Douglas Caddy Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh: News Corp team 'boasting' over help to police War of words at publisher intensifies as paper's associate editor tells of 'unease' at role of internal inquiry By Lisa O'Carroll guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 February 2012 10.30 EST Parts of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation have been boasting about handing information to police that has led to the arrests of 10 journalists at the Sun, one of the tabloid's most senior staff said on Monday. Trevor Kavanagh, the paper's associate editor, told BBC Radio 5 Live that the mood on the paper was "despondent" and there was "a feeling of being under siege". Appearing on the Richard Bacon show, he added: "There has never been a bigger crisis than this." In a clear swipe against News Corp's powerful Management and Standards Committee, Kavanagh said "there is certainly a mood of unhappiness that the company proudly, certain parts of the company – not News International I hasten to add, not the newspaper side of the operation – actually boasting that they are sending information to police that has put these people I have just described into police cells." News Corp's MSC was set up last year in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal to co-operate with police investigations into hacking and allegations of corrupt payments to public officials. The arrests of Sun journalists comes after the MSC reconstructed an email archive of 300m messages and turned over parts of that archive to the police, providing the information that led to five arrests of Sun journalists last weekend as well as four last month and one last year. In a tour of broadcast studios at lunchtime, Kavanagh launched a staunch defence of journalists on the tabloid, claiming that they were treated worse than terrorists and that the police now had more officers — 171 in total — investigating News International than they did on the Milly Dowler case or the Lockerbie terrorist attack. He told Radio 4's World at One there was concern about the way in which the MSC is handing over information to the police. "I think it's fair to say that there is unease about the way that some of the best journalists in Fleet Street have ended up being arrested on evidence that the MSC has handed to the police" he told Radio 4's World at One. His remarks are being seen as a sign that Murdoch's British publishing operation is sliding into civil war, with journalists on the Sun and the Times furious with they way they believe their bosses are "throwing journalists to the lion's den". This morning Kavanagh – who had been considered close to Rupert Murdoch – penned an opinion piece for the Sun titled "Witch-hunt has put us behind ex-Soviet states on free press". Kavanagh said the police operation was "completely out of proportion", with as many as 20 officers turning up at one journalist's home on Saturday. He said he suspected police were trying to recover their own reputation after failing to investigate the original allegations of phone hacking. "They lost a police commissioner, they've lost a deputy police commissioner and they now want to make it abundantly clear that they aren't going to leave a single stone, floorboard, drawer, cupboard, Kellogg's packet or any other part of the household untouched," he said. Kavanagh said that no one is opposed to co-operation with the police and that the company should hand over information when appropriate, but it was up to the police to sift through the 300m emails and hordes of other documents, not the MSC. He said 30 current and former News International journalists have now been suspended with no evidence of wrongdoing and no arrests, yet their careers could now be destroyed. Kavanagh's column in the Sun on Monday protested that police were treating staff on the paper like "members of an organised crime gang". On Radio 4 he denounced declarations two weeks ago that the MSC was charged with "draining the swamp". He added: "I think that's an appalling suggestion and it's resented bitterly and deeply by those many excellent journalists who have worked loyally for the company for most of their working lives. "The point is you have people being raided by up to 20 police officers at a time when they are still in bed at home and they are having their children's underwear drawers searched by policemen who in fact are being seconded from sensitive terrorist units at a time when we are trying to prepare for the Olympic games and the potential of a mass suicide attack," he said. He told Adam Boulton of Sky News that the News of the World staff had already paid a high price for alleged wrongdoing at News International and that the police were now going to the other extreme after failing to investigate original allegations over phone hacking. Kavanagh said closing the Sun would be "surely the ultimate disproportionate act". He added: "I think there's no justification on the basis of what you and I know so far for any such precipitate and disastrous decision. I think it would be a catastrophe for British media and newspapers worldwide and even possibly for the BBC if action which at this stage suggests no actual guilt should be regarded as grounds for closing newspapers." In the Sun newsroom there is a sense of anger and despair. "Any of us could be arrested, we just don't know," said one insider who asked not to be named. Another said: "The company has a legal duty of care to its staff. These people work anti-social hours, work overtime without question, miss family occasions for this paper. It's all very well to have the sympathy of your direct boss but when the overall company doesn't give a toss, that counts for nothing. There is going to be a backlash when Murdoch arrives here later this week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 News Corp executives at risk of US prosecution for 'willful blindness' American anti-corruption law holds company chiefs culpable for consciously avoiding knowledge of corrupt deeds at News Corp By Ed Pilkington in New York guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 February 2012 15.40 EST News Corporation executives could be vulnerable to individual prosecution by US anti-bribery authorities under the so-called "willful blindness" clause that holds company chiefs culpable if they chose to be unaware of any specific wrongdoing by their employees. The FBI and other law-enforcers are probing Rupert Murdoch's media empire under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that seeks to punish US-based companies engaging in bribery abroad. News Corp is headquartered in New York. Under the act, the company and its executives are liable to potentially severe penalties, including up to five years in prison, if it can be shown that they consciously avoided knowing about the corrupt deeds of their employees. "It's a well established prosecutorial principle that it is no defence to close your ears and shut your eyes," said Brad Simon, a former US federal prosecutor who now defends in cases of white-collar crime. News Corporation's FCPA woes intensified sharply over the weekend after five senior journalists at the Sun newspaper and two military officials, as well as a police officer in the UK, were arrested. The eight were brought in for questioning by detectives involved in Operation Elveden investigating improper payments to police and other public officials from within News Corp's UK branch, News International. The perils to News Corp of an FCPA prosecution in the US against the company and its executives was underlined by the revelation that a grand jury has been convened in the case of Avon Products. The Wall Street Journal reported that US authorities are probing an internal audit report compiled in 2005 that found that Avon employees had bribed officials in China, yet the company only launched an official inquiry into possible violations three years later. In the Avon case, the grand jury is likely to be asked to consider whether executives were culpable under the "willful blindness" provision of the FCPA. Professor John Coffee, a specialist in white-collar crime at Columbia law school in New York, said that executives were at risk of prosecution in cases where they failed to ask relevant questions about a suspicious persistent pattern of payments. He gave the metaphorical example of a driver used by a Mexican drugs cartel to transport cocaine across the border who was aware that the vehicle contained a secret storage panel but made no attempt to find out what packages had been placed inside. As part of its response to the billowing phone hacking scandal, News Corp has amassed the most formidable team of FCPA lawyers ever assembled. "They have appointed not just one of the best lawyers in this field, they have appointed most of the best lawyers," Coffee said. "That's not normal defensive strategy," he added. The team is headed by Mark Mendelsohn, who as the former head of the US department of justice's FCPA section was responsible for developing much of the case law in this area. Rupert Murdoch's younger son, James, is in a particularly sensitive position. He is a naturalised US citizen, and chairman of News Corporation in Europe. He has come under repeated questioning by the UK parliament over precisely how much he knew about the News of the World phone hacking scandal, from which the bribery allegations have flowed. There has been no suggestion however that he had suspicions of any irregular payments to police or other public officials. A focal point of the US investigations is likely to be whether false financial information relating to alleged improper payments was given in News International and News Corporation accounts. That could expose the company and its executives to prosecution by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The department of justice, working through the FBI on both sides of the Atlantic, is also likely to be exploring how much News Corporation executives in the UK were aware of a pattern of improper behaviour and if so what, if anything, they did to stop it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 It appears Rupert Murdoch made a fateful and disastrous decision last May to embrace the advice of new advisers who failed to understand how serious the problem was and by disregarding the sage advice of his own in-house legal counsel. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/dinner-at-ruperts-02092012.html?chan=magazine+channel_top+stories Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 News Corp inquiry team defends policy over police disclosures Management and standards committee dismisses claims it is revealing names of officers who lunch or drink with journalists By Lisa O'Carroll guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 February 2012 11.48 EST The News Corporation team responsible for investigating alleged illegal payments by Sun journalists has defended its activities, dismissing as a "complete red herring" the claim that it is passing information to the police about expenses claims for lunch or drinks with contacts. A source close to the News Corp's management and standards committee (MSC) said it will not be disclosing the names of police officers or any other public servants simply because they appear on expense claims for lunches or any other "socialising", amid fears that journalists' relationships with sources are becoming criminalised. "The information handed to police is [relating to] unlawful material. The information is redacted to ensure that lawful journalistic inquiries are not threatened," the source added. Information supplied by the MSC to the Metropolitan police has led to the arrest of nine current and former Sun journalists, two police officers, an MoD employee and a member of the armed forces in relation to alleged illegal payments to public officials in the past three weeks. The source said: "The work of the MSC is focused on payments that look unlawful on the advice of lawyers who are expert in these matters, where there is evidence which looks to be payments to public officials, policemen or others, that is deemed to be relevant to the Elveden inquiry. It is not about lunches or drinks. That is a complete red herring. "This is about significant payments to a number of public officials that appear to be in breach of the law." However, the source could not give reassurances that names would not be disclosed, even if stories that resulted from a public official being paid were in the public interest. "There is no public interest defence in law for public officials accepting bribes," the source said. The comments come amid fears that the release of material by the MSC, set up by News Corp in July last year to conduct an internal inquiry into phone hacking and other allegations of illegal practices by News International journalists, will put whistleblowers at risk. On Tuesday, the Times reported that the MSC had disclosed the identity of police officers, a civil servant and an army officer to Scotland Yard because it did not believe they were "legitimate sources". The National Union of Journalists said it was now considering writing to the MSC to seek reassurances that journalists' sources are being protected. The NUJ plans to get in touch with journalists from the Sun and appealed for staff on the paper to contact it to discuss concerns. The union is not recognised by News International, but said this would not prevent staff joining or talking to its officers. Michelle Stanistreet, the NUJ general secretary, said it believed that newspapers should co-operate with the police where there is evidence of illegal activity, "but making this material available without consultation with the journalists involved is unacceptable". Stanistreet added: "We are receiving calls from whistleblowers who had been assured that they would be protected, and who now fear for their jobs and worse. Journalists at the Sun – who are offered no protection from a union independent from the News International management, which is now sacrificing them to appease America." Some newspaper industry insiders predict that legitimate sources with stories in key public sectors such as government, police and customs may now start to dry up amid a fear, however misplaced, that they may no longer have full protection. Journalists across News International's three titles – the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times – fear there are more arrests to come. "How do we know the names of people in emails written five or six years ago are not being handed to police? Or a lunch or drinks you might have had with a police officer now constitutes bribery?" said one senior News International journalist. The MSC protests that there is a misunderstanding about how its relationship with police officers, who are effectively in residence in the building it occupies in Wapping, works. According to the source familiar with the MSC operation, it is not trawling through internal email correspondence and other documentation and saying to police "we have a good one for you". "The police already have identified the areas" they are investigating and "only things that show prima facie evidence of criminality" are being shared with detectives, the source said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 News International staff demand openness over internal investigation unit Following Sun arrests, NI staff body writes to chief executive regarding remit and scope of committee, and status of sources By Lisa O'Carroll guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 February 2012 13.45 EST The body representing News International staff is seeking an urgent meeting with chief executive Tom Mockridge, over the role played by the internal investigations unit set up by News Corporation in the recent arrest of 10 current and former Sun journalists. The News International Staff Association (Nisa) said there is an unprecedented sense of anger and betrayal on all three News International titles – the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times – and journalists want to know what their rights are in light of the recent arrests, which were made after the management and standards committee (MSC) handed information to the police. "We have written a letter asking questions about the remit, the brief and the scope of the investigation going on and what steps are being taken to protect the sources," said Nick Jones, a Nisa representative. "The anger on the editorial floors of all three titles is something I have never seen before. I've not seen this level of anger and sense of betrayal," he added. Nisa is also seeking assurances that the company is complying with its "duty of care" obligations towards those arrested, and is paying their legal fees. However, he said that journalists on the Sun are not going to down tools in protest at the arrests, as suggested in a Bloomberg TV interview by former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck. Nisa said the anger and sense of betrayal on the paper is palpable, but the last thing they want to do is jeopardise jobs especially when News Corp's shareholders in the US are looking on. "A strike is not on the horizon, it would harm the paper," he said. "Everyone is looking over their shoulder. No one knows what is going to happen. We would hope that the 10 arrests so far are it, but we don't know. One journalist on the paper, who asked not to be named, said "the truth is the mood is of grief, shock and desperate worry" about who else might get a 6am Saturday morning knock on the door from the Metropolitan police. Staff say the recent arrests have piled the pressure on an already stretched workforce, with people "scrambling to plug the holes" left by the suspension of staff who have been arrested and bailed on suspicion of corruption, aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office, and conspiracy in relation to both these offences. They include senior newsroom figures including executive editor Fergus Shanahan, news editor Chris Pharo, crime editor Mike Sullivan, deputy editor Geoff Webster, chief reporter John Kay, picture editor John Edwards, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and deputy news editor John Sturgis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 News Corporation 'gives journalists’ sources to police’ The police, who have assigned 170 officers to three separate ongoing inquiries, face accusations they are carrying out a disproportionate and heavy-handed investigation Daily Telegraph 7:30PM GMT 14 Feb 2012 The civil war in Rupert Murdoch’s empire deepened on Tuesday after The Times raised concerns that the internal investigation is risking journalists’ sources. The newspaper reported that names of public officials were being passed to the police on the grounds they do not deserve protection because there is evidence they may have been paid for information. The Times said it was not clear whether the investigation had identified the sources without considering “whether the publication of stories based on their information was in the public interest”. The story came a day after one of The Sun’s most senior journalists said the internal inquiry was a “witch hunt” designed to protect News Corporation, Mr Murdoch’s parent company in the US. It also emerged that the investigation by News Corporation’s Management and Standards Committee (MSC) also includes The Times and The Sunday Times after the main focus was on The Sun and the now defunct News of the World. The National Union of Journalists said it had received calls from reporters on the Times titles who were concerned that their reputations could be damaged. The reporters said they felt they were being offered as a “sacrifice”. The MSC is examining more than 300 million emails, expenses claims and payment records to identify any unlawful activity, including payments to police officers and other public officials. The Times reported that the investigation by the MSC included looking for keywords such as “bribe” and “bung”. Related Articles News Corp descends into civil war after latest Sun arrests 13 Feb 2012 Kavanagh: Sun journalists treated like 'organised crime gang' 13 Feb 2012 Journalists breaking law to expose injustice spared trial 08 Feb 2012 It said the MSC had reassured staff that the names of confidential sources would be redacted if any details were passed to the police but that would not apply if the source was a public official who may have been paid. A source close to the MSC insisted payments to public officials were illegal and there was no public interest for bribing people. It is another sign of the growing tensions between staff at News International, which runs Mr Murdoch’s UK newspapers, and the parent company News Corporation. The MSC answers to News Corporation and has been instructed to co-operate fully with the police investigating the fallout of the hacking scandal and alleged payments to police and other informants. On Monday, Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun’s associate editor, described the recent arrest of Sun journalists as a “witch hunt” and suggested members of the MSC were revelling in the crisis. He said staff felt “under siege” following the arrest this weekend of five more senior members of staff and admitted: “There has never been a bigger crisis than this.” The MSC source said The Times and The Sunday Times had always been included in the review but admitted The Sun had been the initial focus. Michelle Stanistreet, the general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said: “We have had calls from people [on The Times and The Sunday Times] who are anxious about this potentially being expanded and we are likely to get more worried about their professional reputation. They are feeling they are being offered up as a sacrifice and feel betrayed.” The police, who have assigned 170 officers to three separate ongoing inquiries, face accusations they are carrying out a disproportionate and heavy-handed investigation. Scotland Yard insisted its operations were not “in any way disproportionate to the enormous task”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Glenn Mulcaire granted hack case appeal The Independent By Jan Colley Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has been given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against orders that he cannot rely on privilege against self-incrimination in the phone-hacking proceedings. The two-day hearing is scheduled to begin on May 9. Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal rejected Mulcaire's challenge to rulings that he did not have the right to refuse to say who asked him to intercept voice messages. The orders were made in response to applications made by comedian and actor Steve Coogan and PR consultant Nicola Phillips in their civil damages claims for breach of confidence against both News Group Newspapers (NGN) and Mulcaire, whom NGN had exclusively retained. In a statement issued after that appeal failed, Mulcaire said there was no dispute that he was entitled to invoke the long-standing common law privilege against self-incrimination, subject to Section 72 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, on which the appeal hinged. "I am pleased that the Court of Appeal has recognised that this privilege remains a part of our common law. "It has also emphasised that it cannot be removed in civil proceedings without safeguards for the person at risk of prosecution. "Though it considered that the Act removed my privilege in these two cases, the Court of Appeal considered the arguments put forward on my behalf in great detail in its judgment. "It acknowledged that those arguments 'appear to be of some general significance'. "I intend to appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court, because this may affect my right to claim the privilege in other civil cases still being brought against me." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Investigators suspect ‘serious criminality’ at News Corp By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York and Salamander Davoudi in London Financial Times Last updated: February 15, 2012 9:08 pm Investigators looking into alleged corrupt practices at News Corp’s UK newspapers suspect that cash payments worth more than £100,000 were made to police officers and other public officials, one person familiar with the investigation said. News Corp’s management and standards committee, set up after the News of the World phone hacking scandal convulsed the News International newspaper division last July, has been under fire from reporters for passing information to police that has led to the arrests of nine journalists at The Sun. On Wednesday, a person with knowledge of the investigation dismissed claims that journalists were being penalised for innocuous lunches with sources. “This is not about sources or expenses,” he said: “This is an investigation into serious suspected criminality over a sustained period.” He added: “It involves regular cash payments totalling tens of thousands of pounds a year for several years to public officials, some of whom were effectively on a retainer to provide information. In totality, it involves a six-figure sum.” The comments came after the National Union of Journalists said it had taken advice from John Hendy QC about the legality of the committee handing over information, exposing confidential sources to the Metropolitan Police, and was considering whether to pursue legal action. The NUJ said it had been approached not only by journalists at The Sun but also by civil servant whistleblowers who are frightened about their confidential conversations with journalists being disclosed and who want to understand their legal rights. Writing in The Times, which is also owned by News International, Geoffrey Robertson QC, a leading human rights lawyer, said on Wednesday that members of the management and standards committee should be required to “learn by heart” a leading judgment of the European Court of Human Rights relating to the protection of journalistic sources. “If journalists cannot promise anonymity to sources and keep that solemn promise there would be a lot less news and what there was would be less reliable,” he wrote. “How else did the Daily Telegraph avoid prosecution for paying a substantial sum for details of MPs expenses?” The committee was not so much “draining the swamp”, as one representative had described its work, as “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”, Mr Robertson said, adding that tabloid journalists should “stop bashing the European Court of Human Rights” and start using it to protect their own rights and those of their readers. Both News Corp and the management and standards committee declined to comment. Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, called on Sun journalists to join the union, saying: “The NUJ can defend staff at the Sun, and elsewhere in News International, and represent them against a management that seems prepared to throw them to the wolves.” “We have been approached by a group of journalists from The Sun. We are now exploring a number of ways to support them, including discussing legal redress,” she said. “If journalists are not allowed to offer protection to their sources – often brave people who are raising their heads above the parapet to disclose information – then the free press in the UK is dead.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Police investigating 'suspected criminality over sustained period' at Sun Daily Telegraph 3:28PM GMT 15 Feb 2012 The investigation into payments by Rupert Murdoch's Sun journalists to police and other officials is looking into "suspected criminality over a sustained period of time" involving tens of thousands of pounds, it can be disclosed. Police have arrested nine former and current senior Sun staff in recent weeks in an investigation looking into payments to police and public officials. The move however has resulted in a backlash from staff who have accused police and Murdoch's News Corp management from conducting a witch hunt into journalists and their sources. "This is not about sources or expenses, this is an investigation into serious suspected criminality over a sustained period," a source with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It involves regular cash payments totalling tens of thousands of pounds a year for several years to public officials, some of whom were effectively on retainers to provide information. In totality it involves a six-figure sum." The civil war in Rupert Murdoch’s empire deepened on Tuesday after The Times raised concerns that the internal investigation is risking journalists’ sources. The newspaper reported that names of public officials were being passed to the police on the grounds they do not deserve protection because there is evidence they may have been paid for information. The Times said it was not clear whether the investigation had identified the sources without considering “whether the publication of stories based on their information was in the public interest”. The story came a day after one of The Sun’s most senior journalists said the internal inquiry was a “witch hunt” designed to protect News Corporation, Mr Murdoch’s parent company in the US. It also emerged that the investigation by News Corporation’s Management and Standards Committee (MSC) also includes The Times and The Sunday Times after the main focus was on The Sun and the now defunct News of the World. The National Union of Journalists said it had received calls from reporters on the Times titles who were concerned that their reputations could be damaged. The reporters said they felt they were being offered as a “sacrifice”. The MSC is examining more than 300 million emails, expenses claims and payment records to identify any unlawful activity, including payments to police officers and other public officials. The Times reported that the investigation by the MSC included looking for keywords such as “bribe” and “bung”. It said the MSC had reassured staff that the names of confidential sources would be redacted if any details were passed to the police but that would not apply if the source was a public official who may have been paid. A source close to the MSC insisted payments to public officials were illegal and there was no public interest for bribing people. It is another sign of the growing tensions between staff at News International, which runs Mr Murdoch’s UK newspapers, and the parent company News Corporation. The MSC answers to News Corporation and has been instructed to co-operate fully with the police investigating the fallout of the hacking scandal and alleged payments to police and other informants. On Monday, Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun’s associate editor, described the recent arrest of Sun journalists as a “witch hunt” and suggested members of the MSC were revelling in the crisis. He said staff felt “under siege” following the arrest this weekend of five more senior members of staff and admitted: “There has never been a bigger crisis than this.” The MSC source said The Times and The Sunday Times had always been included in the review but admitted The Sun had been the initial focus. Source: Reuters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Sun staff line up human rights challenge to News Corp inquiry team Journalists approach NUJ with view to hiring leading lawyer to question legality of internal investigation ByJosh Halliday guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 February 2012 08.57 EST Senior journalists at the Sun are preparing to launch a legal challenge to the News Corporation unit that disclosed confidential sources to the police, leading to the arrest of nine of the paper's current and former staff this month. Journalists at the News International red-top have approached the National Union of Journalists with a view to hiring the leading human rights lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson QC, to question the legality of parent company News Corp's management and standards committee. The NUJ has been contacted by more than a dozen journalists from the Sun with concerns about the protection of sources, it is understood. The potential legal challenge represents a dramatic new front in the civil war at Rupert Murdoch's Wapping newspaper headquarters on the eve of his arrival in London to deal with the crisis at the Sun. Robertson used a column in the Sun's News International sister paper, the Times, on Wednesday to urge journalists to protect their sources using clause 14 of the Press Complaints Commission's newspaper industry code of practice. The leading lawyer, who has fought on behalf of publishers for press freedom throughout his career, suggested in the column that News Corp's MSC should "be required to learn by heart" a passage from the European court of human rights' ruling in the case of Goodwin v UK, which predates the Human Rights Act and affirms the importance of protection for journalists' sources. This passage states: "Protection of journalistic sources is one of the basic conditions for press freedom... without such protection, sources may be deterred from assisting the press in informing the public on matters of public interest. "As a result the vital public watchdog role of the press may be undermined and the ability of the press to provide accurate and reliable information may be adversely affected." Robertson had not been formally approached by the NUJ at the time of publication. The NUJ has signed up a number of Sun journalists as new members since the arrest of five of the newspaper's senior journalists on Saturday, it is understood. Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the NUJ, is due to meet lawyers on Wednesday about a challenge to News Corp's MSC. Stanistreet said on Wednesday that "Sun journalists have approached the NUJ with concerns about sources being compromised." Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: "We have been approached by a group of journalists from the Sun. We are now exploring a number of ways to support them, including discussing legal redress. "We recognise that [News International Staff Association] officials are trying their best for staff, but they have no chance because they are seen as creatures of Rupert Murdoch's management. The NUJ can defend staff at the Sun, and elsewhere in News International, and represent them against a management that seems prepared to throw them to the wolves. It is not an exaggeration to say that if journalists are not allowed to offer protection to their sources – often brave people who are raising their heads above the parapet to disclose information – then the free press in the UK is dead. "The protection of sources is an essential principle which has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the European Court of Human Rights as the cornerstone of press freedom and the NUJ shall defend it. In 2007 a judge made it clear that journalists and their sources are protected under article 10 of the Human Rights Act and it applies to leaked material. "I will be writing to News Corp's management and standards committee asking what authority it had to disclose this information. I will also be writing to staff at News International to invite them to join the NUJ." The Wapping-based MSC on Tuesday defended its decision to disclose sources to the police, with a contact close to the committee saying that it would not disclose the names of police officers or other public officials simply because they appear to have socialised with journalists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dolva Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Wow. If Robertson takes it things could really change in ways that some may not imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Gotcha! The Sun sinks Murdoch By Philip Stephens Financial Times February 16, 2012 7:26 pm Now you know what it’s like. So a politician friend chuckled the other day after police roused several journalists from their beds for questioning about the alleged bribery of public officials. Not so long ago Britain’s parliamentarians were excoriated for fiddling their expenses. Now the nation’s press is in the dock. At Westminster you can cut the Schadenfreude with a knife. The expenses scandal shredded the reputation of Britain’s political class. Some went to jail and others were shamed into retirement. Politicians had never been held high in public esteem but billing taxpayers for the cost of cleaning out the moat at the family estate was a claim too far. News International, the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, is at the centre of the bribery scandal. A furore about voicemail interceptions has already forced the closure of the best-selling News of the World. This has merged into an even more damaging investigation into illegal payments to police officers and civil servants. The reckoning for Mr Murdoch has been brutal. A year ago the British outpost of the mighty News Corp empire was unassailable. Politicians of all stripes and seniority doffed their caps in deference to Mr Murdoch’s power and ruthlessness. News Corp was close to securing full control of the highly profitable British Sky Broadcasting. Now, all looks close to ruin. The political doors have slammed shut. There are questions among MPs and regulators not just about the future of the newspapers, but whether News Corp is a “fit and proper” owner of its sizeable stake in BSkyB. The Sun, the jewel in the empire’s tabloid crown, is under investigative siege. All in all, about 30 former and serving News International executives and journalists have been arrested. News Corp has already paid out nearly $200m in legal fees and compensation payments to victims of phone hacking. The final figure could be many times higher. The merciless irony of the latest arrests is that they spring from Mr Murdoch’s efforts to draw a line. The alleged bribery evidence was handed over by the independent standards committee he set up to clear up the phone-hacking affair. Journalists complain they are being thrown under a train by their own management, while confidential sources are compromised. Humming away in the background to all this is the Leveson inquiry, the public hearings into media regulation set up by the government. This reaches beyond News Corp, and the evidence offered to the inquiry by a procession of witnesses – some celebrities, others caught by accident in the public eye – has been less than flattering. The old system of press self-regulation, where insiders and newspaper editors dominate, has been exposed as a sham. Indignation among journalists extends beyond The Sun. Even among those eager to kick Mr Murdoch while he is down there is unease at the sight of reporters being hauled off to police stations. Isn’t that what happens in places like Russia? When politicians were brought before the mob to explain their expenses their answer was that it had ever been thus. Governments had not raised their pay for fear of angering voters. The quid pro quo had been an overgenerous and under-policed expenses system. Their media tormentors would have none of this. Yet now they are mounting much the same defence: handing over brown envelopes to useful contacts has happened since time immemorial. Cash for tips can be a vital lubricant of press freedom. How else can the media shine a light along the corridors of power? This might be half convincing were it shown that bribes had been instrumental in exposing corruption and malfeasance. My hunch is that most were handed over in return for gossip about the mishaps and misdemeanours of celebrities or for the inside track on crime stories. Politicians and the press have been caught in the same trap. The days when MPs could charge maintenance of tennis courts and duck ponds to the public purse, and reporters could pay friendly coppers are gone. It is odd that journalists should complain given the treatment they meted out to others who had imagined that things could continue as they were. We live in an age of accountability. Standards of behaviour once deemed acceptable as long as they stayed out of sight are now beyond the pale. Even those at the sharpest end of national security – soldiers fighting foreign wars and spooks conducting clandestine operations against terrorists – find themselves under an unforgiving glare. The media has played a big part in this change, so can scarcely exempt itself. By the time the myriad investigations end quite a few journalists may have gone to jail. The process will raise justified concerns about press freedom. For all their flaws, Britain’s rumbustious newspapers are a vital check and balance on the abuse of power. The big challenge, however, does not lie in the prosecution of those who hacked phones or paid bribes. The British media are being throttled by a draconian libel law designed to protect the rich and powerful. State regulation would tighten the noose. The economics of the digital age meanwhile conspire against expensive investigative journalism. As for Mr Murdoch, the game is up. Investigators at The Sun are talking about “serious suspected criminality over a sustained period”. The swashbuckling style of News International was rooted in an age when proprietors told politicians what to do, journalists did what they liked, and police officers were on cash retainers. Those days have passed. So has Mr Murdoch’s dominion. This need not mean the end of a free press Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Rupert Murdoch 'tells journalists Sun on Sunday will launch soon' Daily Telegraph By James Orr 6:30AM GMT 17 Feb 2012 Rupert Murdoch has told staff at The Sun that a Sun on Sunday paper would be launched "very soon", according to reports Employees were also told in an email that those who had been arrested would be allowed to return to work, it was claimed. Mr Murdoch was visiting The Sun's newsroom today in an attempt to reassure staff that he will not close or sell the paper following the arrest of senior staff members over alleged corrupt payments. The chairman of News Corporation flew in to Luton airport last night and was pictured leaving a London address in a Range Rover this morning clutching a copy of The Sun. He later arrived in Wapping at the headquarters of the company's subsidiary, News International, which publishes The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times. Nine journalists were arrested this month after information was passed to the police by an internal body set up to deal with inquiries into telephone hacking and police corruption. The actions of the independent committee - known as the Management Standards Committee (MSC) - has angered staff at the paper and led to allegations of a “witch-hunt”. Five Sun journalists, including the deputy editor, picture editor and chief reporter, were held by Scotland Yard detectives on Saturday on suspicion of making improper payments to police and public officials. Four current and former employees of the paper were arrested a fortnight earlier, and a senior reporter was detained in November. They have all been bailed and none has been charged. Trevor Kavanagh, associate editor of The Sun, which is Britain's top-selling paper, has strongly criticised the Metropolitan Police's handling of the arrests and voiced concerns about the MSC's actions. "There is unease about the way some of the best journalists in Fleet Street have ended up being arrested on evidence which the MSC has handed to the police," he said on Monday. The MSC was set up at the height of the earlier furore over phone-hacking at the now defunct News of The World. It was designed to rescue the company's reputation and show publically that it was cooperating fully with the police. The close relationship between the MSC and the police, whose officers work out of a building adjacent to journalists at The Sun, has infuriated the paper's staff who feel they have been hung out to dry. Several journalists at the tabloid are preparing a legal challenge to News Corporation, Mr Murdoch’s US-based parent company, for handing details of confidential sources to police. It is understood they are keen to hire Geoffrey Robertson QC, who used a column in The Times earlier this week to call on journalists to fight for their human rights. However, a source close to the investigation said: “This is not about sources or expenses, this is an investigation into serious suspected criminality over a sustained period. “It involves regular cash payments totalling tens of thousands of pounds a year for several years to public officials, some of whom were effectively on retainers to provide information. In totality it involves a six-figure sum.” Mr Robertson, a leading human rights lawyer, recalled a European Court ruling which stated that the protection of journalistic sources was one of the basic conditions for press freedom. He said: “By revealing journalistic sources, the committee is not so much 'draining the swamp’, as one member described it, as throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” Journalists “with a sense of humour” could formally complain to the Press Complaints Commission that News Corp was breaching its own code of practice, Mr Robertson added. The MSC has defended its actions, insisting that it has to work within the confines of the law and that material derived from “lawful” journalistic practices was being redacted to protect sources. The National Union of Journalists said it had been approached by “more than a dozen” journalists from The Sun who were concerned about the disclosure of sources. A spokesman said: “We are very seriously looking at the legal redress regarding the management and standards committee’s activity. We support Geoffrey Robertson’s view that the committee has conveniently forgotten the relevant section of the Human Rights Act and will pursue the case on those grounds.” Mr Robertson said the journalists would have to pursue a breach of confidentiality action in Britain before taking their case to Europe. Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the NUJ, called on Sun journalists who feared their confidential sources had been compromised to get in touch. “The protection of sources is an essential principle which has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the European Court of Human Rights as the cornerstone of press freedom and the NUJ shall defend it,” she said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Murdoch to Try to Quell Anger in Sun Newsroom The New York Times By JOHN F. BURNS February 17, 2012 LONDON — In his 60 years in the newspaper business, few moments can have been as charged for Rupert Murdoch as the one he seems likely to confront on Friday when he is scheduled to visit the London headquarters of his British newspaper arm, News International, where reporters and editors are said to be in a state of civil war against Mr. Murdoch and his executives. Scotland Yard jolted the Murdoch empire when it mounted dawn raids last weekend on the homes of five senior newsroom staff members from The Sun tabloid who were questioned on accusations of paying police officers and other public officials for leaking confidential information for the paper’s scoops. After that, News International spokesmen said Mr. Murdoch, who is 80, would fly to Britain this week from his base in New York on what they described as a previously scheduled visit to review the company’s British operations. These include The Sun and two upmarket titles, The Times and The Sunday Times, whose mounting losses, said to have totaled more than $260 million in the past three years, have been effectively subsidized by The Sun and its sister tabloid, The News of the World. The Sun, with a circulation of more than 2.7 million copies, has been nurtured by Mr. Murdoch from modest beginnings in the 1960s to its present status as Britain’s highest-selling daily newspaper. The News of the World was the country’s richest weekend paper when it was hastily closed by Mr. Murdoch in July amid mounting revelations about the paper’s pattern of illegally hacking into cellphone voice mail messages. But the Murdoch trip seems likely to be far from routine, going to the heart of what many media pundits, lawyers and politicians in Britain have come to see as a battle for the survival of his embattled newspaper operations in Britain — and perhaps, ultimately, a fight to shore up Mr. Murdoch’s control of the News Corporation, the American-based media conglomerate that owns the British papers and tens of billions of dollars of other assets, including Fox News and the Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox. News Corporation executives have been reported to be bracing themselves against the possibility of eventual criminal action against the corporation in the United States under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits American corporations or their subsidiaries from bribing foreign officials. They are also concerned about restive stockholder groups in the United States and Britain that have challenged the Murdoch family’s control of the News Corporation and, in particular, the position of James Murdoch, the 39-year-old son of Mr. Murdoch and, until recently, his presumptive heir, who heads corporation’s operations in Europe and Asia and oversees the British newspapers. But for now, the focus is on disentangling the Murdoch empire in Britain from the criminal investigations swirling around it here, and demonstrating, as Mr. Murdoch has said, that the News Corporation is determined to root out wrongdoing in the British papers once and for all. The Sun journalists arrested on Saturday — among them the deputy editor, the deputy news editor, the chief reporter, the chief foreign correspondent and the photo editor — brought to 21 the number of Murdoch-employed journalists from The Sun and The News of the World who have been arrested in parallel investigations by Scotland Yard into the bribery of police officers and other public officials. Staff members in The Sun’s newsroom said they were told on Thursday to expect Mr. Murdoch to stage a walk-through on Friday in an effort to quell the ferment. The anger, these sources have said, has been stirred by the actions of a Murdoch-appointed “management and standards” committee that has been acting, effectively, as Scotland Yard’s tipster on cases in which The Sun and The News of the World have made corrupt payments or hacked cellphones. Reporting directly to the Murdoch hierarchy in New York, it has been working from an archive of 300 million e-mails from the two newspapers. Mr. Murdoch’s visit to The Sun’s headquarters, one Sun reporter said, was explained to the journalists there as an opportunity for Mr. Murdoch to reassure them that the paper would not be closed as a result of the corruption scandal, as The News of the World was. The chief executive of News International, Tom Mockridge, addressed the staff members’ concerns in an internal memorandum on Thursday. “I understand the pressure many of you are under and have the greatest admiration for everyone’s continued professionalism,” he wrote. “The Sun has a proud history of delivering groundbreaking journalism. You should know that I have had a personal assurance today from Rupert Murdoch about his total commitment to continue to own and publish The Sun newspaper.” “He wants to lift morale,” the Sun reporter said of Mr. Murdoch, speaking on terms of anonymity out of concern that his job might be at risk. But nothing at this stage, he said, was likely to lift the gloom that has settled on the paper. “People are pretty much in a state of shock at what has happened and are wondering where all of this will end.” The police raids on Saturday were in many respects the rudest blow yet suffered by the Murdoch papers in months of police inquiries. The manner of the round-up and the searches of Sun employees’ homes embittered their colleagues. Trevor Kavanagh, the paper’s former political editor and now its associate editor, accused the police of treating The Sun’s journalists “like members of an organized gang” and as “threats to national security” simply for doing their jobs. He and others at The Sun said that the police tactics had included rousting children from their beds, “ripping up floorboards,” pulling car doors apart and delving into cereal boxes. But Mr. Kavanagh, a confidant of Rupert Murdoch’s for years, reserved some of his harshest condemnation for the Murdoch-appointed inquiry committee, which said in its own statement that the arrests had resulted from information the committee had passed to Scotland Yard. Describing the mood at The Sun as “a feeling of being under siege,” Mr. Kavanagh said that his Sun colleagues saw the continuing arrests as a “witch hunt” in which the Murdoch hierarchy was seeking to evade corporate accountability by shifting responsibility for criminal wrongdoing to individual journalists. The Scotland Yard unit investigating the corruption accusations, known as Operation Elveden, declined to give any details of the payoffs that are under scrutiny. But the Guardian newspaper reported that payments of £1,000 to police officers — equivalent to nearly $1,600 — have been common, and that some police officers may have been on what the paper called “retainers” of £10,000 a year, about $16,000. But Mr. Kavanagh, among others, defended the practice that has become known in Britain as checkbook journalism, saying that some payments to public officials were legitimate. “These stories sometimes involve whistle-blowers. Sometimes money changes hands,” he said. “This has been standard practice as long as newspapers have existed, here and abroad.” Mr. Kavanagh and the National Union of Journalists have said that they are considering a lawsuit against News International and the management committee for revealing journalistic sources to the police — a violation of the European human rights law’s provisions on press freedom, they say. But the committee, responding to the attacks by Mr. Kavanagh and others, said in a statement that it was not betraying legitimate investigative journalism, but seeking to root out criminality. “It is not about lunch or drinks,” the statement said. “That is a complete red herring. This is about significant payments to a number of public officials that appear to be in breach of the law.” Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting from London, and Amy Chozick from New York. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 (edited) Wow. If Robertson takes it things could really change in ways that some may not imagine. From New York Times article of February 17 posted above: Mr. Kavanagh and the National Union of Journalists have said that they are considering a lawsuit against News International and the management committee for revealing journalistic sources to the police a violation of the European human rights laws provisions on press freedom, they say. But the committee, responding to the attacks by Mr. Kavanagh and others, said in a statement that it was not betraying legitimate investigative journalism, but seeking to root out criminality. It is not about lunch or drinks, the statement said. That is a complete red herring. This is about significant payments to a number of public officials that appear to be in breach of the law. Edited February 17, 2012 by Douglas Caddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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