police heard from the NoW directly. A journalist demanded "to be put in touch with a senior police officer". He claimed "he had what could be significant information". The journalist disclosed that "the recruitment agency had telephoned the mobile phone number of Milly Dowler [and left a voicemail message] with an offer of work".

Police at first thought this story of a voicemail must be the work of a hoaxer. They eventually discovered that it was "a pure coincidence … of no evidential value". The agency had merely rung the wrong number by mistake, and left a message for "Nana", which the reporters had persuaded themselves sounded like "Amanda", Milly's proper name.

But the News of the World refused to accept its story had been knocked down. One reporter insisted that it could not be a hoax because "the NoW had got Milly's mobile phone number and pin from school children".

The NoW had five reporters working on the story, it told police, and it printed a story in its first edition on 14 April 2002 claiming police were "intrigued" by the alleged new lead. It quoted verbatim from three voicemails, and gave the impression they had been retrieved by the police themselves. After protests from Surrey police, the story was modified in later editions to suggest that the employment agency message was merely a hoax.

The paper wrote detailing further voicemail messages it possessed, and demanding police supply more information.

One reporter said "what the Surrey police press officer was telling him was not true and was inconceivable … the NoW was moving its investigation to the north of England, that Milly had been there in person and that she had applied for a job in a factory. The unidentified reporter whose name has been redacted said that the NoW "know this 110% we are absolutely certain".

But according to the newly released report, the NoW's "110%" certainty was simply based on illegal interceptions, a misunderstanding of the facts, and an apparent confidence that police would not dare take action against it for phone hacking.

The former News of the World journalist, Neville Thurlbeck, told Channel 4 News last week that he had been acting as news editor at the time of the hunt for Dowler. But he said he had not been aware that her voicemails had been hacked by the paper.

The Surrey police flatly contradict the suggestion that they could have been the source of the Dowler voicemails which were published in the News of the World at the time, a claim made both by Thurlbeck and by Tom Crone, the NOW's former lawyer, in his evidence to the committee. They say: "The NoW obtained that information by accessing Milly Dowler's voicemail". No one at Surrey police was aware of its existence until told by the NoW journalists.

The committee chairman, Conservative MP John Whittingdale, told Sky News the paper "appears as if they may have actually interfered or impeded the police in their investigations".

Conservative committee member Damian Collins said: "Of all of the documents and evidence that have been produced by our phone-hacking inquiry, this is the most sickening and exposes the black hearts of those involved in perpetrating and covering up this scandal."

News International declined to comment.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Douglas Caddy

[Douglas Caddy]

Murdoch’s Trusted Outsider Takes a Larger Role

The New York Times

By AMY CHOZICK

January 23, 2012

Last August, as News Corporation scrambled to contain a phone-hacking scandal at its British newspaper unit, Chase Carey, the company’s president and chief operating officer, proposed an idea to his boss, Rupert Murdoch: buy back $5 billion worth of stock.

Mr. Murdoch was skeptical, saying he would rather focus on getting through the crisis than on the stock price, according to people familiar with Mr. Murdoch’s thinking who would not publicly discuss private conversations.

Mr. Carey persisted. As of this month, News Corporation had repurchased $2.5 billion of Class A shares and had largely kept investors happy, despite the continuing scandal in Britain. In the first week of trading in 2012, News Corporation shares rose to a 52-week record, or 30 percent above the lows it hit in the weeks after public outcry over the hacking scandal began in July and higher than it had been before.

The crisis in London has left Mr. Murdoch stretched thin and increasingly reliant on his No. 2, Mr. Carey, 58, who was once considered to be serving as a placeholder until one of the Murdoch children took over. Never in the $60 billion media company’s history has an executive other than Mr. Murdoch taken such a major role in running the daily operations.

“Chase is one of those people with no fear,” said Michael Ovitz, co-founder of the Creative Artists Agency. “He’ll say, ‘This is what’s good for you. And this is what’s bad for you.’ That’s hard to do when you’re dealing with a founder and patriarch.”

Mr. Carey, who wears blazers with elbow patches and a Wyatt Earp-style handlebar mustache, leads earnings calls, speaks at investor conferences and strategizes on everything, including retransmission fees with cable and satellite companies. Unlike Mr. Murdoch and his son James, who continue to face scrutiny related to phone hacking and the accusation that nepotism sometimes overrides shareholder interests, Mr. Carey’s outsider status makes him a steady and less polarizing figure, analysts said.

“He’s increasingly becoming the face of the company,” said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at BTIG.

In August, Mr. Murdoch, 80, told analysts that Mr. Carey would take over as chief executive in an emergency. “Chase is my partner, and if anything happened to me, I’m sure he’ll get it immediately,” he said.

The question of succession at News Corporation is a delicate one. Most senior executives declined to comment on the record about Mr. Carey, expressing concern that any positive observations might appear as a slight to James Murdoch. Mr. Carey declined to comment.

Interviews with more than a dozen current and former associates reveal that Mr. Carey is in many ways Mr. Murdoch’s alter ego. He is aloof while Mr. Murdoch is engaged with the public (most recently on Twitter, where Mr. Murdoch has criticized opponents of antipiracy legislation); he is all-American while Mr. Murdoch is worldly (Mr. Carey once dragged a colleague to a sports bar while on business in Hong Kong); and he is apolitical while Mr. Murdoch is conservative.

“Every visionary has 40 bad ideas and three good ones, and you need those checks and balances,” said Greg Nathanson, the former president of the Fox Television Stations. “Murdoch’s visions were amazing, but he couldn’t execute them without a person like Chase.”

Mr. Carey, a New York native, college rugby player and die-hard Yankees and Giants fan, first joined News Corporation in 1988 after working in the home entertainment and finance divisions of Columbia Pictures. His mustache hides a scar from an injury from a car accident on the way to a football game at Colgate University, where he was active in the Delta Upsilon fraternity. The driver died, and Mr. Carey went through the windshield.

As the fledgling Fox network’s chief operating officer, Mr. Carey quickly became Mr. Murdoch’s preferred negotiator.

In 1993, Mr. Murdoch bet Mr. Carey $20 that the network known for “The Simpsons” and “Beverly Hills, 90210” could not capture the National Football League’s primary television rights from venerable CBS. The league had twice rejected Fox’s offers, and CBS had been known for football for 38 years.

Mr. Carey put together a $1.56 billion deal that beat out CBS and put Fox on the map. Mr. Murdoch paid up on his $20 bet.

“That was a game changer for the next two decades,” said Paul Tagliabue, who served as the N.F.L. commissioner during the negotiation. Of Mr. Carey’s negotiating tactics, Mr. Tagliabue said: “He didn’t shout. There were no histrionics. He was almost deceptively calm.”

From 1996 to 2002, he served as co-chief operating officer with Peter Chernin, a showman heavily involved in the company’s creative units. Mr. Carey has little interest in the glamorous Hollywood business. In 2002, Mr. Carey unexpectedly resigned, saying he did not see a role for himself in the company after its failed bid to take over DirecTV. The following year, Mr. Murdoch succeeded in a $6.6 billion deal for DirecTV, and Mr. Carey returned to lead the satellite-television broadcaster, which now is no longer part of News Corporation.

In the years he was based in Los Angeles, Mr. Carey lived in Manhattan Beach and frequented the San Francisco Saloon, a bar known for its buffalo wings and sawdust-covered floors. Under his leadership, DirecTV expanded its United States subscriber base to more than 18 million, from 12 million.

“It was pretty cut and dry with Chase,” said Derek Chang, executive vice president for content strategy and development at DirecTV, where Mr. Carey served as president and chief executive from 2003 to 2009. Mr. Chang added: “He didn’t micromanage. You got in, you did your job, or you didn’t have a job.”

Mr. Murdoch lured Mr. Carey back to News Corporation in 2009. Last fiscal year, Mr. Carey earned $30.2 million, a 16 percent increase from the previous year, making him the company’s second-highest-paid executive after Mr. Murdoch, whose compensation totaled $33.3 million.

In a company known for its outsize personalities, Mr. Carey has no interest in the spotlight. (He seldom interferes with the Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, according to people familiar with the company.) He regularly orders a hamburger and fries during power lunches in News Corporation’s third-floor executive dining room and rides a packed commuter train home to the Connecticut suburbs, often popping a can of Budweiser on the way, despite having “the highest car allowance available to a senior executive,” according to a 2009 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Colleagues describe him as all-business with little interest in making small talk, unless it is sports related. Several longtime associates said they knew about Mr. Carey’s wife and his son and daughter only because of an annual Christmas card.

“We talked about the Murdoch kids more than we talked about our own kids,” said one former News Corporation executive who worked closely with Mr. Carey.

Mr. Carey, like the Murdoch children, does not share his boss’s affection for the newspaper business, according to colleagues. He would rather the company, which owns The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and other papers, home in on more lucrative and less distracting pursuits. “He hates politics. He thinks News Corp. should be a sports and entertainment business,” said one executive from Britain not authorized to discuss Mr. Carey on the record.

Mr. Carey is now using his negotiating tactics to again alter the economics of television. He has pressured satellite and cable providers to pay higher retransmission fees, which have become among the largest drivers of growth at News Corporation and some other media companies.

“This whole retransmission battle is a big, big, big deal, and he’s the most pivotal figure in it,” said Staley Cates, president and chief investment officer of the Memphis-based Southeastern Asset Management, which holds roughly 52.5 million nonvoting shares in News Corporation.

But some media bankers said Mr. Carey was picking the low-hanging fruit. They would like him to put more effort into developing new businesses in addition to exploiting existing ones. A little talked-about result of the phone-hacking scandal, they said, is that the younger visionary figures in the company, namely James and his sister Elisabeth Murdoch, have been at least temporarily marginalized.

“He doesn’t have a huge ego that has to dominate every minute of every day,” said Mitchell Stern, former chairman and chief executive of Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television. “Where he was lacking, which I think he’d admit, would be in the creative content.”

In March, the company said James Murdoch would move to New York from London and become deputy chief operating officer, reporting to Mr. Carey. In recent weeks, British lawmakers have uncovered new documents that further threaten the reputation of James Murdoch, who oversaw British operations when the hacking took place. That leaves Mr. Carey as the company’s most stable senior executive untainted by the British tumult.

“He’s completely disconnected from the whole saga. He’s running the business,” the media tycoon and investor Haim Saban said of Mr. Carey. At a tumultuous time, “he’s the Rock of Gibraltar,” Mr. Saban added.

Despite Mr. Carey’s more public role, News Corporation is still very much a family business. “He’s influencing the day-to-day decisions in the company more than anyone ever has other than Rupert,” said Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Nomura Securities. But in the end, “I don’t think anyone is fooling themselves that this isn’t the Murdochs’ company.”

[Douglas Caddy]

Tom Watson calls for police to investigate Times over email hacking

Daily Telegraph

By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent

11:04AM GMT 23 Jan 2012

The Times could be subject to a police inquiry after Scotland Yard received a complaint from Labour MP Tom Watson calling on the force to investigate the newspaper over email hacking allegations.

Mr Watson has sent a letter to the Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers urging Scotland Yard to launch an investigation into The Times amid allegations one of its reporters admitted hacking into the email account of a police officer.

Both James Harding, the editor of The Times, and Tom Mockridge, the News International chief executive, recently gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry acknowledging that a reporter at the paper had admitted to hacking but not naming the reporter as Patrick Foster.

The newspaper later admitted Mr Foster, 28, had hacked the account of Richard Horton, a police officer who blogged anonymously under the name Nightjack.

In an article published on Thursday, Mr Harding admitted it was the NightJack case but did not disclose whether he knew before the court case that the emails had been hacked, or if he knew about it before the story was published.

The Times last week said that Mr Foster, 28, had "informed his managers before the story was published that he had, on his own initiative, hacked into Mr Horton's email account".

Mr Horton was outed in 2009 after the Times fought an injunction in an effort to reveal his identity.

Mr Foster, who has contributed articles to the Daily Telegraph, was later dismissed from the newspaper over an unrelated incident.

Mr Watson's letter to the Metropolitan Police, which was also sent to the Attorney General, said: "It is clear that a crime has been committed - illicit hacking of personal emails.

"A journalist and unnamed managers failed to report the crime to their proprietor or the police.

"I must ask that you investigate computer hacking at The Times. In so doing you will also be able to establish whether perjury and a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice have also occurred."

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police was not able to comment immediately.

The force has set up Operation Tuleta to look at allegations of email hacking.

This weekend, it emerged Mr Watson would write to Lord Justice Leveson this week formally requesting he recall Mr Harding following fresh revelations surrounding the NightJack blogger case.

Mr Watson said: “James Harding has questions to answer.

“Who at the company was aware the High Court and the blogger’s lawyers were not told about this?”

Mr Watson added that it raised further questions as to whether James Murdoch, the chairman of News International, knew.

In the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, Mr Murdoch told MPs last year that he was unaware of any computer hacking.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "We can confirm that a letter was received today, Monday 23 January, from MP Tom Watson.Officers from Operation Tuleta are in contact with Mr Watson in relation to specific issues he wishes to raise.We are not prepared to discuss the matter further."