Murdoch: Breaking the Spell? Panorama


Murdoch: Breaking the Spell?

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For decades, one man has wielded extraordinary power in Britain.

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Murdoch had complete control over parliament, the Government and, I

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am sorry to say, the police. They murdered schoolgirl threatens to

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destroy his power after the News of the World was forced to admit it

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hacked into her voicemail and deleted messages. That suddenly

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struck people as disgusting, I think that was the end of it for

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After two weeks of revelations, resignations, apologies and arrests,

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Rupert Murdoch is fighting to save his reputation. Shame on you

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exclamation this will prove to have been the biggest scandal in British

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politics for the best part of 75 Was it really only five weeks ago?

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What a swell evening it was, when some of the most powerful people in

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Britain got together for the News International Summer Party. Turn to

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your right and she would see a bishop, to your right, David

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Cameron, straight ahead, Ed Balls, Ed Miliband. Everybody there,

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naturally, paid court to Rupert Murdoch, Britain's most powerful

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media baron. Ed Miliband came in with two or

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three advisers, I spoke to him and one of the advisers was clearly

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looking very anxious, it was clear he had to meet Rupert Murdoch.

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But the world of News International was threatened. The phone hacking

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scandal was closing in. One party guest said so in the House of Lords.

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Isn't it the case that the editor is responsible as to what goes in

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the newspaper, and therefore he also should be given a custodial

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sentence and, indeed, the proprietor and board of directors?

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So when he arrived for the summer party, Lord Sugar was told, you are

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fired. He was asked to leave. But everyone else stayed on and no

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one's spirits were dampened when the weather suddenly changed.

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The world looks so different now. In the last fortnight, public

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opinion and the entire British political establishment have

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rounded on News International. Tomorrow, Rupert Murdoch, his St

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James and Rebekah Brooks - who, until Friday, was considered almost

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family - will have to face the music before a House of Commons

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Over Sydney Harbour Bridge by Rolls Royce, Rupert Murdoch on his way to

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his office. A Rupert Murdoch's first step

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towards building his global empire began when as a 37 year-old

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Australian newspaperman he bought the News of the World. Will the

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paper had any political orientation, like the Sun and the day the

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Herald? No fixed orientation in the sense of being allied to any party,

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it will be quite independent. he bought the Sun, the Times and

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the Sunday Times. It is a fantastic benefit he brought to the newspaper

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industry, freeing up the ability for newspapers to come alive.

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Beyond that, he subsidises the Times, which loses about �50

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million a year. Very few people would suggest the British media

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would be better off if the Times did not exist.

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Having built a huge stake in the British press, he made his move

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into TV by launching the pay-TV satellite station Sky. February 5th,

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1989, the dawn of the new-age. Competition law could have stopped

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him from owning a TV station and newspapers, but the then

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Conservative government waved it through. Margaret Thatcher gave

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Murdoch power in return for his unqualified support, leaving a

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legacy of 40% of the British media controlled by Rupert Murdoch. She

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delivered into his hands power which he has pretty ruthlessly used

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down the years which means most prime ministers have conducted

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their dialogue with Murdoch from their knees. Murdoch is about money,

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with money comes power. That power and influence to get you to do

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things. If you fear him, and fear is that the background, if you fear

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him, that gives them a great deal of incident -- of influence.

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Rupert Murdoch has which political support between parties in Britain,

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-- has switched his political support between parties in Britain

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but has been consistent in backing his own commercial interest.

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Everybody understood that he is a businessman, he wants certain

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things and has done this in America, Australia and the UK. He backs the

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people who will be most congenial to his business.

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Sky TV was merged into a 39% stake in BSkyB, and Mr Murdoch's ambition

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until last week was to take it over completely. Its annual revenue of

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nearly �6 billion easily outstrips the BBC licence fee. The former

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Prime Minister says that was just part of a wider plan that he

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opposed and paid the price for. News International has an agenda

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about the BBC, an agenda to neuter the regulatory organisation Ofcom.

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Partly because we refused to go along with some of their commercial

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proposals purely in the interest of their company, News International

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did not find they could support Labour at the last election.

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But Murdoch's Newspapers could exercise power in another way, by

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the power of scandal. Stories about people's private lives could

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destroy reputations and careers. they turned on you, they could be

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very nasty indeed. They had a lot of power, money and resources at

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their disposal to analyse people, to follow people and intimidate

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people. In 1992 it seemed the Liberal

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Democrats, led by Paddy Ashdown, had a chance of holding the balance

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of power. A vote for Labour and the Tories, they are the real waisted

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votes win this election. As the election campaign was about to

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start, the sun broke the story that Paddy Ashdown had had an affair. --

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the Sun broke the story. It also reported a burglary at the offices

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of Paddy Ashdown's solicitor. All that was taken was a small amount

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of cash and a private note detailing the affair. It was such a

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professional job but Paddy Ashdown's solicitor did not know

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they had been a breakdown until -- a break-in until a lawyer from News

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International phone to say they had been given the document and they

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had to check it was genuine. It was. The story was published. It is my

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view that this brief relationship of five years ago is and always

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should have remained a private and personal matter. A burglar with a

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long record was later convicted of handling stolen property. He

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explained he passed the NOTA the Sun's sister paper the News of the

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World. -- he passed the note to the son's sister paper the News of the

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World. Within parts of Murdoch's News of

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the World, relying on law-breaking to get his story seems to have been

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widely accepted. A book published in 2008 revealed some trade secrets.

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I was amazed by the ingenuity of these guys in trying to find out

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anything they could about people without asking or doing so in a

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direct and very often legal way, they found ways around the law, all

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evidently did not think the law mattered too much. They did not

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seem concerned as long as what they had would do the job, they would

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get on with it. This sports reporter was delighted

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to get a job on the News of the World in the 1990s. When I was

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finally offered a staff job it was a superb moment in my career. It

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was the biggest paper, read by the most people, a paper that could do

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things no other paper could. chief northern sports writer, one

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of his key tasks was to report everything that he could about

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Manchester United's tough box -- tough boss Alex Ferguson. Matt had

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heard Fergie was ill and might retire. He could not stand it up

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and asked for help. Within a few hours or a day, I got a phone call

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saying, we have his medical records in the office. I was a bit

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surprised. Up to that point in my career I had never been in a

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newspaper that could suddenly gain someone's medical records that

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easily. And that swiftly. I was told down the phone up the story

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was true, he has recently had to go to hospital to have various cheques.

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The medical terminology was read out. Did you think it was legal?

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certainly thought it was wrong. When they contacted him, Alex

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Ferguson apparently blew his top. The story never appeared and he is

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still on top of his game. The News of the World used private

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detectives and illegal methods against any one. Even royalty.

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They hacked into the phone messages of Prince William and quoted their

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word for word. For a brief moment in 2007, the culture of criminality

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was exposed. Private detective Glenn Mulcaire and the News of the

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World's royal correspondent Clive Goodman were jailed and disgraced.

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News International insisted Clive Goodman was a rogue report and it

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went no wider. A blind man in a very dark room can see the official

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version of events does not make sense. Nick Davis and the Guardian

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newspaper believed there was a cover up from the start. Glenn

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Mulcaire had pleaded guilty to hacking into five phones of none

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royals, too. Who had ordered him to do that, how many other names were

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in his notebooks? A private investigator, working full-time for

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the News of the World, but apparently hacking voicemail for a

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hobby? Just because he had time on his hands? He was working 80 hours

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a week for the paper, of course he was doing it for them. What was so

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sickening about the official version of events was not just that

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News International chose to lie to us about it but that the police

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allowed them to get away with it. Andy Coulson, the News of the

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World's editor, resigned, but denied any knowledge of phone

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hacking. Within a few months he was hired by

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David Cameron and went with him to Number Ten. Critics say this was a

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huge political misjudgment. I find it quite extraordinary that David

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Cameron, despite all the informal, off-the-record advice that he must

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have been given by all and sundry, went ahead and made that

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appointment. But there was a small group of people who have no fear of

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News International. -- who had no fear. A Manchester solicitor called

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Mark Lewis set the ball rolling. It happened that one of the non royals

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who had their phone hacked into was already a client of his, Gordon

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Taylor of the Professional Football Association. I had a conversation

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with one of the detectives, he told me there was something like 6000

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victims. He would give me enough to hang them and that they did not

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need everything, he would just give me the papers on Gordon Taylor. And

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the papers were sufficient to succeed and to obtain a settlement

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on behalf of Gordon Taylor. We now know that to settle the case

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before it reached open court, the News of the World paid out around

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�700,000, hundreds of thousands more than Gordon Taylor would

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otherwise have won. But at the time, the confidential settlement ensured

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that no one learned any more about who had ordered the phone hacking

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to take place. And the payment was signed off from

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the very top. There was a particular settlement

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that I authorised, and I have said it was made with information that

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was in complete, I acted on the advice of executives and lawyers.

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There was in complete investigation, which is a matter of real personal

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regret for me. MPs will tomorrow want to ask, was

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James Murdoch involved in a cover- By quietly settling the first civil

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cases, News International appeared to have kept many of the facts

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about phone hacking out of public view. It was up his point that Nick

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Davis from the Guardian broke the story open. -- it was at this point.

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The story published in 2009 quoted police sources who had access to

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the material collected by the first inquiry, they were saying there

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were not just eight victims, there were, quote, thousands. 48 hours

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after we published the first story, News International made a statement

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accusing us of lying to the British people. What I am about to give you

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his copies of an e-mail... Nick Davis appear before a Commons

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committee, producing new evidence that News International still seem

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to survive unscathed. The strategy has been simple, they deny

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everything unless they are compelled by evidence in the public

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domain to change their story and admit something, then they admit

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that little thing and carry on lying about everything else.

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And Assistant Commissioner John Yates insisted there was no need to

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reopen the phone hacking MPs later condemned News

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International witnesses for their collective amnesia, but Mark Lewis,

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who gave evidence as well, says that some were still nervous of

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their power. Afterwards, two of the committee members came after me and

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said, you are so brave to be able to stand up to Murdoch and say that

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he does not scare you. I just thought to myself, crikey, you are

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the people who declare war in my name and you are saying that I am

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brave because I have taken on Rupert Murdoch. You are meant to do

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In New York, where the Murdoch group is based, the hacking scandal

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could easily be dismissed as no more than a little local difficulty

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from across the pond. Why would the global media giant Rupert Murdoch

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need to worry? He is the most powerful person in the Media

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Business in the world. I do not think the company for Murdoch

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himself really feel part of any place but News Corporation, has so

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it is a state within a state. New York is also home to a rival

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paper with a long record of investigations and a desire to

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uncover the truth about allegations of illegality, the heart of the

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Murdoch empire. Pulitzer Prize winner Joe Becker was part of the

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team that the New York Times sent to London. They told... The record

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to more than a dozen years of the World journalists. -- they talk to

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off the record. We heard the same story over and over again, the

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office cat knew, everybody knew. Essentially, all of the big

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showbusiness stories, one reporter said, came from the dark arts. And

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they were encouraged to use them. And the New York Times got one

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former News of the World journalists to go on the record.

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Sean Hoare, who had quit with a drink and drugs problem, said that

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not only had Andy Coulson known about phone-hacking he had actively

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encouraged it. Afterwards, police in the UK questioned him, not as a

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witness but as a suspect, and he insisted his solicitor was present

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when he talked to us. It was endemic. You know, it happened.

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Phone-hacking and the use of illegal practices to secure stories,

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that was endemic? That is what you're saying? Yes. People were

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scared, right? If you have got to get a story, you have got to get it.

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You have to get that by whatever means. Were you subject to that

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pressure? Yes, of course I was. I mean, that is the culture of News

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If a couple of reporters from the New York Times can come here and

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find reporters to tell us what is going on, it is astonishing that

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Scotland Yard could not or did not. The police have already paid a

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heavy price for their failure to investigate properly. Yesterday,

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Britain's top police officer resigned and said there was no

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impropriety in his links to a former News of the World journalist.

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Today, Assistant Commissioner John Yates also resigned. Back in 2003,

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News International executives were questioned in a parliamentary

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committee about corrupting police officers. One element of whether

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you ever paid the police for information. We have paid the

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police for information in the past. Will he do it in the future?

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depends on... You operate within the law, and if there is a clear

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public interest, the same holds for subterfuge, whatever you want to

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talk about. It is illegal for police officers to receive payments.

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As I said, within the law. In April this year, Rebekah Brooks wrote to

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Parliament that she was dating the widely held belief that payments

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had been made in the past two police officers. The MP raised the

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issue is one of the very few who have taken on Mr Murdoch.

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relationship between the News of the World and the Metropolitan

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Police is what I was trying to get that in 2003, and it has continued

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to be sold are institutionally corrupting. Later that year, the

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News of the World and the Mail on Sunday vote printed a picture of Mr

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Bryant, who is gay, posing in his underwear. It was clearly in News

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International's sites. On one occasion at a Labour Party

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conference, Andrew Pierce, who was writing for the Times, took me into

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a party, and there was Rebekah Brooks. She said, it is after dark,

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shouldn't you be on Clapham Common? Their husband said, shut up, you

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homophobic cow! Most people whose private lives become the stuff of a

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tabloid splash are far too embarrassed to fight back. But the

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former boss of Formula One did just that. Multi-millionaire Max Mosley

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had his enjoyment of sado- masochistic sexual pastimes exposed

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by the News of the World. He sued for the invasion of his privacy and

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won. Once it was out and I was conscious of the fact that

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everybody walking down the street knew this most intimate thing about

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me, there was really no point in stopping. Occasionally, you think,

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is this what the trouble? And then you think what they have done to

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you and you think, if you do not do something, they are going to do the

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same to other people. So he decided to help others to sue News

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International over phone-hacking. If an ordinary person brings a case,

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they have got a mortgage and their house. Even if they are very, very

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unlikely to lose, if they did lose, they might find themselves with a

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bill for �300,000, and that takes it out of the reach of a lot of

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people. So what I have done in some cases is, I have said, if you do

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lose, and I'm sure you will not, I will meet that. You have been

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covering people's wrists in these cases? In some cases, yes. To what

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financial extent? Well, if everything went wrong, I would

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The civil legal actions gradually revealed the names of more News of

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the World executives involved in phone-hacking. Mr Coulson, dr have

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any regrets? And Andy Coulson resigned, this time from Number Ten.

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The pressure was building. Now the police began a new investigation,

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and a succession of arrests have followed. One by one, more and more

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people have been told that they, too, were the victims of phone-

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hacking. Until one name changed 13-year-old Milly Dowler went

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missing on her way home from school nine years ago. During the search

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for Milly, the News of the World did not just hack into her phone.

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Finding that a voicemail was full, messages were deleted to make room

:22:41.:22:51.
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It crossed a line, somewhere in the kind of national consciousness.

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That is enough. You can do a bunch of other stuff, but you cannot do

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that. Nelly's parents were told about the phone-hacking by the

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police just before the recent trial of her killer. -- Milly. They

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contacted solicitor Mark Lewis. of a sudden, you could see the real

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human effect of parents who were clinging on to hope that their

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daughter was alive, and the News of the World had given them that false

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home. It had given them something to cling on to, that she was alive.

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When you start hacking into the phone of a 13-year-old murder

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victim, even altering the evidence, deleting some of the messages and

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so on, that suddenly struck people as disgusting, disgusting! And I

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:23:56.:23:59.

think that was the end of it for News International had started by

:23:59.:24:03.

saying just one rogue journalist was involved. Now they shut down

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Britain's biggest selling newspaper and put 200 journalists out of work.

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A final tribute to his 7.5 million readers. This is for you. And for

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I thought it was just a despicable act, because there are great

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journalists and people who have been slaving away in a boiler room,

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and they ended up losing their jobs, carrying the can, when frankly it

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should have been the people at the helm of the ship we should have got

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into trouble. If that was meant to end the crisis for the Murdoch

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empire, it spectacularly failed. Rupert has no idea what to do, how

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to react, what to say. He lost control of the situation quite a

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Now the British political establishment race to a remarkable

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agreement. News International, which had exercised so much power

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and influence, was suddenly without friends. His organisation has grown

:25:12.:25:17.

too powerful, and it has abused that far. In an emergency debate,

:25:17.:25:21.

MPs queued up to condemn Rupert Murdoch. Their links with the

:25:21.:25:24.

criminal underworld, their attempt to cover up law-breaking and pay

:25:24.:25:29.

for people's silence tell the world war we need to know about their

:25:29.:25:33.

character. I think a lot of lies have been told to a lot of people,

:25:33.:25:37.

and then Parliament ends up being misled. That is a major

:25:37.:25:43.

constitutional issue for us to face. The handful of MPs who had taken

:25:43.:25:48.

Murdoch on were now speaking for the rest. It was almost as if

:25:48.:25:52.

people realised, they have gone too far, we cannot do anything other

:25:52.:26:00.

than speak out. It took a bit of time, but when it sunk in, it was

:26:00.:26:06.

the most uniting moment I have ever seen in a House of Commons.

:26:06.:26:12.

Prime Minister, embarrassed by his friendship with Rebekah Brooks and

:26:12.:26:16.

his close association with Andy Coulson, announced an inquiry.

:26:16.:26:20.

is on my watch that the music has stopped, and I am saying large and

:26:20.:26:28.

clear that things have got to The relationship has been too cosy

:26:28.:26:33.

between the press and the politicians. Very few had said

:26:33.:26:37.

anything until Milly Dowler, and then there was almost self-

:26:37.:26:41.

congratulation by the politicians at stopping this scandal. They have

:26:41.:26:44.

not stopped a scandal, they had reacted to a scandal that had

:26:44.:26:54.
:26:54.:26:54.

Rupert Murdoch is in full retreat. His bid for the rest of BSkyB has

:26:54.:26:58.

been abandoned. After years of denial from News International, he

:26:58.:27:03.

said sorry to the country and promised to co-operate fully with

:27:03.:27:07.

the new police enquiry. Milly Dowler's family received their

:27:07.:27:17.

apology in person. Mr Murdoch, will it tell us what you said? Did you

:27:17.:27:26.

Law-breaking in one small corner of Rupert Murdoch's business empire

:27:26.:27:33.

and the attempt to conceal it now threatens its very foundations.

:27:33.:27:38.

effect of Milly Dowler is that it broke the spell. When Murdoch had

:27:38.:27:41.

had this complete control of parliament, the Government, even,

:27:41.:27:46.

I'm sorry to say, the police, suddenly that control was broken.

:27:46.:27:53.

On Friday, Rebekah Brooks resigned. Yesterday, she was arrested. They

:27:53.:27:57.

are pariahs, nobody wants to talk to Rupert and James Murdoch or

:27:57.:28:01.

Rebekah Brooks any more. If you had a central London party next week,

:28:01.:28:09.

nobody would turn up. Instead, they have an invitation they cannot

:28:09.:28:15.

refuse, to answer questions from MPs. I think Murdoch should really

:28:15.:28:18.

be truthful about all that happened and make it clear, and I think his

:28:18.:28:22.

son is with them as well, and Rebekah Brooks will be there. They

:28:22.:28:26.

are the Three Musketeers in this one, aren't they? They are the ones

:28:26.:28:30.

who directed what is going on. In this period of Atonement, tell the

:28:30.:28:36.

truth. What a story it could have made for the News of the World! A

:28:36.:28:39.

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