A Labour MP has alleged that phone hacking at News International has gone "far beyond the News of the World" as he claimed that the Sun newspaper is also implicated in illegal practices.
... SNIP ...
Do you really think that hacking only happened on the News of the World?" he said. "Ask Dominic Mohan, the current editor of the Sun. He used to joke about lax security at Vodafone when he attended celebrity parties. Ask the editor of the Sun if he thinks Rupert Murdoch's contagion has spread to other newspapers. If he gives you an honest answer, he'll tell you it's only a matter of time before we find the Sun in the evidence file of the convicted private investigator that hacked Milly Dowler's phone. ..."
The Guardian via TPM.
Watson turned on the case for applying the "fit and proper" test to News International, a company he described as "sick" with corruption and criminality from "top to bottom".
"Let's tell Ofcom what we think about James Murdoch," he said. "I wouldn't put him on the board of an ornamental garden. He's certainly not a fit and proper person to chair a major broadcaster."
Ofcom is the
Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries
What MP Watson is saying is that in his opinion, James Murdoch (son of Rupert) is ineligible to run a major media outlet in the UK. He's calling for Murdoch to be forced to step down by regulatory authorities.
More below the Orange Squiggle of Power.
Bryant, a former minister whose phone was hacked, told Labour delegates that he hoped those involved in phone hacking and the ensuing cover-up would go to jail.
He hit out at those who had "lied and lied and lied" to parliament during the hacking investigation. Earlier this month, he claimed that he had tracked 53 lies told to parliament. But he said his tireless researcher had now tallied that a total of 486 lies had been told to parliament.
"I hope that people will go to jail for the criminal cover-up that happened at News of the World," he said. "But there is a bigger scandal, because it is the monopoly that BSkyB have. The fact that they've got 80% of the pay-TV market and 95% in the pay-TV market in many places. They can hoover up television rights, and hardly produce a decent programme of their own. That is one of the things that we should be dealing with – the monopoly at BSkyB.
A lot of the article covers the unfortunate fact that Labour in England let themselves get too close to the Murdochs. But it appears that Labour can afford to cut themselves loose as the Murdoch brand loses credibility. Whether or not the Tories can disavow the Murdochs remains to be seen.
At any rate, at least some MP's in the UK are still on this case.