News International 'bought silence of phone-hacking victims'

Wednesday 24th February 2010

Rupert Murdoch's News International effectively bought the silence of the victims and exponents of the News of the World (NotW) phone hacking scandal, an influential group of MPs has concluded.

The News Corp subsidiary, which owns the News of the World and the Sun, could face a judicial inquiry after being accused by the cross-party culture, media and sport select committee of covering up the truth about the extent of the illegal phone hacking.

NotW royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were both jailed over hacking into the voicemail messages of royal staff, but successive executives appeared before parliamentary committees last year to blame the scandal on a "rogue reporter".

But in a 167-page report MPs said it was impossible to believe the practice was limited to one reporter, criticising the "collective amnesia" of the employees who gave evidence to the committee.

They write that it is likely the true number of phone hacking victims will never be known, pointing to the payouts given to Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, and two others.

"The report concludes that it is likely that the number of victims of illegal phone hacking will never be known, not least because of the silence of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire and the 'collective amnesia' at the newspaper group," the MPs write.

"The circumstances of pay-offs made to Messrs Goodman and Mulcaire, as well as the civil settlements with Gordon Taylor and others, also invite the conclusion that silence was effectively bought."

Chairman John Whittingdale added: "We were very concerned at evidence which has emerged suggesting that the phone hacking which took place at the News of the World around five years ago was not just limited to one rogue reporter. This contradicts the assurances we were previously given and has led us to conclude that it is inconceivable that no-one else at the News of the World knew.

"While we are encouraged by assurances that such practices are now regarded as wholly unacceptable, this episode has done substantial damage to the newspaper industry as a whole. We were also concerned at the reluctance of witnesses from News International to provide the detailed information that we sought and the collective amnesia that afflicted them in relation to these matters."

The committee states that NotW editor Andy Coulson - now director of communications for Conservative party leader David Cameron - was right to resign over the affair, although there is no evidence he was aware of the practice.

It also accuses the NotW of lying to the Press Complaints Commission, criticised as "toothless" elsewhere in the report, when it said it had carried out a "full and rigorous inquiry".

Commenting, Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "The only alternative to get to the bottom of what actually went on at the News of the World is a judicial inquiry so that a judge can insist on information and can draw out the lessons if we are to avoid such wholesale abuse of privacy again."

A statement from No 10 added: "The scale of this is absolutely breathtaking and an extreme cause for concern."

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