Another week and the hacking scandal rolls on In the last week we've had a good selection. Firstly we had Vanity Fair
Murdoch Clan Met with Family Therapist to Discuss News Corp.’s Future | Blogs | Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair contributing editor Sarah Ellison reports that “The [Murdoch] siblings had been in family counseling with a psychologist over the issue of succession” since before last February.
It's something that makes the whole thing seem like one of those black and white Alec Guiness comedies where he's playing all the characters.
But being a week in the land of Murdoch, that can't be all there is, can it? Oh no it isn't
The Annual Lewes Firework display Burned Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks in Effigy
((youtube C7i2Bnfe9Gc))
This week we have a report that a selection of lawyers have had their phones hacked
'Solicitors have been phone hacked' says Pannone | Manchester Evening News - menmedia.co.uk
North west solicitors advising high-profile clients are emerging as victims of phone hacking, Manchester law firm, Pannone said today.
Paul Jonson, head of dispute resolution at Pannone, said it was representing a partner at a north west firm who was recently told by police officers involved in Operation Weeting - the Met's investigation into phone hacking – that his mobile had been hacked.
The partner's name and mobile number as well as that of his client were found in a notebook belonging to a journalist employed by the News of the World.
Found out how much the closure of the News of the World has cost...
Murdoch writes off $91m for shutting News of the World in hacking scandal | Media | The Guardian
Closing theNews of the World costRupert Murdoch's News Corp $91m (£57.2m), the company has announced.
The tabloid, the most profitable newspaper in Murdoch's portfolio, was shut in July amid an escalating investigation into illegal phone hacking at the company that has cast doubt on the 80-year-old Murdoch's succession plans. The scandal has triggered investigations into the company on both sides of the Atlantic, the resignation of senior executives and more than a dozen arrests.
The police have uprated the number of people possibly hacked increased by 2,000
BBC News - Phone-hacking: Police revise up number of potential victims
A total of 5,795 people may have had their phones hacked by the News of the World (NoW) newspaper, police now say.
The figure was "very likely" to be revised in the future following further analysis, the Metropolitan Police said.
In July, police said they had gathered material containing 3,870 first and second names of people whose phones could have been illegally accessed.
The NoW was shut down in July after it emerged phone hacking could have been more widespread than initially thought.
Details of Rebekah Brooks payoff have emerged
Murdoch gave loyal lieutenant Rebekah Brooks £1.7m pay-off, car and office | Media | The Observer
Rebekah Brooks, the formerNews of the World editor who resigned as chief executive ofNews International at the height of the phone-hacking scandal, received £1.7m in cash, the use of a London office and a chauffeur-driven limousine as part of her severance package from the newspaper group.
Brooks, a favourite ofRupert Murdoch who rose from being a secretary on the features desk of the Sunday newspaper to the very top of the mogul's UK operation, quit in July amid claims over the alleged illegal activities carried out by her executives and reporters. Days after she resigned, she was arrested and bailed in connection with allegations of phone hacking and corruption.
(There are rumours that this is something purely temporary till things all blow over, then she gets her job back) and then we have
Man arrested over alleged police payments named as Sun journalist | Media | The Guardian
A Sun journalist has been arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into alleged payments to police officers by newspapers.
The reporter is understood to be Jamie Pyatt, district editor of the paper. He was taken to a south-west London police station at 10.30am on Friday. Pyatt, 48, has been working at the Sun since 1987.
He is the sixth person arrested by detectives working on Operation Elveden, which was set up in July following allegations that police officers had received up to £130,000 over several years from the News of the World for information, including contact details for the royal family.
So this is the point that the infection is known to travel beyond the News of The World into other branches of the organisation. Word has it that this resulted in widespread panic amongst the staff of the Sun, who had thought the problem contained in the one paper. However if it's out beyond that who knows where it will end.
Tonight theres a report that News International had the lawyers of people acting against them and their families under surveillance in an attempt to get the lawyers acting against them disbarred.
News of the World hired investigators to spy on hacking victims' lawyers | Media | The Guardian
TheNews of the World hired a specialist private investigator to run covert surveillance on two of the lawyers representing phone-hacking victims as part of an operation to put pressure on them to stop their work.
The investigator secretly videoed Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris as well as family members and associates. Evidence suggests it was part of an attempt to gather evidence for false smears about their private lives.
The News of the World also took specialist advice in an attempt to injunct Lewis to prevent him representing the victims of hacking and attempted to persuade one of his former clients to sue him.
News International has responded to this in this way to the BBC
BBC News - NoW placed hacking lawyers under surveillance
"While surveillance is not illegal, it was clearly deeply inappropriate in these circumstances. This action was not condoned by any current executive at the company."
That would suggest that it's a previous executive, which you would think that points the finger rather squarely at Rebekah Brooks, but that may be a leap too far.
In the next seven days we have both James Murdoch back in front of the DCMS committee, and the start of three months of formal evidence at the Leveson inquiry, which no doubt will be packed with fun.