Is this Armageddon for Murdoch and NewsCorp?

Badboy wrote:IT WAS BEING SAID IN GUARDIAN TODAY THAT IT OR A SIMILIAR TWITTER ACCOUNT IS A HOAX.

I don"t know Badboy, but Iris checked it out , she will have a better idea.

IT WAS WENDI MURDOCH TWITTER ACCOUNT THAT WAS A HOAX.

2 January 2012
Last updated at 17:35











News Corp's Rupert Murdoch joins Twitter social network











Rupert Murdoch joined Twitter at the end of a year in which he closed the tabloid News of The World



Continue reading the main story

Twitter has added media mogul Rupert Murdoch to its ranks.

Within three days his @rupertmurdoch account attracted over 45,000 followers.

But reaction to the 80-year-old chairman and chief executive of News Corporation's Twitter presence has been mixed.

In a tweet Rupert Murdoch noted: "I'm getting killed for fooling around here and friends frightened what I may really say."

Among those sending jovial reminders of current controversies, former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott tweeted, "Welcome to Twitter...@rupertmurdoch. I've left you a Happy New Year message on my voicemail!"

The comment referred to the phone-hacking scandal which had resulted in the closure of the News of The World.

Mr Murdoch also threatened to create more problems for
himself after tweeting from his tablet computer about the UK's bank
holiday: "Maybe Brits have too many holidays for [a] broke country!"

He deleted the posting shortly afterwards but was too late to
prevent hundreds of other users retweeting the comment. Several of whom
noted that Mr Murdoch was on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy
and added the hashtag #murdochdeletedtweets.

Keeping positive
Mr Murdoch has received advice on how to tweet, from a new unverified account written under the name of Wendi Deng, his wife.

It said:
"Trying to explain to @rupertmurdoch that twitter is about following
not just being followed. sharing and chatting and tweeting."

However, Mr Murdoch initially chose to follow only four people, including Amstrad founder Lord Sugar who tweeted:
"I wonder if my old pal @rupertmurdoch is eying up Twitter to buy or
invest in it. He missed out on Facebook, and My Space.. not a great
deal."




Rupert Murdoch has already got to grips with Twitter's delete function


Mr Murdoch also follows Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus, Twitter's
executive chairman Jack Dorsey, and a spoof account purporting to be
from Google's chief executive Larry Page.

Mr Murdoch's tweets have already covered a diverse range of
topics. One described the Steve Jobs biography as "interesting but
unfair," while another praised the movie, We Bought a Zoo, which is
distributed by News Corp's 20th Century Fox.

He touches on politics, praising New York mayor Mike
Bloomberg and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who was named Briton
of the Year by Mr Murdoch's Times newspaper.

After a difficult 2011 Mr Murdoch also chose to take a
positive view of the year ahead, wishing his followers: "Happy 2012. May
it be better than all experts predict. Has to be!"

Absolutely terrified
Experts in corporate use of social media highlight the challenges Mr Murdoch will face.

"Be engaging, be conversational, be humble and learn," said
Lee Bryant, the European managing director of social business
consultancy Dachis.

Last year Mr Murdoch described his grilling by MPs as "the most humble day of my life."

Mr Bryant said that it was going to be hard for Mr Murdoch to
respond to all the tweets addressed to him, but said that he should
reply to a few.

However, he thought that having the man at the top talking
directly to the public would leave his media advisors "absolutely
terrified".

Others thought that the foray into microblogging was a mistake.

"I would have advised him to think very carefully before
opening up this can of worms," said Drew Benvie, UK managing director of
public relations firm Hotwire.

In his view it would be a big challenge for a new tweeter, who was "not quite ready to take the stabilisers off".

PM May Be Quizzed On Links To Murdoch Empire

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David Cameron may face questions about his relationship
with Rupert Murdoch and other top media executives


2:30am UK, Tuesday January 10, 2012


David Cameron will attend the Leveson Inquiry into press standards if
summoned to give evidence, Downing Street has said, as more national newspaper
editors prepare to face questioning.


The official probe, which was ordered by the Prime Minister after revelations about illegal phone
hacking at the News Of The World (NOTW), is this week turning its attention to
newspaper bosses for the first time.

:: Read more on the Leveson Inquiry

Responding to reports that Lord Justice Leveson is "99.9%" certain to call Mr
Cameron for questioning under oath about his dealings with senior media
executives and press baron Rupert Murdoch, a Number 10 spokeswoman said: "A
request has not yet been received. If asked, the Prime Minister would of course
attend."

Senior politicians from both the Conservative and Labour parties have been
criticised in the past for courting the Murdoch press.


Ex-editor Andy Coulson quit as Downing Street director of
communications



Last year Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Mr
Murdoch's News International and a former editor of The Sun and NOTW, defended
her relationship with Mr Cameron - who she described as a neighbour and a friend
- as "wholly appropriate".

Former PM Gordon Brown and Labour's current leader
Ed Miliband are expected to appear when the inquiry moves
on to focus on relations between the media and politicians, The Times said.

A Leveson Inquiry source told the newspaper the final decision on which
politicians to invite had not yet been made.

The newspaper suggests Mr Cameron is likely to be called after the local
elections in May.

Questioning would probably focus on his decision to employ Andy Coulson, the
former editor of the defunct NOTW, who quit as Downing Street's director of
communications amid continued pressure about phone hacking.

Today the Daily Telegraph's Tony Gallagher, Lionel Barber of the Financial
Times and the Independent's Chris Blackhurst are expected to be asked about
their papers' approaches to ethics, fact-checking and complaints.

Further testimony will come from former Daily Telegraph editor Will Lewis,
who joined News International in September 2010, and Telegraph Media Group chief
executive Murdoch MacLennan.

The inquiry heard on Monday from executives at The Sun, whose editor Dominic
Mohan said the paper could be a "powerful force for good" through its campaigns,
support for charities and ability to explain complicated stories in a clear
way.

And Mr Mohan's most famous predecessor, Kelvin MacKenzie,
defended his "bullish" approach to running the paper between 1981 and 1994,
telling the inquiry he did not spend much time worrying about journalistic
ethics.

News Corp. Execs Tumble as Scandal Widens





Published: July 15, 2011 @ 12:14 pm






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By Lucas Shaw

Two top senior executives at News Corp. resigned on Friday. Les
Hinton, CEO of Dow Jones & Co., resigned in a letter to News Corp.
Chairman Rupert Murdoch just hours after Rebekah Brooks, the embattled
chief of News International, stepped down.

Hinton, who also serves as publisher of the Wall Street Journal and
is a 52-year veteran of the company, sent out a memo to his staff
calling it a "deeply, deeply sad day."



Hinton has come under great scrutiny of late because of his possible
complicity in the phone hacking scandal enveloping News Corp. Hinton
was chairman of News International, News Corp.'s British publishing arm
and the division that oversaw the now-shuttered tabloid News of the
World, from 1997 to 2005 -- while much of the hacking and alleged
bribery took place.

His resignation came the same day as that of Rebekah Brooks, his
successor at News International and herself a former World editor.

In his resignation letter to Murdoch, Hinton said he was not aware
of wrongdoing at News of the World beyond what was discovered in an
investigation under his purview in 2007. Hinton testified in front of
the English

Parliament's Culture Media and Sports Select Committee that only one
man -- former royals editor Clive Goodman -- had engaged in hacking.

Subsequent revelations have revealed those comments to be false and
have raised suspicion that editors and potentially even News Corp.
executives were aware of the nefarious activities.

"That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant, and
in the circumstances I feel it is proper for me to resign from News
Corp, and apologize to those hurt by the actions of the News of the
World."

The
scandal that has raged for nearly two weeks continues to scale the News
Corp. hierarchy, with the latest resignations uncomfortably close to
the CEO suite. Both Brooks and Hinton are close friends and advisers of
the elder Murdoch.

The company issued a statement by Murdoch that accompanied the news:

"Les and I have been on a remarkable journey together for more than
52 years. That this passage has come to an unexpected end,
professionally, not personally, is a matter of much sadness to me,”
commented Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation.

“On this difficult day we should appreciate that his extraordinary
work has provided a platform for the future success of Dow Jones. And
his great contribution to News Corporation over more than five decades
has enhanced innumerable lives, whether those of employees hired by him
or of readers better informed because of him. News Corporation is not
Rupert Murdoch. It is the collective creativity and effort of many
thousands of people around the world, and few individuals have given
more to this Company than Les Hinton."

Dow Jones President Todd Larsen will replace Hinton and report to news Corp.

This was a ticker tape announcement ." Newscorp for the first time releases the Tabloid story of a child killer".........I assume it must be Milly Dowler.???.

This is rich, on a ticker-tape just now Murdoch is accusing Google of obtaining information illegally.

If any of you tweeters can find out more, do post it here.

The latest on tickertape taken from xclamations report.

Times editor Harding mentions Iraq coverage. Yet ALL Murdoch's 175 titles came out in favour of invasion. Is t ... yesterday · reply · retweet · favorite

Newscorp....note not Murdoch, is admitting hacking Ashley Cole"s phone.

This is it folks......Newscorp has settled 36 Lawsuits including the hacking of Jude Law, Charlotte Church and othe celebs. Settlements ranged from
£5 or six thousand to £100,000. News International has accepted that some Managers knew and there will be a Trial in the next couple of months.

Panda wrote:This is it folks......Newscorp has settled 36 Lawsuits including the hacking of Jude Law, Charlotte Church and othe celebs. Settlements ranged from
£5 or six thousand to £100,000. News International has accepted that some Managers knew and there will be a Trial in the next couple of months.

Thanks Panda.

Murdoch Company Settles With 36 Hacking Victims

By SARAH LYALL, ALAN COWELL and RAVI SOMAIYA

Published: January 19, 2012

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LONDON — The actor Jude Law, the soccer star Ashley Cole, and Lord Prescott, a former British deputy prime minister, were named Thursday on a list of 36 victims of phone hacking who have reached settlements totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Enlarge This Image

Andrew Cowie/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The actor Jude Law was among a list of 36 victims of alleged hacking who was said to have reached a settlement with News Corp.


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Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.



A statement by lawyers representing hacking victims said that Mr. Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, which published the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, had agreed to pay substantial damages on the basis “that senior employees and directors” of the company “knew about the wrongdoing and sought to conceal it by deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence.”
While not explicitly admitting or denying those claims, the company approved the wording of the statement and agreed to set compensation on the basis that it was true. In doing so, it acknowledged, lawyers said, that it had deliberately covered up both the existence and the pervasiveness of the News of the World’s phone hacking operation; lied about it to the police and Parliament; and destroyed evidence in the case.
Details about some of the settlements were disclosed at a High Court hearing on Thursday, in which victims’ statements were read aloud and a lawyer for News Group repeatedly apologized on behalf of the company.
Victims whose settlement details were disclosed include Mr. Law, who received 130,000 pounds (about $200,000) in damages; Sadie Frost, his ex-wife, who received 50,000 pounds ($77,000) ; Ben Jackson, his assistant, who received 40,000 pounds ($61,000); Dennis MacShane, a member of Parliament, who received 32,500 pounds ($50,000); and Gavin Henson, a Welsh rugby star, who received 40,000 pounds ($61,000). In each case, the settlement includes legal costs, which can easily run into six-figure sums for a single complainant.
The settlements disclosed on Thursday represent only a small number of the cases brought by people who say their phones were hacked against News Group.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer for many of the phone hacking victims, said in an e-mail that the claimants’ fight against the Murdoch media properties was not over.
“It is important that we don’t get carried away into thinking that the war is over,” Mr. Lewis said, according to The Associated Press. “ There are many more cases in the pipeline.”
He added: “This is too early to celebrate, we’re not even at the end of the beginning.”
The scandal, which exploded last year into a full-blown crisis for Mr. Murdoch’s holdings in Britain, has led to a series of police and judicial inquiries into the behavior of journalists, police officers and politicians.
At the same, disclosures about hacking by a private investigator employed by The News of the World — a 168-year-old Sunday tabloid that Mr. Murdoch ordered closed last year as the scandal spread — forced a series of high-level resignations, including that of Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor who later became media adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron. He resigned a year ago amid continued questions about his possible involvement in the illegal hacking.
At least 20 people have been arrested by police.
News reports on Thursday did not immediately specify the total amount involved in the settlements. But only a fraction of potential victims have settled with the company, and its final legal bill could be well into the tens of millions of pounds, lawyers say.
All of the cases dealt with voice mail interception except one which related to alleged hacking of the personal e-mail account of Christopher Shipman, the son of convicted mass murderer Harold Shipman.

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Phone hacking: News of the World’s executives led the cover-up, say hacking victims

Senior executives at the News of the World “deliberately destroyed evidence” as part of a “conspiracy” to cover up the extent of phone hacking, it has been alleged.

Dannii Minogue, left, Sadie Frost and Jude Law are among those who have now settled claims against News International Photo: REX








By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

7:30AM GMT 20 Jan 2012


Computers used by journalists at the newspaper were destroyed in 2010, a few months before Scotland Yard began a fresh investigation into voicemail interception.

As News Group Newspapers, part of News International, agreed to pay more than £1 million in damages to 37 victims of phone hacking yesterday, the victims’ lawyers made a series of claims about directors at the company.

A joint statement by three leading law firms stated that the compensation had been agreed “on the basis that senior employees and directors of NGN knew about the wrongdoing and sought to conceal it by deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence”.

The statement stopped short of naming any directors but when the computers were broken up, NGN was headed by James Murdoch, with Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive, on the board.

A spokesman for the company said no admissions had been made of senior employees or directors being aware of evidence being destroyed. Earlier, during an application at the High Court for an order to force News Group to disclose more evidence of phone hacking, Jeremy Reed, counsel for the victims, said eight computers used by journalists implicated in hacking had been destroyed when the company moved to a new office in autumn 2010.

Related Articles

• Harold Shipman's son had phone and email hacked by NotW
  19 Jan 2012
  
• List of people who settled with NotW
  19 Jan 2012
  
• Times editor faces questions over email hacking
  19 Jan 2012
  
• 'Most important thing was to hear News International own up'
  19 Jan 2012
  
• Harold Shipman's son 'horrified' at NoTW hacking
  19 Jan 2012
  
• Jude Law: 'phone hacking made me distrustful of people'
  19 Jan 2012
  

Mr Reed told Mr Justice Vos that in March last year Paul Cheesbrough, who joined News International as head of IT in 2010, had said: “We have destroyed all the computers from that time.” Mr Reed added: “Here is a company that has deliberately destroyed the key computers and it is now standing here saying 'we’ve only got the ones from after that so it’s disproportionate to search them’.”
Company sources said any emails sent from the computers were stored on a server, the contents of which have been given to police.
The joint statement issued later by Bindmans, Atkins Thomson and Steel & Shamash said that as a result of more than 60 claims being brought against News Group, “documents relating to the nature and scale of the conspiracy, a cover-up and the destruction of evidence/email archives by News Group have now been disclosed to the claimants”.
As part of the agreement reached with 37 victims yesterday, News Group promised to carry on searching its archives for more evidence of illegal activity, which it will hand over to the victims’ lawyers. The statement continued: “This was important because attempts are being made to reconstruct email archives which had been destroyed by News Group in an apparent attempt to cover up wrongdoing.”
James Murdoch has already faced allegations of a cover-up after he claimed he had been unaware that phone hacking went beyond Clive Goodman, the News of the World’s former royal editor, who was convicted in 2007. The newspaper’s lawyer, Tom Crone, and its former editor, Colin Myler, told a parliamentary committee last year that they had made Mr Murdoch aware in 2008 of an email that implicated a second reporter.
Mr Murdoch, who twice gave evidence to a parliamentary committee investigating phone hacking last year, maintains he only found out about the other allegations much more recently.
Mark Thomson, who represented Jude Law and other hacking victims, said yesterday: “After years of denials and cover-up, News Group Newspapers has finally admitted the depth and scale of the unlawful activities of many of their journalists at the News of the World and the culture of illegal conduct at their paper.”
In a statement, News International said: “Today NGN agreed settlements in respect of a number of claims against the company. NGN made no admission as part of these settlements that directors or senior employees knew about the wrongdoing by NGN or sought to conceal it.
“However, for the purpose of reaching these settlements only, NGN agreed that the damages to be paid to claimants should be assessed as if this was the case.”


















http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/9026506/Phone-hacking-News-of-the-Worlds-executives-led-the-cover-up-say-hacking-victims.html
Telegraph

Leveson Inquiry

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In Phone Hacking



Leveson Inquiry: 'Heat Magazine is not my normal journal'





PCC hacking probe 'worse than a whitewash'





Ian Hislop mocks the media's antics





The Sunday Times 'blagged Brown'





Hacking 'might have happened at Mirror'

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More from The Telegraph

Rebekah Brooks Becomes Mum by Surrogate

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The surrogate mother has not been named and wishes to
remain anonymous


11:51am UK, Thursday January 26, 2012


Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and her husband
have become parents by a surrogate mother.


Scarlett Anne Mary Brooks was born on Wednesday at The Portland private
hospital in central London.

Mrs Brooks and her husband, former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, who she
married in 2009, spent years trying to conceive before deciding to use a
surrogate.

The pair announced the birth saying: "Our beautiful little miracle, Scarlett
Anne Mary Brooks arrived at The Portland at 4.05pm weighing 6lbs 1oz."

Mrs Brooks's spokesman David Wilson said: "They are obviously overjoyed and
relieved at a safe birth.

"Scarlett was born at 37 weeks and is perfectly healthy and the family are
getting to know one another.


Brooks after the closure of the News Of The
World



"It is tremendous news for them. They have been trying for five years to have
a baby - since they got together."

The surrogate mother has not been named and wishes to remain anonymous.

Mrs Brooks, 43, who grew up in Warrington, Cheshire, edited the News Of The
World and The Sun before becoming chief executive of parent company News
International in 2009.

Public furore erupted in July after it was claimed that a private detective
working for the News Of The World hacked the mobile phone of murdered schoolgirl
Milly Dowler.

Mrs Brooks resigned as News International chief executive on July 15 last
year.

Two days later Scotland Yard detectives arrested her on suspicion
of phone hacking and corruption.

She is currently on police bail. Her lawyer has said she denies committing
any criminal offence.

At least the poor wee mite might not have inherited the "evil" gene.

It looks as if she will have to face a Trial, maybe the Court will decide on a non custodial sentence, now she is a Mother.

By Tim
Castle

LONDON | Sat Jan 28, 2012
2:14pm GMT


LONDON (Reuters) - Police arrested four
current and former staff of Rupert Murdoch's best-selling Sun tabloid and a
policeman on Saturday in a probe into suspected payments by journalists to
officers for information, police and the newspaper's publisher
said.

Police also searched the London offices of Sun publisher News International
in a corruption probe linked to a continuing investigation into phone hacking at
its now closed News of the World weekly tabloid

Police 'Probe Times Email Hacking Claim'

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Tom Watson has published his letters to and from Scotland
Yard


1:40pm UK, Thursday February 02, 2012


Police have launched an investigation into claims of email hacking at The
Times, an MP has said.


Backbench Labour MP Tom Watson said Scotland Yard had informed him the
newspaper was being probed after admitting one of its reporters tried to access
a private account.

The Times named Lancashire detective Richard Horton as the author of the
award-winning NightJack blog in June 2009 after the High Court refused to grant
him anonymity.

It is clear that a crime has been committed - illicit hacking of personal
emails. It is almost certain that a judge was misled.

Tom
Watson's letter to the Met


:: Read more about the Leveson Inquiry at our dedicated topic
page

The Guardian is reporting that Times' editor James Harding will be recalled
to the Leveson inquiry to answer questions over the claims.

Mr Harding previously told the inquiry that one of his reporters, Patrick
Foster, was issued with a formal written warning for professional misconduct for
gaining unauthorised access to Mr Horton's email account.

He added in a letter to the inquiry: "When the reporter informed his managers
that, in the course of his investigation, he had on his own initiative sought
unauthorised access to an email account, he was told that if he wanted to pursue
the story he had to use legitimate means to do so.

"He did, identifying the person at the heart of the story using his own
sources and information publicly available on the internet.

"On that basis, we made the case in the High Court that the newspaper should
be allowed to publish in the public interest. After the judge ruled that we
could publish in the public interest, we did."


Lord Justice Leveson will reportedly recall The Times
editor James Harding



Mr Foster was formally disciplined, and has since left the newspaper, Mr
Harding said.

In a letter to the
Met on January 23, Mr Watson - a long-term campaigner on the hacking
issue - urged officers to examine whether a crime had been committed and whether
the newspaper had misled the court.

"In an attempt to protect his privacy, the police officer in question sought
an injunction," the MP wrote.

"Far from putting forward a public interest defence, lawyers representing The
Times claimed that the information was obtained through entirely legitimate
means...

"It is clear that a crime has been committed - illicit hacking of personal
emails. It is almost certain that a judge was misled."

A letter from Detective Superintendent John Levett to Mr Watson, published on
the MP's website, said: "I write to reassure you that the concerns raised within
your letters are under investigation and officers from Operation Tuleta are
dealing directly with the victim."

A spokeswoman for The Times declined to comment.

Times Editor Recalled To Leveson Inquiry

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James Harding previously gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry relating to email hacking





5:01pm UK, Thursday February 02, 2012





The editor of The Times has been recalled to the Leveson
inquiry into media standards over claims of email hacking at his
newspaper.


James Harding is likely to be quizzed about details of what he and
other senior staff at Times publisher News International knew about
attempts to hack a police blogger's emails three years ago.


Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into claims a Times
journalist named as Patrick Foster accessed the email account of
Lancashire detective Richard Horton.


The Times named Mr Horton as the author of the award-winning
NightJack blog in June 2009 after the High Court refused to grant him
anonymity.

It is clear that a crime has been committed - illicit hacking of personal emails. It is almost certain that a judge was misled.

Tom Watson's letter to the Met











:: Read more about the Leveson Inquiry at our dedicated topic page


In January, James Harding told the Leveson inquiry - set up in the
wake of the phone-hacking revelations at sister paper the News Of The
World - that one of his reporters, later identified as Foster, was
issued with a formal written warning for professional misconduct for
gaining unauthorised access to Mr Horton's emails.


He added in a letter to the inquiry: "When the reporter informed his
managers that, in the course of his investigation, he had on his own
initiative sought unauthorised access to an email account, he was told
that if he wanted to pursue the story he had to use legitimate means to
do so.


"He did, identifying the person at the heart of the story using his
own sources and information publicly available on the internet.


"On that basis, we made the case in the High Court that the newspaper
should be allowed to publish in the public interest. After the judge
ruled that we could publish in the public interest, we did."










Lord Justice Leveson will reportedly recall The Times editor James Harding





Mr Foster was formally disciplined, and has since left the newspaper, Mr Harding said.


In a letter to the Met
on January 23, Mr Watson - a long-term campaigner on the hacking issue -
urged officers to examine whether a crime had been committed and
whether the newspaper had misled the court.


"In an attempt to protect his privacy, the police officer in question sought an injunction," the MP wrote.


"Far from putting forward a public interest defence, lawyers
representing The Times claimed that the information was obtained through
entirely legitimate means...


"It is clear that a crime has been committed - illicit hacking of
personal emails. It is almost certain that a judge was misled."


Sun editor Dominic Mohan, who told the inquiry last month that his
paper could be a "powerful force for good", has also been recalled to
answer further questions next week.


Four current and former senior Sun journalists were arrested along with a serving Metropolitan Police officer over alleged police bribes at the weekend. All five men have been bailed.


It is understood that Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, the
head of Scotland Yard's phone hacking investigation team, and Daily Mail
editor Paul Dacre will give evidence to Lord Justice Leveson on Monday.

Some comments about the above article



Posted by: KATH H on February 2, 2012 4:55 PM

Horseblock

When this first broke it was obvious:

Andy Coulson + Tin Opener = Can of Worms.

Posted by: KATH H on February 2, 2012 4:38 PM

No one can be surprised by this it being part of News International and the other comics.

Posted by: neilly from Scotland on February 2, 2012 4:38 PM

I wonder how many Met Police Officers are having sleepless nights?

Posted by: neilly from Scotland on February 2, 2012 4:35 PM

Horseblock,
Yes I am sure many Tories would like Labour MPs to just turn a blind
eye ,just like Dave does .Andy Coulson? Who vetted him for working in
Downing Street? We have yet to be told.

Posted by: neilly from Scotland on February 2, 2012 4:32 PM

Just
like Andy Coulson this will be another one who never knew what was
going on. This Policy of paying Top Wages to get Top People is not
working Fred Goodwin a case in point.

Posted by: jack baldock on February 2, 2012 4:10 PM

Excuse me while i have the biggest yawn ever.

Posted by: Horseblock on February 2, 2012 2:28 PM

Tom Watson dragging out his 15 minutes of fame. Hasn't he got anything else to do?

Posted by: Observer on February 2, 2012 2:16 PM

Give it a rest. I'm sick of reading about phone hacking.
Seems to me it's just another excuse for minor celebrities to claim huge
amounts of money. (and get some free publicity into the bargain)

Posted by: Badwolf from England on February 2, 2012 2:06 PM

The witch-hunt against the non Liebour media continues!

=============================

And to think, The Times used to be Britains most prestigious Paper......Murdoch has destroyed the reputation of News International and Newscorp shareholders must surely demand his resignation now.

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Breaking News











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Phone Hacking: Judge Eye Op May Delay Trial

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Outstanding cases are understood to be well on the way to
being settled out of court


2:57pm UK, Friday February 03, 2012

David Bowden. senior correspondent


The long-awaited trial into phone hacking at the News Of The World may be
delayed - as the High Court judge presiding over the cases reportedly undergoes
an eye operation.


Mr Justice Vos is believed to have had surgery, which has already led to the
postponement of a pre-trial hearing - and may push back the trial date of
February 13.

The case is likely to be much shorter than
originally envisaged too as more and more claimants are settling with the
paper's parent company News International.

Some close to the legal procedures believe there may only be two outstanding
claims when and if the trial begins.


Singer Charlotte Church's case is still
outstanding



These are thought to be claims by the singer Charlotte Church and jockey Kieren
Fallon.

The remaining cases still outstanding are thought to be well on the way to
being settled and are unlikely to feature in any long term court
proceedings.

Mr Justice Vos, originally faced with dozens of claims from celebrities,
politicians and other people in the news ordered five test cases to be put
forward to act as a template for the other hacking victims.

The original five were the actress Sienna Miller, football pundit Andy Gray, interior designer Kelly Hoppen, ex-Olympics
minister Tessa Jowell and football agent Sky Andrew.

All five except Mr Andrew have already settled with News International. He
too is understood to be close to reaching a deal.

Others, including actor Jude Law, shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant, and
ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne have either settled or are well on the way
to doing so.

As a result, there may only be two outstanding claims by the proposed trial
date. This could mean they may no longer be branded "test" cases, but standalone
hearings.

That will depend on both the progress of the expected settlements between now
and then and the health and legal direction of Mr Justice Vos.

Several more cases are understood to be waiting in the wings.

Reality TV star Kerry Katona, football legend George Best's ex-wife Alex,
and the family of Jade Goody also suspect they may have been the victims of
phone hacking.











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Newscorp , who agreed to pay the settlements have already paid out a substantial amount......I'm sure they will ask Rupert Murdoch to stand down as
Chairman .





Phone Hacking: Nine More Settle Actions

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12:33pm UK, Wednesday February 08, 2012





Another nine claimants have settled their actions over the News Of The World phone-hacking scandal, the High Court has heard.


Paul Gascoigne, Steve Coogan, Alastair Campbell and Simon Hughes MP
are among those who have accepted damages from News Of The World
publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN).


The announcement came during the latest in a number of case reviews
being held in preparation for a long-awaited trial, due to start next
week.


The court heard that 15 new settlements had been reached, including
nine of the 10 which were due to be heard in next week's trial.







simon hughes: phone hacking was widespread












Hugh Tomlinson QC, who represents some of the claimants, said singer Charlotte Church had not reached an agreement with NGN.


Mr Campbell, former media adviser for Tony Blair, said in a statement he would donate his undisclosed payout to a number of groups.


"This is not, and never has been, about the money, with which I shall
be making donations to various organisations including the Labour
Party, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, Mind, Rethink Mental Illness,
Comprehensive Future, Local Schools Network and Clarets Trust.


"At least some small good for the causes I believe in can come out of the criminality and cultural depravity of others."


The court heard Mr Coogan, who likened the tabloid press to the mafiaduring the Leveson Inquiry into media standards, settled his claim for £40,000.


Mr Gascoigne settled for £68,000, and his friend James 'Five Bellies' Gardner, is said to have accepted "substantial" damages.


Football agent Sky Andrew accepted £75,000, and Phil Hughes, the late
George Best's friend and former agent, is also understood to be in the
process of settling.


Mr Hughes, Liberal Democrat deputy leader, settled for £45,000.


Sally King, a friend of former home secretary David Blunkett,
accepted £60,000, her husband Andrew received £50,000 and her father and
brother received "substantial "undisclosed damages.


:: See more stories from the Leveson Inquiry

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E-Mail on ‘Rife’ Hacking Deleted From James Murdoch Computer, Lawyers Say

By SARAH LYALL

Published: February 1, 2012

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LONDON — An e-mail to Rupert Murdoch’s son James that referred to “a nightmare scenario” of legal repercussions from widespread phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid was deleted from his computer less than two weeks before the police opened their current investigation into phone hacking, lawyers said Wednesday.

Related

• Murdoch Settles Suits by Dozens of Victims of Hacking(January 20, 2012)
  

The deletion was part of an “e-mail stabilization and modernization program” in which accounts were “being prepared for the migration to a new e-mail system,” said Linklaters, a law firm representing News International, the British newspaper arm of the Murdoch media empire.
The e-mail was a chain of messages sent June 7, 2008, to James Murdoch, head of News Corporation’s European and Asian operations, warning that the potential legal fallout from hacking at The News of the World was “as bad as we feared.”
Linklaters disclosed the existence of the e-mail to a House of Commons committee investigating phone hacking in December. Mr. Murdoch said that while he received and answered the e-mail, he did not scroll all the way down through the chain and so did not read everything in it.
The disclosure of the deletion came in a letter from Linklaters to the Commons committee. The letter says that the deletion occurred on Jan. 15, 2011. Operation Weeting, the police inquiry into phone hacking at The News of the World, began 11 days later.
The letter also disclosed that the e-mail’s existence became known only because investigators unearthed a hard copy from a storage crate filled with material left behind last summer when The News of the World was closed.
A News International spokeswoman said the company had no comment and would not discuss what other e-mails might have been deleted at the same time.
The e-mail has become significant in the hacking case as possible evidence of what Mr. Murdoch knew and when he learned it. Two company officials — Tom Crone, then a News International lawyer, and Colin Myler, then the News of the World editor — have said they informed him at the time that phone hacking was endemic at the newspaper.
Mr. Murdoch has always maintained that they never told him and that he knew nothing about it until much later.
Three days after the June 7 e-mail, Mr. Murdoch met with Mr. Crone and Mr. Myler and decided to pay more than $1.4 million to settle a hacking lawsuit. The details of the suit were kept secret, and until December 2010, News International maintained that hacking at the newspaper was limited to a “rogue reporter.”
The Linklaters’ letter said the crate in which the hard copy of the e-mail was found “had a sticker on it which suggested the contents were originally held in Mr. Myler’s office.”
Electronic copies were then found in two of Mr. Murdoch’s laptops, and one from an assistant’s desktop computer, Linklaters said. Mr. Myler’s copy, though, was “lost from the e-mail archive system in a hardware failure which occurred on 18 March 2010,” the law firm added.
News International has given varying accounts about what e-mails it has, where they are and why it did not immediately make them available to investigators. At one point, it said that its e-mail archive had been lost on the way for storage in Mumbai, India; at another, it said it could only retrieve e-mails that were less than six months old.
But new intimations that the company may have purposely destroyed evidence are raising questions about whether the company might be investigated for obstruction of justice.
A judge accused News International last month of destroying possibly relevant e-mails. And The Guardian reported Tuesday that the police were examining “an enormous reservoir of material from News International’s central computer services” that was “deliberately deleted from News International’s servers.”

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8 February 2012
Last updated at 22:37











News Corp profits swing to growth











Rupert Murdoch said the financial performance was a good one



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Media
giant News Corporation has seen its net profits rise 65% in the three
months to the end of December 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.

The rise is the first time that News Corp's profits have grown compared to 2010 since since 1 January 2011.

The company made $1.06bn (£888m) net profit in the period, up from $624m in 2010.

The firm's results were fuelled mainly by income from advertising and fees at its cable television networks.

"The significant growth we reported in the quarter in the
cable network programming, television and filmed lntertainment segments
clearly validates our strategy to develop and distribute superior
wide-ranging content," said chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch.

Mr Murdoch also mentioned that the firm had completed over half of its share repurchase program.

The repurchasing program was announced after News Corp's bid
to acquire the remaining shares in British Sky Broadcasting fell through
in 2011 after the emergence of the phone hacking scandal at the News of
the World.

The funds set aside for the Sky purchase were diverted into the share buying scheme.

TV, film and sport
Income at News Corporation's US cable television networks rose
9% as the company benefited from the lower cost of broadcast rights to
the NBA national basketball league.

The company's cable news network, Fox News saw an 8% rise in revenues

The firm's film division also performed strongly with Alvin
and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked creating over $300m in worldwide sales.

On television, News Corp's sold 25% more advertising around
its flagship US programmes, X Factor and The New Girl as well as its
baseball and American football coverage.

The firm also saw a 100% increase in the amount it charges
other networks to broadcast its content, a move that reflects Rupert
Murdoch's strategy of creating revenue around every part of News
Corporation's content.

Publishing
One area which saw a decline despite the ongoing use of
paywalls, was News Corporation's publishing businesses including the
Wall Street Journal and the Times newspaper in London.

The company said the losses were mainly due to lower
advertising income from its Australian newspapers and the gap in revenue
left by the closure of the News of the World in 2011.

The firm has so far had to pay $87m in relation to the ongoing investigations surrounding the closure of the News of the World.

The News of the World was Britain's biggest selling weekly newspaper up until its closure.

The paper sold nearly 3 million copies every Sunday.

There is a video of a Dinner Party Rupert Murdoch held at his London Town House on May 19th 2011 to discuss the NOTW Hacking and the action to be taken. There were about 8 or 9 People present, Rupert, James, Rebekah, Company Lawyers, and Carey reckoned to take over as Chairman of Newscorp when Rupert retires, James will be bypassed.