British Phone-Hacking Scandal (News of the World)

In July 2011, long-simmering charges about tactics used by News of the World, a British newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch's  News Corporation, erupted into a scandal that led to the paper's closing and put Mr. Murdoch and the tabloid culture he represents under unprecedented scrutiny.

Members of Parliament of all parties expressed outrage over allegations that the paper's journalists invaded the voicemail accounts not only of a 13-year-old murder victim but also the relatives of fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The scandal took an immediate toll on News Corp., with its stock price falling and new questions being raised about Mr. Murdoch’s proposed $12 billion takeover of the pay-television company British Sky Broadcasting. Many legislators criticized the deal, and Britain’s media regulatory agency, Ofcom, said it was “closely monitoring the situation.”

The News Corporation, with its ownership of four leading British newspapers, was once widely seen as such a powerful force that politicians and police officers walked in fear of it, fearing its disclosures and courting its support.

Prime Minister David Cameron, whose Conservative Party benefits from Mr. Murdoch’s support, initially resisted calls for investigations into behavior by The News of the World and other tabloids. But on July 8 he ordered two separate inquiries, acting hours after his former communications director, Andy Coulson, had been arrested “on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications” and “on suspicion of corruption allegations,” according to a police statement. It said he had been interviewed by officers investigating illegal payments to police officers and phone hacking.

In an effort to stem the outrage, Mr. Murdoch's son and heir apparent, James, announced on July 7 that News of the World would close after its July 11 edition. But Mr. Murdoch voiced staunch support for the current head of News Corp. in Britain, Rebekah Brooks, who had come under enormous scrutiny, since she had been the paper's editor during the Dowler case.

Other new developments included:

• The Guardian reported that journalists throughout the News International empire had harassed Gordon Brown over more than 10 years, first as chancellor of the exchequer and later as the Labour prime minister.

• The BSkyB takeover deal ran into fresh trouble when the opposition Labour Party promised to take its battle against the bid to a vote in the House of Commons.

• Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats and junior partner in Mr. Cameron’s coalition government. became the most senior official to publicly urge Mr. Murdoch to drop his quest for BSkyB.

• The police said that Clive Goodman had been arrested; he was once one of Mr. Coulson’s top reporters, and served a four-month jail term in 2007 in connection with earlier inquiries into phone-hacking.

• The Guardian reported that police were investigating reports that an executive with News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, had tried to delete millions of e-mails from a News of the World archive “in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard’s inquiry” into the affair.

• The BBC reported that Ofcom, Britain’s media regulatory agency, was expected to announce that it will consider the out of control journalistic practices in the newsroom of The News of the World as relevant in determining if Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation would meet the “fit and proper” test for taking full ownership of BSkyB, as the pay-television company is known. Mr. Murdoch already owns a controlling 39.1 percent stake in the company and is trying to acquire the rest.

Background

Unease about the phone hacking tactics of some reporters had been growing for months, but the public mood turned to shock and revulsion after The Guardian reported in early July that the targets of the voice mail interception — originally presumed to be restricted to the famous — included the phone of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old schoolgirl abducted and murdered in 2002. Then, new reports said the technique had been used with phones belonging to the families of people killed in the July 7, 2005, bombings in the London transit system.

Members of Parliament denounced allegations that the tabloid's executives had paid police officers, lied to Parliament, hired investigators to intercept voice mail messages left on the cellphones of murdered children and terrorism victims, and, in one instance, tampered with a murder investigation in which the suspects were linked to The News of the World. Legislators also attacked the tabloid news media in general for employing similar tactics.

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