Important Update: Hacking Victims Lawyers Targeted
Just when I thought it was safe to go to bed Tom Watson has tweeted quite a devastating new story breaking overnight from the Independent. Just when the mendacity, bullying and abuse of power from News International seemed to have hit rock bottom, you hear the hand of corporate coverup tapping underneath
News International sanctioned the use of private detectives as recently as six months ago to conduct surveillance and compile dossiers on the private lives of three lawyers who are leading damages claims against the News of the World for illegal phone hacking.
One of the lawyers, Mark Lewis, whose clients include the family of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, told The Independent that the use of private detectives against him "crossed a new line" and threatened his ability to do his job. The reports gathered on the lawyers include claims about their personal lives, political beliefs and health.
The dossiers were submitted to senior executives at Rupert Murdoch's newspaper group at a time when it was still seeking to limit the hacking scandal by insisting voicemail interception was restricted to a single "rogue" reporter. The Law Society described the allegations as "another low point" in the hacking scandal and said it had written to the Leveson inquiry asking for the issue to be explored in the course of its investigations into illegal newsgathering. The Independent understands that Tom Crone, the NOTW's former chief lawyer, will be asked by MPs on Tuesday who at News International (NI) was responsible for sanctioning the snooping operation against the lawyers, who include Charlotte Harris and Mark Thomson. He will be questioned by the House of Commons' Media Select Committee.
Next Tuesday is going to be even more of a schadenfreudefestschrift than I thought. Night all.
(Original Diary now below squiggle)
Firstly, big thanks to the ever visionary ericlewis0 for keeping up with all the developments in Australia earlier today. He and AnnetteK (and others) are doing a stellar job keeping this front page while the three police investigations continue here (plus a public enquiry starting this coming Tuesday) and the DOJ investigates possible RICO charges against Newscorp.
As Eric's diary and comments in it make clear, Australia was the first place the Murdoch perfected the dark arts of media power, political pressure and favourable legislation (to gain more media power etc.) before he exported this to the UK and US. Any news of his influence waning in his homeland is a good one. Now all we need is more pressure in his place of citizenship - the US. Hopefully this will help push the rock uphill.
Former Prime Minister sends Police Damning Tapes of Sunday Times hacking
This is pretty important, because not only does it involve our former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, but it takes the dark arts of hacking and blagging away from just the closed News of the World, or the tabloid Sun. From the Independent:
Gordon Brown has stepped up his campaign against Rupert Murdoch’s News International media group, sending tape recordings to the Metropolitan Police earlier today which he says challenge the Sunday Times’s assurances that it broke no laws when investigating his personal financial affairs.
In a letter to Sue Akers – the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner who is heading the investigation into illegal phone hacking by the News of the World – the former Prime Minister states that the tapes detail conversations between named journalists on the Sunday Times and a private investigator, Barry Beardall.
Mr Brown claims in his letter that the tapes reveal discussions on how Mr Beardall’s investigations for the Sunday Times were progressing, and on plans for “reverse engineering” a telephone number to obtain an address.
Just think this through. The head of the government was subject to illegal attempts to gain private information during his premiership. You have to add to this the strange leaked disclosures about Gordon and Sarah Brown son's illness exposed by The Sun to see a systematic campaign of breaking privacy in order to intimidate and control.
The tape is alleged to contain Mr Beardall impersonating Mr Brown – a technique that was used when a conman contacted a Bradford call centre and tried to “blag” information from the Abbey National building society on Mr Brown’s financial affairs.
Abbey National's senior lawyer was afterwards moved to write to The Sunday Times editor John Witherow: “On the basis of facts and inquiries, I am drawn to the conclusion that someone from The Sunday Times or acting on its behalf has masqueraded as Mr Brown for the purpose of obtaining information from Abbey National by deception.”
The Abbey National described the blagging attempt, which failed, as “a well-orchestrated scheme of deception”
I believe all elected representatives deserve proper scrutiny. But this should be about their politics, and only about their private lives when it contradicts some stated policy. We can at least elect and deselect our politicians. For them to be held hostage or blackmailed by an unaccountable commercial organisation with monopoly power shows just how dangerous the power elites around News International have grown.
Rupert and James award themselves Massive Pay Increases
That's right, just in case you thought the word's shareholder accountability or corporate governance really meant anything post Enron, it now turns out that in this year when they rendered the Newscorp brand toxic, and lost 3billion from the share price, Rupert and James Murdoch have increased their pay by a half and three quarters according to the Guardian.
The News Corporation chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, received a $12.5m (£7.7m) cash bonus for the last financial year, while his total remuneration rose 47% year on year to $33m, according to the company's annual statement to shareholders.
His son James Murdoch – who is deputy chief operating officer, with responsibility for News Corporation's business in Europe and Asia – also benefited handsomely, with a $6m cash bonus taking his total remuneration to almost $18m – a 74% rise on his 2010 take-home pay.
The odd thing is that Rupert claims to be a meritocrat, and despises the Royal Family because of their inherited wealth. And yet who else gets a big pay out in the last years accounts...
Elisabeth Murdoch, the chief executive of TV production company Shine, received a salary of $1.7m from News Corp last year, the report shows. Elisabeth received $214m in cash after News Corp bought Shine earlier this year.
That latter acquisition is the source of a shareholder suit, in which the litigants claim Murdoch treated corporate assets as 'family candy'. You can see their point. At least Elisabeth has the good sense to refuse a place on the Newscorp board (new profile of her husband Matthew Freud here).
But for Murdoch to declare he dislikes the heriditary principle of monarchy, and so clearly wants to establish a dynasty himself, almost beggars belief. It would be akin to this avatar of free markets and liberty suppressing satellite channels or books to please the Communist Chinese Government...
Oh.
Wait.
(Murdoch bounced the BBC from his satellite and refused to publish former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten's book because it might offend his authoritarian friends)
Another Arrest of a News of the World Journalist Today
Still waiting to see who this is: will update as news comes in, though there's still no update. Personally, I think this is a good thing. It means future suspects have no heads-up the police are coming.
Just to give Kossacks a heads-up though: Tuesday is going to be a big day, with James having to explain his previous lies before the Media and Culture Select Committee, and the Levenson Inquiry begins, here's the website (hat tip: AnnetteK)
And while there's still no news on the arrested journalist a Major Update:
Turmoil in the Murdoch Family: Parricide or Fratricide
Odd that I mention Elisabeth Murdoch and her partner Matthew Freud: the Guardian has just published a major expose:Murdoch family divided as News Corporation crisis comes to a head: Row over handling of phone-hacking scandal has led to rift, with James Murdoch no longer seen by all as heir to Rupert's empire
The immediate cause of the rift stems from what insiders call "a big family row" at the height of the crisis in July, the week after the News of the World closed. Members of the Murdoch clan descended on the company's Wapping headquarters in London to work out their battle plan, but within days Elisabeth Murdoch, James's sister, had walked out, because in the words of one observer who asked not to be named, "she had had enough of it all".
snip
While outsiders see News Corp as tight-knit, monolithic organisation, those close to family members describe a company, at least in London, riven by internal rows and disputes over how to handle the hacking crisis.
Now those close to the family worry that the only options are "fratricide or patricide", with critics of James saying that he mishandled power with a series of crude corporate moves such as switching from Labour to the Conservatives in 2009 in the middle of the Labour party conference.
Well, I've always said Elisabeth is the smartest of all the heirs. She and her husband also try to constantly distance themselves from the more rabid parts of the Murdoch Empire, especially Fox News.
The problem with any family run Empire is always this: you're a family run empire. Expect, a la Caligula or the Borgias or the Guccis (pet project of mine), the wealth at stake to screw up the personal relationships.
12:14 PM PT: Thanks to Isara it turns out James Murdoch has declined his bonus. More here from Reuters:
"I will consult with the Compensation Committee in the future about whether any bonus may be appropriate at a later date," Murdoch said in a statement.
http://www.reuters.com/...
12:18 PM PT: Annette K is on fire in the comments with lots of additional info. Check out downthread. But in another Kos-effect result, the outcry in previous diaries about Murdoch's involvement in the New York state education department software for tracking students (and no doubt the various Union protests), has led to a result: Chalk it up to the hacks: New York scraps $27 million education contract with Murdoch firm
1:51 PM PT: The arrested journalist turns out to be the author of the 'For Neville' email from Glynn Mulcaire which proved the knowledge of phone hacking was extensive in NoW: the journalist in question is Ross Hall, son of a former NOW editor, Phil Hall - more dynastic nepotism. The Guardian reports
A 30-year-old man who has been arrested by police investigating the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World is believed to be Ross Hall, a former journalist at the paper who now works for a financial PR firm.
Hall, who worked under the name Ross Hindley until September 2006, is believed to be the man who transcribed the "for Neville" email that was sent to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. It has become a pivotal piece of evidence in the phone-hacking affair.
That email contained a transcript of messages left on a mobile phone belonging to Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association. The "Neville" referred to in the email is believed to be Neville Thurlbeck, the paper's chief reporter.