Phone hacking allegations are irresponsible, says Wade
News International says accusations are untrue and misleading the public
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Independent Minds
The News of the World yesterday accused The Guardian newspaper of being irresponsible and misleading in its reporting of phone hacking allegations.
Rebekah Wade, who is soon to start as chief executive at News International, the owner of the Sunday tabloid, accused The Guardian of substantially misleading the public and suggested that it had done so deliberately. In a statement issued last night after two days of silence she came out fighting and denounced a series of The Guardian's claims as untrue. She promised that executives from News International will, when they appear before a Parliamentary committee, refute allegations that hacking into the phones of celebrities, sporting figures and politicians was common.
A statement released last night by News International set out its position following claims that thousands of celebrities, sports figures and politicians had their phones hacked into by or on behalf of News of the World journalists. Clive Goodman, the paper's royal reporter, was jailed in 2007 for hacking into phones belonging to members of the royal household.
The Guardian claims that News International, part of Rupert Murdoch's publishing empire, had paid out £1m in damages and costs in the wake of the royal editor and Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective, being sent to jail for conspiring to intercept messages. Mulcaire also admitted intercepting messages of five other people, including Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, who was awarded £700,000 when he sued. Jo Armstrong, a legal adviser at the PFA, was named last night as one of two others who shared another £300,000.
"The only other evidence connecting News of the World reporters to information gained as a result of accessing a person's voicemail emerged in April 2008, during the course of the Gordon Taylor litigation," News International admitted last night. "Neither this information nor any story arising from it was ever published."
The news organisation denied any of its journalists apart from Goodman had been involved in hacking voicemails or that there was "systemic corporate illegality by News International to suppress evidence". The statement added: "It goes without saying that had the police uncovered such evidence, charges would have been brought against other News of the World personnel. Not only have there been no such charges, but the police have not considered it necessary to arrest or question any other member of News of the World staff."
In response, The Guardian welcomed the rival news organisation's first admission that the out of court settlement with Mr Taylor took place and called for documents relating to the case to be made public.
Ms Wade and other senior executives have disputed allegations that thousands of people had their phones hacked but suggestions that hacking was much more widespread than previously recognised despite investigations by police and a Parliamentary committee has prompted a flurry of calls to lawyers who were confident of many more payouts if the claims were found to be true.
In a letter to John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Ms Wade denounced The Guardian for using unnamed sources. "It [The Guardian] is rushing out high volumes of coverage and repeating allegations by such sources as unnamed Met officers implying that 'thousands' of individuals were the object of illegal phone hacking, an assertion that is roundly contradicted by the Met Assistant Commissioner's statement," she wrote.
There was a specific denial that voicemails to John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, or the football managers Sir Alex Ferguson and Alan Shearer had been intercepted.
The Liberal Democrats yesterday appealed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission to look into whether Scotland Yard detectives failed to investigate the allegations more thoroughly.
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Comments
The Guardian alleges that it was not News International but its tabloid subsidiary News Group Newspapers which paid the hush money. This would appear to be of some importance given the official NI rebuttal printed above: "[News International] denied any of its journalists apart from Goodman had been involved in hacking voicemails or that there was "systemic corporate illegality by News International to suppress evidence"."
Of course there are even more surprising ways of recording things, ........ after the fact, and the dirty digger knows this all too well though he still doesn't seem to have grasped the reality of it, he never was very bright. It is very dangerous to out and out lie when it is on the cards even a dumbo will be able to listen in eventually to conversations Woopert had back then, and now, with Wade and all the others. A simple denial and playing the company name game isn't going to save Woopert, we all know who runs ALL of these companies and unfortunately for Woopert he is on the record, even the public record, saying just that. Whoops!
Technology is a two edged sword and it strikes at those who use it as well as those it is used against as Woopert and Wade now know. Whoops!
What will be the outcome? Woopert will be allowed to survive and his organs will steer clear of Brown bashing and return to Cameron bashing. A simple and satisfactory solution for everyone except Cameron. Wade will be the fattened calf slaughtered for the return of the prodigal son Brown, someone has to fall on that sword after all and it can't be dear old Woopert or any of his can it Rebekahhh!?
Teeth whitening
Brown, Prescott et al are the lowest life in the political pond who through trickery, mistruths and deceit show their arrogance and complete disdain for us the British people. They deserve nothing more than our utter contempt along with the editor of The Guardian or shall we rename it The Guardianista!
Maybe (just maybe!) somethings are not always Labours/Browns fault (like not getting the Aussies out, the pratt who cut me up before, global warming, the recession(!))
Maybe (just maybe!) if you stopped and forgot your natural bias/cynicism (for a second!!) then you might actually see that sometimes, nuliebor(!?) are not behind every misfortune, bad news that falls us.
Remember this website is for those with 'Independent Minds', the trick is to try and attain it. You never know you might actually stop that ulcer/bile/heart attack which New Labour, no dont caused.........
Are we including HSBC, Lloyds bank and the car industry to name but a few? Aside from being a sad git (I need to be to reply to your nonsense) It's my money going into these nuliebour party - saving their faces schemes.
Are you on benefits? That would explain it.
I wonder whether the Guardian would have reopened this story if Coulson had not been the, (rather successful), Conservative PR guru. It looks horribly like another bungled Labour spin doctor's / sympathiser's attempt to avenge Labour for the McBride /Draper affair. However, the two are not remotely equivalent. The one was, apparently, designed to spread malicious falsehoods about political opponents. The latter, if it happened, was designed to uncover the truth - even if that "truth" was little more than tittle tattle. There was no attempt to subvert the course of politics.
The obviously synthetic outrage shown in parliament by both Labour and Lib Dem MPs has ensured that I will not vote for either of them. Why not trust Scotland Yard? They have already investigated and got their man. They now say there is far too little evidence to pursue anyone else. Where there was any evidence at all that someone might have been the victim of hacking, then that person has been informed.
Unlike Labour ministers, Coulson took responsibility for the doings of an underling and resigned - even though he claimed to be ignorant of what was being done. Such a person, who is apparently someone of integrity, deserves a second chance - and to pillory him merely because he works for the Conservatives is simply disgusting
I agree with those who rightly point out the sort of labour force needed to hack into thousands of mobile phones as suggested by the Guardian.
For Wade to wrap herself in the winding sheet of virtue is one of the most laughable things I have ever read. It really does take some cheek on her part to make these claims. Of course Wade is terrified that the select committee will suddenly find its mettle and demand the appearance of one Les Hinton and Andy Coulson where they will be forced to answer truthfully what they knew - either that or tell complete whoppers which in the fullness of time will be exposed when a journo breaks ranks and spills the beans.
I hope this does happen but very much doubt it will. The chairman is a Tory and Cameron is surely doing all he can to save his man Coulson from disgrace.