Over in the UK we have had yet another day of the Department of Culture Media and Sport select committee. Today we have had two Lawyers involved. James Pike, a partner in the legal company that dealt with the Gordon Taylor legal suit on behalf of News International, and Mark Lewis, the lawyer for several people who had been taking News International to court. The day kicked off with a statement from Tom Watson,
U.K. Lawmaker Watson Will Try to Speak at News Corp. AGM - Bloomberg
Tom Watson, the U.K. lawmaker who has led attacks againstNews Corp. (NWSA)’s British newspapers over phone hacking, will travel to Los Angeles to try to speak at the company’s annual general meeting on Oct. 21.
Watson caused laughter at the start of a hearing of Parliament’s Culture Committee in London today when he announced he had bought shares in News Corp. that would allow him to address the AGM. The panel was taking testimony from lawyers involved in hacking cases.
“I want to make sure the shareholders are fully informed about the things their company is doing in the U.K.,” Watson, a member of the opposition Labour Party, said in an interview after the hearing. “For an organization that believes in freedom of speech, it would be pretty extraordinary if they tried to stop me being heard.”
We then got onto the first of the Lawyers. a summary of which is here
Phone hacking: NI lawyer says he knew its 'rogue reporter' defence was wrong | Media | guardian.co.uk
A lawyer who acted for News International over phone-hacking claims has told MPs he knew the company had misled parliament about the affair but he had not acted because of client confidentiality.
Julian Pike, a partner at Farrer & Co, the law firm whose clients include the Queen, told MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee on Wednesday that he was aware the company's "rogue reporter" defence was untrue.
Pike said he had seen evidence in 2008 that suggested an additional threeNews of the World journalists were involved in hacking voicemail messages and had informed NI of this.
there are a couple of new things in here. Previous to this evidence, it has seemed that there was only one meeting between Crone,(NI counsel) Myler (NOTW editor) and James Murdoch, but Pike seems to have been copied into the conversation over the documents and says he has written evidence that Crone, Myler and Murdoch had two separate meetings and so earlier evidence about the "For Neville" email may be true because it may be that it was actually discussed at an earlier meeting. He also said that there were three reporters that he knew and that others who had been involved knew had been hacking phones. but he saw no problem with his clients misleading parliament.
Tom Watson was as usual quite solid but one of the MP's appears as usual to be firmly committed to defending the Murdochs
The second Lawyer was the man on the other side in the same case (and who is also representing other victims including the familiy of Millie Dowler, the murdered teenager.
BBC News - Phone hacking: Lawyer says hacking 'more widespread'
Mr Lewis said the settlement for Mr Taylor was much higher than would have been expected in a privacy case in which no story was actually published.
He told MPs he believed that was to "hush up" the matter and encourage him not to bring any further claims or make public any further allegations.
"They didn't want it to get out," he said. "They paid my costs in full. They didn't knock a penny off - that's unheard of in litigation."
He added: "The News of the World's stance on all this has moved from one rogue reporter... to trying to present this as something that is about people who have no right to any sympathy - politicians, celebrities, sports people.
"It was only the Milly Dowler case that exposed everything. The lie that was being told by News of the World, but also all the other newspapers. That was really the scandal. It was a cover up by all the newspapers."
Mr Lewis also claimed his own phone had been hacked as recently as 2011.
I'm yet to watch the second set of evidence in full, so will update with thoughts and impressions when I have done.
Updated: Small details from Mark Lewis evidence:
Last week the metropolitan Police's Barister has admitted that there are 6500 victims in the Mulcaire notes in the case he has against the metropolitan police.
Legal action in the US is covering two different factors, firstly people who were actually hacked while they were in the US, and secondly a more broadly ranging move against the corporate structure to uncover the extent of the corporations moves to cover up the problems.
He knew that there was more to things than was admitted when Crone the corporate counsel came up to Manchester, as he normally never left London, on top of that when he asked for £250,000 Crone left to get instruction, rather than offering £15,000
He suggests that he personally was hacked as late as this year
He also says that they have moved beyond phone hacking onto planting trojans onto peoples computers.
There was evidence of a reporter for another newspaper group being instructed on how to hack phones in the form of a recording made by Mulcaire.
IFurther update
It appears that Murdoch knew that this was going to form part of the evidence today as two days ago News International changed solicitors for the ongoing civil Claims
News Corp replaces Farrers with Olswang for phone-hacking work- Legalweek
News Corporation has parted ways with legal adviser Farrer & Co and appointed Olswang to advise it on all civil claims relating to phone-hacking at the News of the World (NoW).
Farrers has been the primary adviser to the now-defunct tabloid throughout the phone-hacking scandal, and is understood to have advised on more than 60 cases taken out by alleged victims.
Olswang will now take over as the main adviser for News Group Newspapers (NGN) on all civil claims against the NoW, while also taking responsibility for the implementation of the £20m compensation fund for phone-hacking victims set up by the publisher earlier this year.