Is this Armageddon for Murdoch and NewsCorp?

He came across as a big drip!
I'm aware he has to be careful because of the police investigation but still.........

wjk wrote:He came across as a big drip!
I'm aware he has to be careful because of the police investigation but still.........

I just had a look on the link and the video is expired now,I just wanted to refresh my memory about the question put to Coulson about certain people, like Murdoch went around the back entrance to visit Cameron, but others went via the front entrance.He asked Coulson the significance of this and the
reply was that some probably went around the back to park their Cars.

Panda wrote:

wjk wrote:He came across as a big drip!
I'm aware he has to be careful because of the police investigation but still.........

I just had a look on the link and the video is expired now,I just wanted to refresh my memory about the question put to Coulson about certain people, like Murdoch went around the back entrance to visit Cameron, but others went via the front entrance.He asked Coulson the significance of this and the
reply was that some probably went around the back to park their Cars.

That was exactly what he said OMG!

kitti wrote:I've never watched such a load of tosh in all my life....you would think that Murdoch had just knighted him instead of throwing him the wolves.


It will be the same with brookes.


Everyone loves everybody, know body done anything and ....'well I don't think so' or 'well it could off been but I wouldnt say that's so'.....


For gods sake.....what a total waste off taxpayers money to watch people asking other people a load off rubbish about at the end off the day.....is a bloody whitewash ....reminds me off the interviews the tapas lot had....'yes stu....speak to you later stu......kiss my arse stu'....

All sucking upto King Murdoch, if only they had a brain inbetween those ears (Cameron included) they would realise that Murdoch is finished......NEXT!!!!!!!, suckers!!

Just browsing and came across this......interesting.!



Dan Sabbagh

guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 April 2012 19.38 BST



Rupert Murdoch (left) and his son James Murdoch (right) are on Leveson's list for next week. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images


Rupert Murdoch may not be on trial next Wednesday, but the six hours of testimony he will give under oath is the closest the media tycoon will come to having to account for a career that has seen him close to the top of British public life for over 40 years and an intimate of three prime ministers.

Yet while the 81-year-old is not likely to be shy of describing his relationships with Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair, he is not likely to want to just parry criticism either. A study of his career or even his interviews shows that Murdoch prefers the bold move – or the shrewdly judged indiscretion – to shift the focus onto competitors and critics.

He will not be the only member of a newspaper family appearing next week, with his son coming on Tuesday and scions of the reclusive Barclay family – who own the Telegraph – and the Lebedevs, the new plutocrats on the block, up on Monday. But neither the Barclays nor the Lebedevs are any match for Murdoch, who first bought into Britain with the purchase of the now-closed News of the World in 1969.

The public saw a flash of the Murdoch fightback approach last summer, in his select committee appearance at the height of the Milly Dowler phone-hacking crisis, when even at such a dark moment he made the unlikely complaint that he spent too much time in the company of prime ministers.

"I wish they would leave me alone," he said. His proximity to power was their problem, not his – and for a moment attention was deflected.

The sideswipe with smiles is hardly a new technique; nobody in Britain is above Murdoch's criticism.

Back in 2002, in an interview with the Financial Times, Murdoch was complaining about having to endure five hours in the VIP area watching the golden jubilee. "I am certainly not a monarchist," he said, adding: "I do not think the British monarchy would survive a bad monarch. Someone who could not hold his tongue on politics. It would be gone pretty quickly." The article did the interviewer no harm in the tycoon's eyes; James Harding eventually became editor of the Times.

Meanwhile, there is little Murdoch can say about phone hacking, not least because so many criminal proceedings are live, and he is thought very unlikely to want to voice any criticism of his "larrikin" – mischievous youth – Rebekah Brooks. Of course, Brooks has also been arrested, making discussion of her doubly difficult.

Nor has the octogenarian media mogul so far shown much desire to try to suggest rival titles may have been involved in the "dark arts", declining to point the finger elsewhere when the subject was touched on by Conservative MP Louise Mensch last July.

But in reality, the Leveson inquiry runs far broader than examining phone hacking, and with appearances expected shortly from the likes of David Cameron and Blair, it is politics that will most likely dominate – although Murdoch will have to be generous with anecdotes or supply more detailed information about his political dealings if he is to reset the agenda.

The broad story is familiar enough. Murdoch was close to Thatcher – with whom he held a secret meeting, briefing her at Chequers at the key stage of his ultimately successful 1981 bid for the Times – and unimpressed by Major, who was memorably told by then-Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie that he would pour a "bucket of shit" over him in the next day's paper when Britain exited the exchange rate mechanism.

He cautiously embraced Blair, saying on the occasion of the Labour leader's visit to Hayman island: "I suspect we will end up making love like two porcupines – very carefully" in July 1995, before eventually becoming closer. They formed an alliance over the Iraq war, and the former prime minister also became the godfather to Murdoch's young daughter by his third marriage, Grace.

For many years he was also close to Gordon Brown, sharing, in the mogul's eyes, a Calvinist, Scottish work ethic. The necessity of changing sides at the election and Brown's subsequent anger has led to a falling out that Murdoch has already publicly indicated he regrets. However, he has been cooler towards Cameron, who once worked for ITV company Carlton, a man who he often thought to be lacking depth, and the pre-election courtship between News International and the Conservatives was left largely to Brooks and James Murdoch.

James Murdoch, meanwhile, is more used to public appearances. His appearance at Leveson amounts to a bookend of his nine-year career in Britain; except that he leaves with his reputation at its lowest point. With MPs on the select committee still weighing up whether he may have misled parliament after two appearances before them, the 38-year-old is eager to have his say.

He sees the Leveson inquiry as a chance to redress negative media coverage, an opportunity to set his record as a business executive straight and to reiterate he knew nothing of the extent of phone hacking or any other alleged criminality until recently.

Eton-educated Aidan Barclay, the eldest son of one of the reclusive Telegraph owners, the irascible Sir David Barclay, will make his first British public appearance on Monday. Aidan is the chairman of the Telegraph Media Group, and has the day to day responsibility of representing his family's interests at the newspaper jointly owned by a family trust set up by his father and his twin brother Sir Frederick. The Barclay twins refuse to appear in public, and Aidan is almost as low-key, giving the inquiry the difficult task of trying to probe how the broadsheet newspaper is governed.

Evgeny Lebedev may be new on the British scene, but is a little better known, not least from his Twitter feed, where he has recently posted images of "my wolf Boris … getting closer to eating my Alpaca Ken", a comment of sorts in reference to the impending London mayoral election.

The eldest son of the eccentric Alexander, who financed the purchases of the Independent and London Evening Standard, has only been a British newspaper owner since 2009.

But he and Aidan Barclay will at least set the tenor of questioning for what will be an extraordinary week, setting Rupert Murdoch against the political classes of a generation.

11 May 2012 Last updated at 02:48 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page

Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, is to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics on Friday.

Mrs Brooks resigned last year following the closure of the News of the World in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.

She was later arrested over hacking and corruption allegations, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The Leveson Inquiry is now focusing on to the relationship between politicians and the media.

Mrs Brooks, also a former News of the World (NoW) editor, is expected to be asked about her close relationship with Prime Minister David Cameron and his predecessors.

PM texts

The current PM is said to have texted Ms Brooks to express sympathy when she was forced to quit.

Mrs Brooks was NoW editor when voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's mobile phone were allegedly intercepted.

The phone-hacking scandal at the Sunday tabloid led to its closure and the establishment of the Leveson Inquiry, an MPs' inquiry and the launch of three police investigations.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rebekah Brooks has been described
at
the
inquiry as a powerful personality.

At
a hearing which is determined to be neutral, she's likely to be asked about her rel
at
ionships with Tony Blair -
the
papers she ran backed him through three elections; and Gordon Brown - she was once Mr Brown's guest
at
a pyjama party
at
the
prime minister's country residence.

Mrs Brooks' account will turn from historically interesting to potentially politically potent when she deals with
the
current prime minister.

The
re have been suggestions he texted her up to 12 times a day and told her to "keep her head up" after she resigned last year.

The
veracity of such claims will soon be clear.

So too,
the
damage if any th
at
the
testimony of Rebekah Brooks will inflict on
the
standing of David Cameron.

Read more from Peter

Mrs Brooks has denied any knowledge of phone hacking on her watch.

Questioned by MPs in 2011, she said News International had acted "quickly and decisively" in dealing with the hacking scandal.

She said she had never sanctioned payments to the police.

Mrs Brooks was arrested on 17 July 2011 over phone-hacking and corruption allegations.

She was released on bail and re-arrested on 13 March 2012 on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

She was bailed again to appear at a London police station in May 2012.

Inquiry lawyers will not be allowed to ask Mrs Brooks any questions that could prejudice the police investigation into phone hacking or any future trials.

On Thursday, Mrs Brooks's friend and former NoW colleague Andy Coulson told the inquiry he held shares in News Corporation worth £40,000 while working as the prime minister's press chief.

The former NoW editor resigned from his Downing Street role in January 2011 amid a row about phone hacking at the NoW.

In his witness statement, he said he only considered a possible conflict of interest over the shares after he quit.

He also denied there was any "grand conspiracy" between the government and the media.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_8167000/8167511.stm

Rebekah Brooks at Leveson Inquiry

11 May 2012 Last updated at 17:06 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page


Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt sought "private advice" from News Corporation over phone hacking, an email given to the Leveson Inquiry has suggested.

The previously unseen email, sent to ex-News International boss Rebekah Brooks by the firm's PR chief Frederic Michel, says Mr Hunt wanted "guidance".

Mr Hunt is under pressure over links between his former aide and Mr Michel.

Mr Hunt's spokeswoman said the new claim was "inaccurate", but Labour accused him of collusion.

The email to Mrs Brooks emerged while she was giving evidence on Friday to Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into media ethics.

The last line of Mr Michel's email reads: "JH is now starting to looking to phone hacking/practices more thoroughly and has asked me to advise him privately in the coming weeks and guide his and No 10's positioning…"

BBC political editor Nick Robinson says that it is already known that Mr Michel often referred to "JH", meaning Jeremy Hunt, even when he had only spoken to Mr Hunt's special adviser Adam Smith.

Mr Smith has since resigned, saying that he had acted without Mr Hunt's authority, after it emerged he and Mr Michel had been in contact over News Corp's bid to take control of BSkyB - which was later dropped.

Mr Hunt was the cabinet minister tasked with deciding if such a takeover could go ahead.

The culture secretary himself has said he "strictly followed due process" in the matter, and denied that News Corp had any "back channel" of influence with his office.

In Mr Michel's email which he sent to Mrs Brooks on 27 June 2011, he mentions a tip-off about an "extremely helpful" statement the culture secretary was making to Parliament on phone hacking in relation to the BSkyB bid.

He wrote: "He [Mr Hunt] will be repeating the same narrative as the one he gave in Parliament few weeks ago.

"This is based on his belief that the police [are] pursing things thoroughly and phone hacking has nothing to do with the media plurality issues."

Referring to this latest disclosure, Mr Hunt's spokeswoman said Mr Michel had said before that he was not speaking to Jeremy Hunt, but to his special adviser, Adam Smith.

"It's widely acknowledged that he has exaggerated," she said.

The spokeswoman said Mr Hunt would respond to all emails and any other allegations when he gives evidence at the Leveson Inquiry in the next few weeks.

Downing Street has said there are "no plans" to investigate whether Mr Hunt has broken the ministerial code, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying Mr Hunt had acted properly and that it was a matter for the Leveson Inquiry.

Labour's shadow culture secretary, Harriet Harman, said: "People will be disgusted at the prospect of Jeremy Hunt and Number 10 colluding with News Corporation to avoid a public inquiry into phone hacking.

"Jeremy Hunt was not on the side of victims and their families. Instead, he wanted it swept under the carpet because he was straining every sinew to support News Corporation's bid for BSkyB."

Government messages
Rebekah Brooks confirms she received a message of support from the PM after her resignation.
During questioning at the Leveson Inquiry on Friday, Mrs Brooks said she discussed News Corp's bid to buy BSkyB with Chancellor George Osborne.

She said she made use of a social dinner with Mr Osborne to discuss opposition being put forward by the regulator Ofcom - and then emailed his response to Mr Michel.

During the hearing, Mrs Brooks was also asked about the amount of contact she had with senior UK politicians.

She was asked whether Mr Cameron had sent her a "keep your head up" message when she resigned she said it had been "something along those lines".

She said the prime minister signed off most texts with the letters DC but occasionally used the acronym LOL.

But she said he stopped this when he learnt the text shorthand stood for "laugh out loud" not "lots of love".

Mrs Brooks also said she received "indirect" rather than direct text messages from a number of politicians after she quit News International in the midst of the phone-hacking scandal in July 2011.

She told the inquiry she received messages from "Number 10, Number 11, the Home Office and the Foreign Office" as well as former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World led to its closure and the establishment of the Leveson Inquiry, an MPs' inquiry and the launch of three police investigations.

Mrs Brooks has denied any knowledge of phone-hacking on her watch.

She was arrested on 17 July 2011 over phone-hacking and corruption allegations.

She was released on bail and re-arrested on 13 March 2012, on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and bailed again to appear at a London police station in May 2012.

sky NLondon (CNN)-- Rebekah Brooks, a formernewspaper editor andNews Corp. executive, was grilled Friday about her close relationship with Prime Minister David Cameron and other top politicians at a UK inquiry into media ethics.

Brooks detailed frequent contacts with Cameron in the run-up to the 2010 election and said she had received commiserations from the prime minister when she resigned fromNews International last summer.

She said the message, along the lines of "keep your head up," was among a number of "indirect messages" of sympathy that top politicians sent to her.

Brooks resigned as chief executive ofNews International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch'sNews Corp., in July amid public outrage over claims of widespread hacking by staff at itsNews of the Worldnewspaper.

The government-appointed Leveson Inquiry, set up in response to the accusations of phone hacking by theNews of the World, is examining the links between Britain's media and politics.

Brooks' testimony about the contacts she had with Britain's current and former prime ministers could prove embarrassing to them if it reveals too close a relationship.

And her evidence surroundingNews Corp.'s bid to take over full ownership of British satellite broadcaster BSkyB may prompt further questions.

Brooks, who said she had an "informal role" in lobbying for the bid, told the inquiry she had discussed it with both Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

An e-mail from aNews Corp. employee to Brooks also suggested Culture SecretaryJeremy Hunt had asked him to advise privately on howNews International was dealing with the phone hacking allegations, the inquiry heard.

The employee is known to have referred to contact withHunt -- the Cabinet minister who oversees British broadcasting and who was charged with making an impartial decision on the bid -- when he in fact dealt withHunt's aide.

The aide was forced to resign last month over revelations of apparent back-channel communications between his office andNews Corp. over the bid.

The controversial bid was eventually abandoned last summer amid the furor over the phone hacking scandal.

Brooks said her discussion of the takeover with Cameron was not in depth, and that he made it clear it was not his decision to make.

She also argued in favor of the bid to Osborne over dinner, but he was not explicitly supportive of it, Brooks said. It was an appropriate conversation to have, she told inquiry lawyer Robert Jay, as she was entitled to reflect the opposite view to what Osborne had heard from many othernews outlets.

In the closing minutes of her five hours of testimony -- during which she appeared largely composed but grew more testy as time wore on -- Brooks defended her position as an editor and chief executive.

She said "much has been made of cozy relationships and informal contacts" between journalists and politicians, but that it came down to individuals to ensure their conduct was professional.

The system is not perfect, she told the judge overseeing the inquiry, Lord Justice Leveson, but the current government has taken steps to improve transparency about meetings between the press and politicians.

Brooks said the phone hacking scandal increasingly occupied her time in her final months atNews International.

But she denied being a "go-between" in an increasingly fraught relationship between Rupert Murdoch and his son James, and she dismissed the suggestion the younger Murdoch had sought to shift the blame to subordinates.

Brooks also said she never witnessed any inappropriate dealings with the police.

Brooks has been arrested twice and released on bail in connection with police investigations into the scandal. She denies any knowledge of phone hacking on her watch.

The ongoing investigations mean questioning on the issue of phone hacking is limited, so as not to prejudice them or any future trial.

Questioned over her relationship with Cameron, a family friend of her husband's, Brooks said she had met him "probably three or four times" in the five months leading up to the May 2010 election.

She said they would exchange text messages once or twice a week but denied reports that there were as many as 12 texts a day.

The messages were signed off "DC" in the main, she said. Occasionally he would sign them off " 'LOL,' lots of love, until I told him it meant 'laugh out loud,' when he didn't sign them off like that any more," she said.

Asked if she and Cameron had discussed the phone hacking allegations againstNews of the World, she said they had done so in very general terms.

In late 2010, they had a more detailed discussion, she said, because civil cases were in court and the issue was in thenews.

Brooks was editor ofNews of the World in 2002 when thenewspaper hacked the voice mail of a missing schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, who was later found dead. The hacking scandal led to the paper's closure in 2011. Brooks then edited The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily tabloid, from 2003 to 2009.

Cameron has said the relationship between the media and politicians has become "too cozy." He is expected to appear before the inquiry in the coming weeks.

Testifying Friday, Brooks told the inquiry she had received "indirect messages" of sympathy on her resignation in July, from 10 Downing Street, 11 Downing Street, the Home Office and the Foreign Office.

A "very few" Labour politicians sent messages of commiseration, Brooks said.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair sent her a message, but his successor, Gordon Brown, did not, she said.

Blair's Labour Party benefited from the support of The Sun in three elections, but the paper switched allegiance to the Conservatives before the 2010 election in which Brown lost power.

In 2009, "we were running out of ways to support Mr. Brown's government," Brooks said, explaining what lay behind the paper's shift to Cameron in September that year.

She also said Brown had been "incredibly aggressive and very angry" in a phone call to her after The Sun published stories critical of his handling of a condolence letter to the family of a soldier killed in Afghanistan.

Brooks defended The Sun's handling of an article it published in 2006 about Brown's infant son, Fraser, having cystic fibrosis, which the former prime minister criticized in 2011.

Brooks denied the paper had illegally accessed Fraser's medical records. She did not reveal The Sun's source for the article but said the Browns had given permission for the paper to run it.

She said Brown had not raised concerns in the intervening years, when they continued to meet socially, and that "Mr. Brown's recollections of that time were not the same as my own."

Asked Friday if there was a danger that hernewspaper got too close to those in power and their "spin doctors," Brooks said the job of journalists was to question what they were told and serve their readers.

Brooks acknowledged becoming friendly with Blair by the end of his decade in power but said she was less friendly with Brown. She was more friends with Brown's wife, Sarah, Brooks said.

She had known Blair for more than a decade, she said, with many social and political meetings in the time he was prime minister. They also spoke on the phone and had dinners together.

Brooks and her husband, Charlie Brooks, live near Cameron's constituency home and have socialized together. She attended a private birthday party for Cameron in late 2010.

Questioned about her working relationship with Rupert Murdoch, Brooks said she was close to him and believed he trusted her implicitly.

But she rejected the suggestion that politicians thought they had to go through her to get close to Murdoch.

Brooks acknowledged she had made friendships during her years as a journalist, editor and chief executive but said she was always aware that she was a journalist and they were politicians, and assumed they also were.

Asked whether The Sun engendered fear in politicians, Brooks said she did not see them as people who were easily scared.

Jay, the inquiry lawyer, pressed Brooks over hernewspaper's role in putting pressure on the Cameron government, particularly Home Secretary Theresa May, to review the case of Madeleine McCann, a child abducted in Portugal.

Brooks said The Sun had tried to persuade the government to open a review but said "threat" was too strong a word to describe its efforts.

Brooks' appearance at the Leveson Inquiry came a day after fellow ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who became director of communications for Cameron after he quit the paper, took to the stand.

Critics have questioned Cameron's judgment in hiring Coulson in 2007 and asked why he was not subjected to more rigorous security vetting.

Coulson resigned as Cameron's spokesman in January 2011 when police opened a new investigation into the scandal. He insisted he was innocent but said he had become a distraction for the government.

Questioned Thursday, Coulson said the jailing of twoNews of the World employees over phone hacking in 2007 did come up in discussions with senior party members before his job offer.

He told the inquiry he had told them and Cameron what he has said repeatedly -- that he knew nothing about the practice of hacking under his leadership of the paper.

Coulson said he never witnessed a conversation that was "inappropriate" between members of the government andNews International.

He dismissed as a conspiracy theory the suggestion that Conservatives had struck some kind of deal onNews Corp.'s takeover of BSkyB in return for Murdoch's support.

CNN's Laura Perez Maestro contributed to this report.

:31am UK, Saturday May 12, 2012

Mark White, home affairs correspondent

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is facing fresh calls to resign after claims he sought "private advice" from News Corporation over phone hacking at the News Of The World.
The senior Tory is back under pressure after an email, sent to the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks by a News Corp PR executive, emerged.

The email was revealed in evidence as Mrs Brooks testified before the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics.

It was sent to her on June 27, 2011, as the controversy over phone hacking was beginning to build and at a time when News Corporation was bidding to take over full control of BSkyB.

The message, written by the company's PR executive Fred Michel, is one of a number he wrote as he acted as a liaison between Rupert Murdoch's company at the Culture Secretary's department.



The email was disclosed to the Leveson Inquiry by Rebekah Brooks

It stated: "Hunt will be making references to phone hacking in his statement on Rubicon (BSkyB bid) this week. He will be repeating the same narrative as the one he gave in Parliament few weeks ago."

The email goes on to say: "JH (Jeremy Hunt) is now starting to looking to phone hacking/practices more thoroughly and has asked me to advise him privately in the coming weeks and guide his and No 10's positioning…"

The inquiry has heard previously that Mr Michel would often refer in his emails to contact with Mr Hunt, but in reality it was more likely to have been his special adviser Adam Smith he was in direct communication with.

Mr Smith has since resigned, admitting he had at times gone too far in the contact he had with Mr Michel.

However, Prime Minister David Cameron continues to face calls to order an investigation into his Culture Secretary's conduct, amid claims he may have breached the Ministerial Code.

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, responding to the latest revelations, said: "This is absolutely not acceptable. How much more evidence does David Cameron need that this man is not fit to hold this high office?"


She continued: "Clearly there was complete collusion between the Secretary of State and his office and News Corp on a bid where he was supposed to be impartial, which is why he should not be in his job.


"Either he didn't know what was going on on an £8bn bid, in which case he shouldn't be in his job and he should be sacked, or he did know and he is covering up and blaming everybody else, in which case he should be sacked."

A spokesman for the Culture Department said: "Jeremy Hunt will respond to this when he gives his evidence to the Leveson Inquiry in due course.

"He is confident that his evidence will vindicate the position that he has behaved with integrity on every issue.

"It has already been made clear that when Fred Michel has claimed in emails to be speaking to Jeremy Hunt that was not the case."

Just watched the tail end of an interview on Breakfast T.V. between Charlie Stayt and Chris Horrie, a Journalist.

Horrie said Rebekah gave a bravura performance, was very calm, even managed a bit of humour , but the Press have always been influential for
Politicians.

It was Lord Thorneycroft who said The Sun made a difference to Cameron winning the Election.

Horrie says the BBC are constrained by their Governors on the way the inquiry is being handled, unlike in the U.S. where their Enquiries are far more open .There are three areas which need to be improved , Financial, Political , Journalism because standards have fallen so much.

Jon Gaunt a former Sun correspondent has just given his views. Says Rebekah Wade is a very powerful Woman and gave a very polished performance.

A panic reaction led to the demise of the NOTW a 160 yr old Newspaper, and over 300 Staff lost their jobs. He said Murdoch and Maxwell have wielded
immense power over Politicians and when Alistair Campbell and Tony Blair flew to Australia to meet Murdoch prior to Blair winning the Election it said it all.

It is up to Politicians to stop cosying up to the Press and they should have stood up to Maxwell and Murdoch. It is natural for Politicians to meet with
the Press on occasion but Press Barons should not have Carte Blanche to wield so much power. He says the Public are not interested in this INQUIRY,
they are waiting for the Trials.


Gordon Brown and his Wife deny Rebeka Brooks claim that she was given permission to print the Article about their Son having cystic fibrosis.

Hunt says he did not ask Newscorp for advice and will prove it when he appears before the enquiry.

Brooks Discussed Hacking Cases With Cameron in 2010


By Erik Larson and Amy Thomson on May 11, 2012
































Rebekah Brooks, who led News Corp. (NWSA) (NWSA)’s U.K. unit until last year, said she discussed the company’s phone-hacking cases and its bid for British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc (BSY) with Prime Minister David Cameron before resigning.

Brooks, 43, gave details to a media-ethics inquiry today of dozens of informal meetings, dinners, lunches and birthday parties with Britain’s political elite when she edited News Corp.’s best-selling Sun tabloid starting in 2003, and later as the unit’s chief executive officer. She was arrested in a phone- hacking probe in July, two days after she stepped down.

The inquiry, led by Judge Brian Leveson, is scrutinizing News Corp.’s ties to government after the company’s critics argued an often cozy link prevented the extent of the phone- hacking scandal from being uncovered sooner. Cameron called for the inquiry after revelations that hacking at another News Corp. tabloid, the News of the World, was far more widespread than the single “rogue” reporter jailed in 2007.

“If a politician or a prime minister ever put a friendship with an executive of a media company in front of his or her ability to do their professional duties properly, then that is their failing,” Brooks said in London. “If a journalist ever compromised their role as a journalist through friendship, then that is their failing.”

BSkyB Bid

Discussion of News Corp.’s proposed bid for the 61 percent of BSkyB it didn’t already own was “entirely appropriate” and came up in casual conversations, Brooks said. Cameron was “even-handed” about the bid, and neither he nor Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, with whom she also discussed the proposal, ever explicitly backed it, she said.

Testimony by News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son James, the former head of U.K. operations, last month led to calls for the resignation of Cameron’s culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt. An aide to Hunt stepped down after e-mails were released at the inquiry showing inside information about the politician’s views was given to News Corp. during the bid’s approval process.

The proposal has been discussed regularly at the ethics inquiry because Cameron’s government had to approve the deal. Rupert Murdoch abandoned the bid in July as a result of the phone-hacking scandal.

Fred Michel, the News Corp. lobbyist who communicated with Hunt’s aide, said in an e-mail to Brooks disclosed at the inquiry today that Hunt asked Michel for the company’s view on the phone-hacking scandal just weeks before the company was forced to shut its News of the World tabloid in July. Hunt sought News Corp.’s assistance to develop a position on the issue based on his belief that the police are “pursuing things thoroughly,” Michel said.

Civil Lawsuits

Hunt said today that Michel has misrepresented conversations with his aide as being directly with him. The culture secretary will address the Leveson inquiry at a later date.

As civil lawsuits by phone-hacking victims mounted in late 2010, and the company was accused of a cover-up, Brooks discussed the situation with Cameron, who became prime minister in May of that year. Phone hacking had “been on the news that day and I explained the story behind the news,” she said.

Brooks said she exchanged text messages with Cameron about once a week, increasing to about twice a week during the 2010 general election. Cameron signed off his texts with “LOL, for lots of love,” Brooks said. He stopped doing so after she told him it meant “laugh out loud,” she said.

Cameron and other high-ranking U.K. politicians sent Brooks “indirect messages” offering her support when she resigned from the company in July 2011, she said.

‘Sorry’

One of Cameron’s messages said, “Sorry I couldn’t have been as loyal to you as I have been, but Ed Miliband had me on the run,” Robert Jay, the inquiry’s lawyer, said today, referring to the leader of the opposition Labour Party. Brooks agreed that was the “gist” of the message.

Brooks and Cameron met occasionally in the English countryside, where she went on the weekends and he visited his constituents, she said. She also said she attended his private birthday party in 2010.

Rupert Murdoch’s close relationship with Brooks wasn’t a motive for prime ministers seeking her friendship, she said. “I don’t think people ever thought if they wanted to get to Mr. Murdoch they had to get through me,” Brooks said.

Brooks “sometimes” sent cases of wine to the Metropolitan Police’s pedophile unit to thank them for their work, and took senior politicians and police to “good restaurants that were appropriate to their seniority,” she said in a witness statement posted on the inquiry’s website.

Editor's note: Brian Cathcartis professor of journalism at Kingston University London and a founder of the group Hacked Off, which campaigns for press reform and speaks for victims of press abuses. He tweets at @BrianCathcart

(CNN)-- There had to be something special about Rebekah Brooks. Here was a woman, after all, who managed to be a close friend of Tony and Cherie Blair, then a friend (perhaps less close and more briefly) of Gordon and Sarah Brown, and then a very close ("lots of love") friend of David and Samantha Cameron.

Given the personality differences between those involved, and given their political differences, it is at least surprising that any one person could be cosy with them all. And for one woman to overcome the jealousy and suspicion of Brown towards a former chum of Blair, and then of Cameron towards a former chum of Brown and Blair, is nothing short of remarkable.

Looking back, it is hard to avoid the conclusion either that this woman was so powerful that politicians felt they had no choice but to clasp her to their bosoms, or that she was so amazingly nice and such utterly marvelous company that anybody would want her at their dinner table.

Giving evidence to Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry on her relations with politicians, Brooks did her very best to show us her amazingly nice and marvelous side -- even in the teeth of some pretty niggling questions from Robert Jay QC.

Demure and tidy beneath the famous mop of hair, she was polite and well-spoken, and always -- Andy Coulson-like -- controlled. But she also strove to appear warm, helpful and honorable. Where Jay tried to provoke, she smiled. When he pushed her towards a corner, she became engagingly baffled by his perversity.

Her friendships were just normal, she implied. How often did she send text messages to the prime minister? "I would text Mr Cameron, on occasion -- like a lot of people." Like you and me, perhaps. Her persistent forgetfulness about almost anything substantive was, her expression implied, normal too. Who remembers this kind of stuff?

As for influencing politicians, everything she did, she suggested, was driven by her loyalty not to Rupert Murdoch but to The Sun's millions of readers, whom she could not or would not distinguish from "the nation" or "the country." She acted "for the paper and for the readership," and insofar as she had power it was as a kind of embodiment of her readers.

So when she (or The Sun) did something tough, as they did more than once to Gordon Brown, she wanted us to know that it was done for high-minded reasons, and with pain in her heart. Notably when The Sun dumped Brown on the morning after his annual party conference speech in 2009, the timing was not, she said, designed to maximize damage, but to allow Brown a final opportunity to impress Sun readers in the speech.

She also told us she tried to ring Brown just ahead of publication to warn him, as a "general courtesy" and because it was "the right thing to do."

When The Sun published a story about the health of the Browns' son, it was all done in the nicest possible way, and if the couple had had reservations she would have spiked it.

All of this Jay greeted with an air of skepticism, but Brooks's message was clear: "Look at me. I'm nice."

What could be more natural than the Blairs, Browns and Camerons all falling in turn for such charms? Maybe you would too. Mince pies and mulled wine in your Oxfordshire retreat? Invite Rebekah. Girls' slumber party at Chequers? Invite Rebekah.

But of course it can't be natural, as Lord Justice Leveson himself stepped in to remind us. In one of his several pertinent interventions he spoke to Brooks of "relationships you have been careful to develop for professional reasons, and doubtless coincidentally for personal reasons, over the years."

Those words "doubtless coincidentally" carry a vast weight. Even if Rebekah Brooks were Snow White and Mother Teresa rolled into one, nobody could seriously believe that the professional and the personal reasons for her friendships with political leaders just happened to coincide. And Brooks is nothing like Snow White or Mother Teresa.

Former News Corp. Executive Rebekah Brooks Was Hacked by News of the World

By Erik Larson - Feb 29, 2012 4:38 PM GMT
.

..
News Corp. (NWSA) Chairman Rupert Murdoch’s former top U.K. executive, Rebekah Brooks, was a regular victim of phone-hacking by the company’s News of the World tabloid when she edited the Sun newspaper, a police detective said today.

London police investigating two News of the World employees in 2006 found evidence Brooks’s mobile-phone messages were hacked into twice a week starting in 2005, Philip Williams, a detective chief superintendent who oversaw the probe, told a judge-led inquiry into media ethics today. Brooks, who was arrested last year in a new phone-hacking probe, declined to join the prosecution as a victim at the time, Williams said.

The inquiry is probing the relationship between U.K. police and the press after the 2006 case and a related 2009 probe didn’t uncover the extent of the scandal. The new investigation, begun in January 2011, revealed the practice was widespread, leading to dozens of arrests, the closure of the News of the World and resignations of two top police officials.

“One has to question why she took no action on being told that her phone was hacked,” Mark Lewis, a lawyer for phone- hacking victims, said in an interview. “It seems that she was reluctant to ask questions because she didn’t want the answers.”

James Murdoch Resigns

Murdoch closed the News of the World in July to help contain the hacking scandal. His son, James Murdoch, resigned as News International’s executive chairman as part of his relocation to New York, the company said today in a statement.

Brooks’s phone “was one of the most accessed since 2005,” the inquiry’s lead lawyer, Robert Jay, said of police evidence of phone-hacking victims.

David Wilson, Brooks’s spokesman, didn’t immediately return a call or e-mail seeking comment.

At the time Brooks’s messages were intercepted, the News of the World was edited by Andy Coulson, who later became press chief for U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and was arrested around the same time as Brooks in the phone-hacking probe.

Brooks edited the News of the World from 2000 to 2003 and the Sun from 2003 to 2009, when she was promoted to chief executive officer of London-based News International. She held that role until her resignation in July, two days before her arrest.

The inquiry earlier heard evidence that Brooks was tipped off about the status of the 2006 probe and kept a retired police horse in her stable from 2008 to 2010.

Goodman, Mulcaire

Investigators focused in the first probe on the paper’s royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who were jailed for phone-hacking in 2007, and didn’t follow-up on details suggesting others may have been involved, Williams said.

News Corp.’s power wasn’t the reason London police dropped their probe and didn’t look further, he said.

“I accept there were further leads we could have followed,” Williams said. “I knew there was a range of names in the evidence. We always propositioned this could be more widespread.”

The evidence in the criminal case came from 11,000 pages of notes seized during Mulcaire’s arrest.

Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty to hacking the voice- mail messages of three members of the royal household and five other people, including model Elle Macpherson. Police didn’t tell 419 people on a list compiled at the time that their messages may have been intercepted by Mulcaire. Police now say there are 829 “likely” victims.

“I understand people think more people should have been informed, but I assure you this was not me trying to limit” awareness of what was going on, Williams said. There wasn’t enough proof that the voice mails of each person had actually been listened to, he said.

Judge Brian Leveson, who is overseeing the inquiry, said the evidence was at least proof of a conspiracy against the 419 people, and that similar evidence of a planned bank robbery would have resulted in the bank being warned.

#Leveson #Brooks : Journalist Paulo Reis Takes On News International

http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/leveson-brooks-journalist-paulo-reis.html

Thanks Annabel, Rebekah Brooks is just as guilty as any of the Staff and it will be interesting to see whether she has to spend time in one of her Majestys Prisons.

"It is as clear as the nose on your face that the McCann's were hacked and an agreement was arranged between News International eturn for non stop coverage of the 'Maddy Story' and I would imagine a rather large donation paid into the fundesty's Prison or wriggles out of it."

Paulo Reis's Book should be very interesting, Brooks and Mccanns !!!!!

il;l buy it ill even preorder it if i can.

Breaking News.......Rebekah Brooks and her Husband will find out tomorrow whether they will be charged ,!!!

Lets hope they don't get away scot free.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.

6:58am UK, Tuesday May 15, 2012

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and six others are due to find out if they are to be charged with perverting the course of justice during the phone-hacking scandal.
The group - understood to include Mrs Brooks' racehorse trainer husband Charlie - will learn the outcome of a police investigation after answering bail.

Cheryl Carter, Mrs Brooks' former PA, and News International's (NI) head of security, Mark Hanna, are also expected to be included in an announcement by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Mrs Brooks resigned as chief executive of NI in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, although she maintains she was unaware of the practice during her time at the News Of The World.

The 43-year-old became the tabloid's editor in 2000, then moved to take the helm of The Sun in 2003.

She was appointed chief executive of NI in 2009 before resigning in July 2011.

The decision from prosecutors comes just days after Mrs Brooks gave almost an entire day's evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.

6:58pm UK, Monday May 14, 2012

Mark White, home affairs correspondent

Tony Blair's former director of communications has denied there was ever any "express deal" with Rupert Murdoch to win support from his papers before the 1997 general election.
Testifying for a second time before the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, Alastair Campbell said new Labour would have been "crazy" not to try to win over the media mogul.

But when asked if there was any explicit deal, he said "absolutely not".

Mr Campbell said in the years running up to the election, party leaders made a determined effort to court the News Corp chairman.

He said: "Murdoch was the single most important media figure. It would have been foolish on our part not to build some sort of relationship with him."

The witness said the party's strategy was to try to win the support of sections of the press and not just the Murdoch empire, although with some newspapers like the Mail, he said all Labour could realistically do was to try to counter the worst of the paper's attacks.

After a few years in government, Mr Campbell said it became apparent there was a "real problem" in the relationship between the press and politicians.

However, he admitted they did not take action to address the issues.
========================================================

Yeah Alistair, we believe you.!!!! Tony Blair is Godfather to one of Murdochs' children......how cozy is that.???

Panda wrote:
Yeah Alistair, we believe you.!!!! Tony Blair is Godfather to one of Murdochs' children......how cozy is that.???

My god! How stupid do they think everyone is?

-------------------------------------------------

If Brooks gets away with this, I really think we can kiss justice goodbye on every level.
There is noway imo, they did not pervert the course of justice!
I will have hope though, if she is charged. She has a lot of 'contacts' and it would be great to think having 'contacts' doesn't stop you being charged with any criminal acts you may be part of.

wjk wrote:

Panda wrote:
Yeah Alistair, we believe you.!!!! Tony Blair is Godfather to one of Murdochs' children......how cozy is that.???

My god! How stupid do they think everyone is?

-------------------------------------------------

If Brooks gets away with this, I really think we can kiss justice goodbye on every level.
There is noway imo, they did not pervert the course of justice!
I will have hope though, if she is charged. She has a lot of 'contacts' and it would be great to think having 'contacts' doesn't stop you being charged with any criminal acts you may be part of.

Morning wjk,

Yes, she is as guilty as Hell, but what worries me is that Murdoch will not want a Trial which will wash more dirty linen in public and may call iin a few favours with SY if you know what I mean.

Breaking News on Sky
She IS to be charged with perverting the course of justice!

She and her husband say, "We deplore this weak and unjust decision"

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16227865