Rupert Murdoch and the Corruption of the British Media

Douglas Caddy · March 17, 2012

Revealed: Murdoch's secret meeting with Mrs Thatcher before he bought The Times

Letters overturn official history and show that tycoon briefed PM at Chequers before he was allowed to expand his empire

The Independent

By Andy McSmith

Saturday, 17 March 2012

Rupert Murdoch has been on better terms with more prime ministers than anyone else alive. He had so much to offer by way of influence and contacts the world over – at least until the hacking scandal flooded his empire – and if a politician wanted to meet him in private he did not let his love of news get the better of discretion.

On 12 February 1981, Mr Murdoch was allowed to double the number of national newspapers he owned, by adding The Times and The Sunday Times to The Sun and the News of the World. It was normal practice for any bid for a national newspaper to be held up while the Monopolies Commission investigated, but in this case Margaret Thatcher's government overrode objections from Labour and waved it through. Mrs Thatcher reaped the political rewards for the remainder of her time in office.

It could have been embarrassing for the Prime Minister if there had been any suggestion she had privately colluded with Mr Murdoch to ease his bid – but that was specifically denied in The History of the Times: the Murdoch Years, written by a Times journalist, Graham Stewart, and published in 2005 by Mr Murdoch's company, HarperCollins.

There was it was asserted: "In 1981, Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch scarcely knew one another and had no communication whatsoever during the period in which The Times bid and referral was up for discussion."

Documents being released on Monday by the Margaret Thatcher Archive demonstrate that they did indeed meet.

In fact, Mr Murdoch secretly met Mrs Thatcher for lunch at Chequers, on Sunday, 4 January 1981, with the specific purpose of briefing her about The Times bids, at a time when other potential buyers were showing an interest and Times journalists were hoping to organise a staff buyout.

Mrs Thatcher's advisers were acutely aware that the meeting had to be secret. A formal record was kept, and submitted to Mrs Thatcher the next day with a note from her press secretary, Bernard Ingham, vouching that "in line with your wishes, the attached has not gone outside No 10."

The record notes that "the main purpose of Mr Murdoch's visit was to brief the Prime Minister on his bid for Times Newspapers." Mr Murdoch told her that it was "a firm bid" for all the titles, not just the potentially profitable Sunday Times. In a hint of the dispute that tore apart the East End of London five years later, when Mr Murdoch sacked 5,000 print and ancillary staff to facilitate the move to Wapping, he also told the Prime Minister that he was gambling on his ability "to crack a particularly tough nut" in the form of the highly organised print unions.

Mr Murdoch also speculated on who his rival bidders might be. They included the tycoon Robert Maxwell, who later bought the Daily Mirror, and Sir James Goldsmith, father of the current Tory MP Zac Goldsmith. The note records that Mrs Thatcher "thanked Mr Murdoch for keeping her posted" but "did no more than wish him well in his bid."

Mr Murdoch wrote to her on 15 January, to inform her that "The Times business is proceeding well", adding: "See you in New York on 28 February." By then, the deal had been clinched.

Mrs Thatcher needed the media mogul's support because she was so desperately unpopular. Her subsequent success has obscured the extent to which her government was peering over the abyss in 1981. Chris Collins, editor of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website, describes the documents, which will be accessible at margaretthatcher.org as "the personal archive of a person under great stress."

They include the findings of a private poll by the Conservative Party which – for good reasons – they kept under wraps. Support for the Conservatives was below 20 per cent, with 68 per cent of those polled saying that they disapproved of what Mrs Thatcher was doing, while only 27 per cent approved.

This was creating huge strains within the government and the party. The newly released documents reveal the existence of a "Group of 25", who wrote a collective letter to the Chief Whip threatening to vote against any economic measures that might increase unemployment. One of its leaders was Stephen Dorrell, then the youngest Tory MP and now chairman of the Commons Health committee.

Mrs Thatcher relied heavily on the Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Howe, but even, they could not get on personally. That was noted by her advisor, Alan Walters, whose private diary is among the documents just released.

On 6 January 1981, he recorded: "Saw MT at 10.00. All affable and unflappable. What should she do about Geoffrey. Who else could she promote. No one."

The papers reinforce that impression that Margaret Thatcher kept her cool despite the immense pressure she was under, fortified no doubt by letters from admiring members of the public, such as one elderly survivor from the Titanic, living in St Ives, who hoped that Mrs Thatcher would be a survivor too.

The files also contain her handwritten note to a young girl who had written to Mrs Thatcher in distress about her parents' divorce. "My own children had a happy time," the Prime Minister claimed, "and I should like you to have the same. Perhaps you would let me know if you ever come to London and I could arrange for someone to take you to see Parliament."

There is also the text of a long interview she gave to a French journalist during which she reflected on what makes people happy.

"Sometimes I think things come too easily to people now and when that happens they get dissatisfied from having had far more than we had, which gave us great satisfaction," she mused. "A small treat, a small thing, a small gift, a small surprise, something like a half day out or going to tea, a small unexpected gift gave us enormous pleasure and these days they have so much money and it doesn't bring them pleasure."

No British politician did more than Mrs Thatcher to help the rich get richer, and yet all along she privately believes that money does not make anyone happy – except Rupert Murdoch, presumably.

Swiped: All the President's doodled men

When leaders of the world's seven richest nations met in Ottawa in July 1981, President Ronald Reagan was new to the job, and nervous. Margaret Thatcher, sitting alongside him, noticed how he doodled to calm himself. When the summit ended, the President left his doodles on his desk, so she picked them up as a memento and squirrelled them away in the flat above Downing Street after writing a note on them to remind herself where she got them. They are published here for the first time.

Lady's not for laughing (not at herself, at least)

Lovers of satire were flocking 30 years ago to watch a stage play entitled Anyone for Denis, which took the mickey out of Margaret Thatcher and her husband. This did not affect the Prime Minister personally until the embarrassing day when she was invited to a special showing, the proceeds from which were to go to charity.

Mrs Thatcher did not want to go, but was warned that a refusal would be interpreted as proof that she had no sense of humour, so she reluctantly agreed. How she felt about it can be seen from a newly released letter, dated 29 May 1981, from Michael Dobbs, then a political adviser. The word "no" can be seen written in Mrs Thatcher's handwriting five times across the letter.

She was particularly determined not to accept a suggestion that she and Angela Thorne, who played her on stage, should be photographed in identical outfits.

Later she learnt that she was not the only person who had been dreading the evening. When it was over, she received a handwritten letter from Angela Thorne.

"Meeting you before the show made me feel so much more relaxed, especially as you had indicated that we would be going through it 'together'. It must have been two hours of agony for you," she wrote. Mrs Thatcher replied saying: "I thought we both got through rather well! And attending the performance got far more publicity than the other things I do."

Douglas Caddy · March 18, 2012

FBI threaten to step in on Met's investigation into Rupert Murdoch's empire in case Scotland Yard 'drops the ball'

U.S. Bureau already has access to all the evidence handed over by News Corp to Scotland Yard

Daily Mail

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 07:15 EST, 18 March 2012 | UPDATED: 11:04 EST, 18 March 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116633/Phone-hacking-FBI-threaten-step-investigation-Rupert-Murdochs-empire.html

The FBI has vowed to step in if the Met Police 'drop the ball' in its investigation into illegal activity within the Murdoch empire, it has been revealed.

The U.S. Bureau already has access to all the evidence handed over by News Corporation to Scotland Yard and the company apparently has a legal team of 'big guns' ready to handle inquiries from detectives.

The original Met phone hacking investigation, launched in December 2005, resulted in the News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire being jailed for intercepting voicemail messages.

The original Met phone hacking investigation, launched in December 2005, failed to identify hundreds of victims.

But no action was taken against any other reporters and the inquiry failed to identify hundreds of victims.

One source close to the U.S. investigation told the Independent on Sunday: 'The FBI made it perfectly clear that if the British police drop the ball on this they will pick it up and run with it.'

As well as evidence from News Corp, the FBI is also gathering evidence from the Leveson Inquiry and other parliamentary select committees.

It is thought that the Murdoch empire fears a U.S. investigation due to the potential for longer jail terms and more severe financial penalties, the newspaper said.

It is thought that the Murdoch empire, headed by Rupert Murdoch, pictured, fears a U.S. investigation

This is believed to be why it has increased its efforts to help police over the past few months - including handing over thousands of potentially incriminating emails.

The FBI has reportedly found no evidence of phone hacking within News Corp in the U.S., Murdoch's holding company based in New York.

Earlier this week Rebekah Brooks and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie were arrested in dawn raids by police investigating allegations of a cover-up in the phone hacking inquiry.

The former News International chief executive and her husband were held on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

They were among six people detained by detectives from Operation Weeting, the inquiry into illegal hacking of voicemail messages.

Mrs Brooks, the former editor of The Sun and the News of the World, has been on bail since last summer when she was arrested on suspicion of phone-hacking and corruption.

The number of people arrested in Operation Weeting, which has been running since last January when police reopened investigations, stands at 21

That arrest in July was ‘by appointment’ but yesterday the couple were woken by a sharp, unexpected, knock on the front door of their Cotswolds mansion.

The number of people arrested in Operation Weeting, which has been running since last January when police reopened investigations, stands at 21.

Two other linked investigations – Operation Elveden into corrupt payments to police and Operation Tuleta into computer hacking – have resulted in 26 arrests.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116633/Phone-hacking-FBI-threaten-step-investigation-Rupert-Murdochs-empire.html#ixzz1pV0CNzuE

Douglas Caddy · March 19, 2012

News of the World 'jeopardised Ipswich murder inquiry'

Leveson inquiry told paper hired former special forces soldiers to follow police surveillance team hunting for serial killer

By Lisa O'Carroll

guardian.co.uk,

Monday 19 March 2012 09.47 EDT

The News of the World "jeopardised" the hunt for the Ipswich serial killer in 2006 after it hired former special forces soldiers to follow a police surveillance team tracking suspects, the Leveson inquiry has heard.

Dave Harrison, a retired officer with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), was part of a surveillance team set up to keep tabs on suspects in the high-profile murder hunt.

Harrison told the Leveson inquiry on Monday that he was personally followed by the Sunday tabloid's team, which appeared to have professional knowledge of surveillance techniques.

"I believe that by its actions, News of the World jeopardised the murder inquiry," he said.

"If our surveillance had been weakened by having to try and avoid other surveillance teams looking for us, if we had lost the subject, he may have gone and committed further murders because we were dealing with something else."

In December 2006, Suffolk police asked Soca to provide surveillance officers to follow suspects in the then-unsolved murders of five women working as prostitutes in Ipswich, the hearing was told.

Harrison said he and his colleagues were told at a briefing that the News of the World had employed its own surveillance team to identify who they were, where they were based and who the suspects were.

Asked how the paper learned that Soca officers were being sent to Ipswich, he said: "My opinion is it would have come from someone close to the investigation team, either the Suffolk inquiry or Soca."

He said that, on at least two occasions, a vehicle parked up on a roundabout on the outskirts of the town attempted to follow the Soca surveillance team.

"We identified them because they were sat in the position that we would sit in if we were doing the same job," he added.

"We were told that they were probably ex-special forces soldiers who would have a good knowledge of surveillance techniques."

In his written witness statement submitted to the Leveson inquiry, Harrison said the paper jeopardised the inquiry in two ways.

"Firstly, many murderers revisit the scene of the crime. If that act is evidenced by a covert surveillance team, its value to the prosecution is extremely important. In this case, if the suspect had decided to revisit the scene, to dispose of additional evidence, or to move a body that had not yet been found and he realised he was being followed, he may have cancelled or postponed his trip.

"He would not care whether he was being followed by a 'legitimate' surveillance team or one employed by a newspaper. The evidence would be lost and the prosecution case weakened."

Harrison said the paper could also have compromised the police efforts to find the killer because it would have had to deal with a "private surveillance team getting in the way".

The Sunday Mirror used counter-surveillance techniques while driving one suspect in the Ipswich murders to a hotel for an interview, Harrison also told the press standards inquiry on Monday.

He said that during another briefing, he was advised that the Sunday Mirror surveillance team had picked up the first suspect for an interview.

"The surveillance team I was part of was not on duty at the time that the first suspect was interviewed by the Sunday Mirror. Colleagues on the surveillance team that was on duty advised us that they had watched him being picked up and driven round by a team that carried out anti-surveillance manoeuvres before dripping him off at an hotel to be interviewed," Harrison said in his written witness statement.

Steve Wright was handed a life sentence in February 2008 after being convicted of killing all five women.

Douglas Caddy · March 19, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9152722/Leveson-inquiry-News-of-the-World-hired-special-forces-to-track-police.html

John Dolva · March 20, 2012

here's an older article

Amid the Murdoch scandal, there is the acrid smell of business as usual

21 July 2011

In Scoop, Evelyn Waugh’s brilliant satire on the press, there is the moment when Lord Copper, owner of the Daily Beast, meets his new special war correspondent, William Boot, in truth an authority on wild flowers and birdsong. A confused Boot is brought to his lordship’s presence by Mr. Salter, The Beast’s foreign editor.

“Is Mr. Boot all set for his trip?”

“Up to a point, Lord Copper.”

Copper briefed Boot as follows: “A few sharp victories, some conspicuous acts of personal bravery on the Patriot side and a colourful entry into the capital. That is The Beast policy for the war... We shall expect the first victory about the middle of July.”

Rupert Murdoch is a 21st century Lord Copper. The amusing gentility is missing; the absurdity of his power is the same. The Daily Beast wanted victories; it got them. The Sun wanted dead Argies; Gotcha! Of the bloodbath in Iraq, Murdoch said, “There is going to be collateral damage. And if you really want to be brutal about it, better we get it done now...”. The Times, the Sunday Times, Fox got it done.

Long before it was possible to hack phones, Murdoch was waging a war on journalism, truth, humanity, and succeeded because he knew how to exploit a system that welcomed his rapacious devotion to the “free market”. Murdoch may be more extreme in his methods, but he is no different in kind from many of those now lining up to condemn him who are his beneficiaries, mimics, collaborators, apologists.

As former prime minister Gordon Brown turns on his former master, accusing him of running a “criminal-media nexus”, watch the palpable discomfort in the new, cosy parliamentary-media consensus. “We must not be backward-looking,” said one Labour MP. Those parliamentarians caught last year with both hands in the Westminster till, who did nothing to stop the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and stood and cheered the war criminal responsible, are now “united” behind the “calm” figure of opposition leader Ed Miliband. There is an acrid smell of business as usual.

Certainly, there is no “revolution”, as reported in the Guardian, which compared the “fall” of Murdoch with that of the tyrant Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania in 1989. The overexcitement is understandable; Nick Davies’ scoop is a great one. The truth is, Britain’s system of elite monopoly control of the media rests not on Murdoch’s News International alone, but on the Mail and the Guardian and the BBC, perhaps the most influential of all. All share a corporate monoculture that sets the agenda of the “news”, defines acceptable politics as maintaining the fiction of distinctive parties, normalises unpopular wars and guards the limits of “free speech”. This will only be strengthened by the allusion that a “bad apple” has been “rooted out”.

When the Financial Times complained last September that the BSkyB takeover would give Murdoch a media dominance in Britain, the media commentator, Roy Greenslade, came to his rescue. “Surely,” he wrote, “Britain’s leading business newspaper should be applauding an entrepreneur who has achieved so much from uncompromising beginnings?”. Murdoch’s political control was a myth spread by “naïve commentators”. Noting his own “idealism” about journalism, he made no mention of his history on the Sun and later as Robert Maxwell’s Daily Mirror editor responsible for the shameful smear that the miners’ leader Arthur Scargill was corrupt. (To his credit, he apologised in 2002). Greenslade is now a professor of journalism at City University, London. In his Guardian blog of 17 July, he caught the breeze and proposed that Murdoch explain “the climate you created”.

How many of the political and media chorus now calling for Murdoch’s head remained silent over the years as his papers repeatedly attacked the most vulnerable in society? Impoverished single mothers have been a favourite target of tax-avoiding News International. Who in the so-called media village demanded the sacking of Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie following his attacks on the dead and dying of the Hillsborough football stadium tragedy? This was an episode as debased as the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone, yet MacKenzie has been frequently feted on the BBC and in the liberal press as the “witty” tabloid genius who “understands the ordinary punter”. Such vicarious middle-class flirtation with Wapping-life is matched by admiration for the successful Murdoch “marketing model”.

In Andrew Neil’s 470-page book, Full Disclosure, the former editor of Murdoch’s Sunday Times devotes fewer than 30 words to the scurrilous and destructive smear campaign he and his Wapping colleagues waged against the broadcasters who made the 1988 Thames television current affairs programme, Death on the Rock. This landmark, fully vindicated investigation lifted a veil on the British secret state and revealed its ruthlessness under Margaret Thatcher, a Murdoch confidante. Thereafter, Thames Television was doomed. Yet, Andrew Neil has his own BBC programme and his views are sought after across the liberal media.

On 13 July, the Guardian editorialised about “the kowtowing of the political class to the Murdochs”. This is all too true. Kowtowing is an ancient ritual, often performed by those whose pacts with power are not immediately obvious but no less sulphuric. Tony Blair, soaked in the blood of an entire human society, was once regarded almost mystically at the liberal Guardian and Observer as the prime minister who, wrote Hugo Young, “wants to create a world none of us have known [where] the mind might range in search of a better Britain...”. He was in perfect harmony with the chorus over at Murdoch’s Wapping. “Mr. Blair,” said the Sun, “has vision, he has purpose and he speaks our language on morality and family life.” Plus ce change.

http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/amid-the-murdoch-scandal-there-is-the-acrid-smell-of-business-as-usual

Douglas Caddy · March 20, 2012

here's an older article

Amid the Murdoch scandal, there is the acrid smell of business as usual

21 July 2011

In Scoop, Evelyn Waugh’s brilliant satire on the press, there is the moment when Lord Copper, owner of the Daily Beast, meets his new special war correspondent, William Boot, in truth an authority on wild flowers and birdsong. A confused Boot is brought to his lordship’s presence by Mr. Salter, The Beast’s foreign editor.

“Is Mr. Boot all set for his trip?”

“Up to a point, Lord Copper.”

Copper briefed Boot as follows: “A few sharp victories, some conspicuous acts of personal bravery on the Patriot side and a colourful entry into the capital. That is The Beast policy for the war... We shall expect the first victory about the middle of July.”

Rupert Murdoch is a 21st century Lord Copper. The amusing gentility is missing; the absurdity of his power is the same. The Daily Beast wanted victories; it got them. The Sun wanted dead Argies; Gotcha! Of the bloodbath in Iraq, Murdoch said, “There is going to be collateral damage. And if you really want to be brutal about it, better we get it done now...”. The Times, the Sunday Times, Fox got it done.

Long before it was possible to hack phones, Murdoch was waging a war on journalism, truth, humanity, and succeeded because he knew how to exploit a system that welcomed his rapacious devotion to the “free market”. Murdoch may be more extreme in his methods, but he is no different in kind from many of those now lining up to condemn him who are his beneficiaries, mimics, collaborators, apologists.

As former prime minister Gordon Brown turns on his former master, accusing him of running a “criminal-media nexus”, watch the palpable discomfort in the new, cosy parliamentary-media consensus. “We must not be backward-looking,” said one Labour MP. Those parliamentarians caught last year with both hands in the Westminster till, who did nothing to stop the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and stood and cheered the war criminal responsible, are now “united” behind the “calm” figure of opposition leader Ed Miliband. There is an acrid smell of business as usual.

Certainly, there is no “revolution”, as reported in the Guardian, which compared the “fall” of Murdoch with that of the tyrant Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania in 1989. The overexcitement is understandable; Nick Davies’ scoop is a great one. The truth is, Britain’s system of elite monopoly control of the media rests not on Murdoch’s News International alone, but on the Mail and the Guardian and the BBC, perhaps the most influential of all. All share a corporate monoculture that sets the agenda of the “news”, defines acceptable politics as maintaining the fiction of distinctive parties, normalises unpopular wars and guards the limits of “free speech”. This will only be strengthened by the allusion that a “bad apple” has been “rooted out”.

When the Financial Times complained last September that the BSkyB takeover would give Murdoch a media dominance in Britain, the media commentator, Roy Greenslade, came to his rescue. “Surely,” he wrote, “Britain’s leading business newspaper should be applauding an entrepreneur who has achieved so much from uncompromising beginnings?”. Murdoch’s political control was a myth spread by “naïve commentators”. Noting his own “idealism” about journalism, he made no mention of his history on the Sun and later as Robert Maxwell’s Daily Mirror editor responsible for the shameful smear that the miners’ leader Arthur Scargill was corrupt. (To his credit, he apologised in 2002). Greenslade is now a professor of journalism at City University, London. In his Guardian blog of 17 July, he caught the breeze and proposed that Murdoch explain “the climate you created”.

How many of the political and media chorus now calling for Murdoch’s head remained silent over the years as his papers repeatedly attacked the most vulnerable in society? Impoverished single mothers have been a favourite target of tax-avoiding News International. Who in the so-called media village demanded the sacking of Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie following his attacks on the dead and dying of the Hillsborough football stadium tragedy? This was an episode as debased as the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone, yet MacKenzie has been frequently feted on the BBC and in the liberal press as the “witty” tabloid genius who “understands the ordinary punter”. Such vicarious middle-class flirtation with Wapping-life is matched by admiration for the successful Murdoch “marketing model”.

In Andrew Neil’s 470-page book, Full Disclosure, the former editor of Murdoch’s Sunday Times devotes fewer than 30 words to the scurrilous and destructive smear campaign he and his Wapping colleagues waged against the broadcasters who made the 1988 Thames television current affairs programme, Death on the Rock. This landmark, fully vindicated investigation lifted a veil on the British secret state and revealed its ruthlessness under Margaret Thatcher, a Murdoch confidante. Thereafter, Thames Television was doomed. Yet, Andrew Neil has his own BBC programme and his views are sought after across the liberal media.

On 13 July, the Guardian editorialised about “the kowtowing of the political class to the Murdochs”. This is all too true. Kowtowing is an ancient ritual, often performed by those whose pacts with power are not immediately obvious but no less sulphuric. Tony Blair, soaked in the blood of an entire human society, was once regarded almost mystically at the liberal Guardian and Observer as the prime minister who, wrote Hugo Young, “wants to create a world none of us have known [where] the mind might range in search of a better Britain...”. He was in perfect harmony with the chorus over at Murdoch’s Wapping. “Mr. Blair,” said the Sun, “has vision, he has purpose and he speaks our language on morality and family life.” Plus ce change.

http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/amid-the-murdoch-scandal-there-is-the-acrid-smell-of-business-as-usual

John Pilger and Robert Fisk are a rarity among journalists in that they always tell it exactly as it is. The world needs more like them.

Steve Knight · March 21, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/mar/20/sun-sunday-sales-slump-rivals-regroup?newsfeed=true

"News of the World 2" sales down 300,000. Rivals more or less shrug off the losses from its launch 4 weeks ago.

Steve Knight · March 21, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/mar/21/rebekah-brooks-questioned-by-police?newsfeed=true

Rebekah Brooks questioned by police

The former News International chief executive attended Milton Keynes police station to answer police bail dating back to her arrest in July of last year

Dan Sabbagh

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 March 2012 18.00 GMT

Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief executive, has been questioned at Milton Keynes police station by police officers investigating alleged phone hacking at the News of the World and alleged corrupt payments made to public officials.

Rupert Murdoch's long time confidante was answering police bail dating back to her arrest in July of last year, when she was held on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption allegations by officers from the Metropolitan police's Operation Weeting and Operation Elveden inquiries respectively.

Scotland Yard confirmed that a 43-year-old woman answered police bail on Wednesday in relation to ongoing inquiries, but would not otherwise offer any details or update. The Milton Keynes Citizen reported that she had arrived in a Black BMW around 10am.

Shortly after 5pm, the Met said that the 43-year-old, had left the police station, and had been rebailed to attend a London police station on a date in May, pending further inquiries.

Earlier in March, Brooks was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in a dawn raid at her home, which also saw her husband Charlie arrested. She was held for more than 12 hours on that occasion and bailed as regards that matter until April.

Douglas Caddy · March 23, 2012

Phone hacking: David Beckham's father among those suing News International

Ted Beckham joins host of public figures making claims over alleged actions by News of the World and Glenn Mulcaire

By Jason Deans

guardian.co.uk,

Thursday 22 March 2012 13.24 EDT

David Beckham's father is among the individuals suing News International over alleged phone hacking by the News of the World.

Ted Beckham has joined a string of public figures suing News Group Newspaper, the News International subsidiary that published the News of the World, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who used to work for the paper.

He has issued a claim form in his full name of David Edward Alan Beckham at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

News International has settled 55 out of 60 initial civil claims for invasion of privacy from phone-hacking victims including Charlotte Church, Jude Law, Sienna Miller, former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell and the son of the serial killer Harold Shipman.

However, the publisher could face up to 200 more civil actions, with figures including Cherie Blair, the wife of the former Labour prime minister, singer James Blunt, Ukip leader Nigel Farage, and Alex Best, the wife of the ex-Manchester United footballer George Best, having already filed.

Others who have filed claims include Colin Stagg, the man wrongly accused of murdering Rachel Nickell, TV personalities Jamie Theakston and Jeff Brazier, former boxer Chris Eubank and footballers Peter Crouch, Kieron Dyer and Jermaine Jenas.

The publisher has also received almost 50 inquiries regarding the compensation scheme it set up last year for victims of phone-hacking.

Douglas Caddy · March 24, 2012

James Murdoch severs all ties with UK newspapers

LONDON | Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:49am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - James Murdoch has severed all ties with News Corp's British newspaper business, which is at the centre of multiple investigations over phone and computer hacking and bribery, according to regulatory filings.

Murdoch is under scrutiny for his role in failing to uncover systematic illegal interception of phone calls at the News of the World newspaper, which was shut down last July, and stepped down as chairman of News Corp's UK publishing arm last month.

One document filed this week shows that Murdoch has resigned from the board of Times Newspaper Holdings, which was set up to guarantee the independence of the Times of London and the Sunday Times when News Corp acquired the titles in 1981.

Earlier documents show that Murdoch stepped down from the boards of holding companies News Corp Investments and News International Publishers Ltd shortly after resigning as chairman of News International, News Corp's UK publishing arm.

News Corp declined on Saturday to comment on the resignations.

Murdoch was recently appointed deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and is now based in New York, where he is focusing on the media conglomerate's pay-TV businesses.

This year, he gave up his directorships of GlaxoSmithKline and Sotheby's, but he remains chairman of British satellite broadcaster BSkyB, of which he was formerly chief executive and in which News Corp owns 39 percent.

Douglas Caddy · March 25, 2012

BBC boss hits back at Murdochs

The woman tipped to become the next director general of the BBC has hit back at past attacks on the corporation by Rupert and James Murdoch, saying that their comments are “a bit rich” in the light of the scandal engulfing News International.

The Telegraph

By James Hall, Consumer Affairs Editor

7:00PM BST 25 Mar 2012

Caroline Thomson, who is the BBC’s chief operating officer and one of the front-runners to replace Mark Thompson as director general, said that “nothing is more important” than the BBC’s independence.

However she said that attacks on the BBC by owners of rival media companies, such as the Murdochs, had started to damage morale at the corporation. She suggested that the Murdochs’ comments questioning the BBC’s values and independence look particularly hollow in the light of the hacking scandal, which has seen the News of the World close and led to arrests at The Sun.

Speaking to The Cumberland News, a website based near her home in Cumbria, Ms Thomson said: “Nothing is more important than the BBC’s independence. You absolutely can’t let politicians of any hue tell you what to do.

“Two or three years ago the level of negativity began to sap morale a bit. There was a lot of criticism from politicians and a lot of the press that are owned by people who are our competitors.

“Rupert Murdoch made a speech in which he lambasted Britain for having the BBC. James Murdoch said ‘the only guarantor of independence is profit’.

James Murdoch made the comments about the BBC at the 2009 MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. In his speech he accused the BBC of being overly-dominant and “state sponsored”.

Ms Thomson, who has an annual pay package totalling £350,000, is one of the BBC’ most powerful executives. As well as running great swathes of the corporation she has been deputising for the director general since the retirement of Mark Byford last March.

In what is likely to be seen as a pitch for the top job, Ms Thomson said that becoming director general would be “enormously exciting”.

Mr Thompson confirmed last week that he would be stepping down from the role this autumn.

Asked whether she would like to become the BBC’s first female director general, Ms Thomson said: “It’s an enormous job. Mark Thompson once described it as like skateboarding downstairs holding a Ming vase.

“If you’ve been as close to it as I have, you find the prospect that you might do it a bit awesome. You stop and think, my goodness, this would be big. On the other hand it would be enormously exciting and very challenging. So, we shall see.”

Ms Thomson, 57, said that the BBC is right to freeze the licence fee.

“I don’t think we’ve a right to ask people for continual licence fee increases when they’re having their salaries cut and losing their jobs,” she said.

Ms Thomson joined the BBC as a journalism trainee in 1975 before leaving in the early 1980s to work for MP and SDP leader Roy Jenkins. She then joined Channel 4 before rejoining the BBC in 1996. She is married to Roger Liddle, Tony Blair’s former advisor.

As chief operating officer, Ms Thomson has responsibility for the BBC’s policy and strategy, and its marketing and communications. She also overseas its legal department, its editorial policy and its business operations.

She is also the director accountable for big projects such as digital switchover, the recent move to Salford and the redevelopment of the BBC’s two main sites in London.

Douglas Caddy · March 26, 2012

Questions for News Corp over rival's collapse

Software company NDS allegedly cracked smart card codes of ONdigital, according to evidence to be broadcast on Panorama

By David Leigh

guardian.co.uk,

Monday 26 March 2012 14.59 EDT

Part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire employed computer hacking to undermine the business of its chief TV rival in Britain, according to evidence due to be broadcast by BBC1's Panorama programme on Monday .

The allegations stem from apparently incriminating emails the programme-makers have obtained, and on-screen descriptions for the first time from two of the people said to be involved, a German hacker and the operator of a pirate website secretly controlled by a Murdoch company.

The witnesses allege a software company NDS, owned by News Corp, cracked the smart card codes of rival company ONdigital. ONdigital, owned by the ITV companies Granada and Carlton, eventually went under amid a welter of counterfeiting by pirates, leaving the immensely lucrative pay-TV field clear for Sky.

The allegations, if proved, cast further doubt on whether News Corp meets the "fit and proper" test required to run a broadcaster in Britain. It emerged earlier this month that broadcasting regulator Ofcom has set up a unit called Project Apple to establish whether BSkyB, 39.1% owned by News Corp, meets the test.

Panorama's emails appear to state that ONdigital's secret codes were first cracked by NDS, and then subsequently publicised by the pirate website, called The House of Ill Compute – THOIC for short. According to the programme, the codes were passed to NDS's head of UK security, Ray Adams, a former police officer. NDS made smart cards for Sky. NDS was jointly funded by Sky, which says it never ran NDS.

Lee Gibling, operator of THOIC, says that behind the scenes, he was being paid up to £60,000 a year by Adams, and NDS handed over thousands more to supply him with computer equipment.

He says Adams sent him the ONdigital codes so that other pirates could use them to manufacture thousands of counterfeit smart cards, giving viewers illicit free access to ONdigital, then Sky's chief business rival.

Gibling says he and another NDS employee later destroyed much of the computer evidence with a sledgehammer. After that NDS continued to send him money, he says, until the end of 2008, when he was given a severance payment of £15,000 with a confidentiality clause attached. An expert hacker, Oliver Koermmerling, who cracked the codes in the first place, says on the programme that he, like Gibling, had been recruited on NDS's behalf by Adams.

The potentially seismic nature of these pay-TV allegations was underlined over the weekend, when News Corp's lawyers, Allen & Overy, sought to derail the programme in advance by sending round denials and legal threats to other media organisations. They said any forthcoming BBC allegations that NDS "has been involved in illegal activities designed to cause the collapse of a business rival" would be false and libellous, and demanded they not be repeated.

On the programme, former Labour minister Tom Watson, who has been prominent in pursuit of Murdoch over the separate News of the World phone-hacking scandals, predicts that Ofcom could not conceivably regard the Murdochs as "fit and proper" to take full control of Sky, if the allegations were correct.

James Murdoch, who is deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and chairman of BSkyB, was a non-executive director of NDS when ONdigital was hacked. There is no evidence, the BBC says, that he knew about the events alleged by Panorama.

Gibling told the programme: "There was a meeting that took place in a hotel and Mr Adams, myself and other NDS representatives were there … and it became very clear there was a hack going on."

He claimed: "They delivered the actual software to be able to do this, with prior instructions that it should go to the widest possible community … software [intended] to be able to activate ONdigital cards. So giving a full channel line-up without payment."

Gibling says that when fellow pirates found out in 2002 that he was being secretly funded by NDS, THOIC was hastily closed down and he was told by Adams's security unit to make himself scarce.

"We sledgehammered all the hard drives." He says he was told to go into hiding abroad.

Kommerling says he was recruited by Adams in 1996. "He looked at me and said 'Could you imagine working for us?'"

Kommerling was told the NDS marketing department were "looking into the competitors' products" and he cracked the codes for the system used by ONdigital, which came from the French broadcaster Canal Plus.

Later he recognised the codes cracked by his own NDS team, when they got out on to the internet. They appeared on a Canadian pirate site with an identical timestamp: "The timestamp was like a fingerprint," he says.

NDS published its own response to the programme's allegations before transmission, saying: "It is simply not true that NDS used the THOIC website to sabotage the commercial interests of ONdigital/ITV digital or indeed any rival."

NDS admits Gibling was in its pay, but says it was using THOIC as a legitimate undercover device. "NDS paid Lee Gibling for his expertise so information from THOIC could be used to trap and catch hackers and pirates," NDS said.

The company does not dispute the allegations that it got its own hands on ONdigital's secret codes, which was not itself illegal, and that the material was passed on to Adams, its security chief. But NDS says there is an innocent explanation "as part of the fight against pay-TV piracy".

According to NDS: "All companies in the conditional access industry … come to possess codes that could enable hackers to access services for free." This is for the purpose of "research and analysis". They claim that it was part of Adams' job to "liaise with other pay-TV providers" and therefore "it was right and proper for Mr Adams to have knowledge of … codes that could be used by hackers".

The company added: "NDS has never authorised or condoned the posting of any code belonging to any competitor on any website." Adams has denied he ever had the codes.

In 2002 Canal Plus, which supplied ONdigital with its smart card system, sued NDS in a US Court, alleging that NDS had hacked its codes. But no evidence about a link to ONdigital emerged: the case was dropped following a business deal under which Murdoch agreed to purchase some of Canal Plus's assets.

ONdigital briefly became ITV Digital before it went under.

John Simkin · March 27, 2012

I watched Panorama last night and the evidence presented was very convincing.

David Leigh, The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/mar/26/news-corp-ondigital-paytv-panorama