The Rise and Fall of the Murdoch Empire. John Lisners
exactly what eventually happened. To their credit, the BBC, which also opposed the bid, nevertheless broadcast details of Cable’s diatribe against Murdoch and News Corporation leaked to them by a Telegraph employee. Cable suffered public ridicule and shame and was instantly replaced by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, an impartial colleague who was not opposed to NI. In different circumstances, Cable could quite properly have been sacked for his indiscretion but for the sake of the coalition it was expedient for him to remain, despite his offer to resign.
The method used by the Telegraph to get their story was condemned by the PCC, which ruled, ‘On this occasion, the commission was not convinced that the public interest was such as to justify this level of subterfuge.’ It said it had advised newspapers not to go on ‘fishing expeditions’ in the hope of finding stories. Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher, while accepting the adjudication, said it had ‘alarming implications for the future of investigative journalism’.
Following the BBC leak, the story was published in full by the Daily Telegraph, which also released on the web the secretly recorded conversation with Cable. But the Daily Telegraph fiasco only served to give a brief respite from the very serious position NI and its parent company News Corporation faced. Financially, the company was in a strong position but problems over the acquisition of Sky were mounting and Murdoch’s dynastic plans for the future had not yet been resolved. Worst of all, the scandal over hacking and their misuse of private information would not go away.
The Data Protection Act, 1998, came into force in England on 1 March 2000 and was to have particular application to the media, especially newspapers. Section 55 of the Act makes it an offence to obtain, disclose or procure the disclosure of confidential personal information knowingly or recklessly without the consent of the organisation holding the data. The information commissioner, Richard Thomas, whose office was responsible for enforcement of the Act, published a report in 2006 entitled, ‘What price privacy? The unlawful trade in confidential personal information.’ It found, ‘records of information supplied to 305 named journalists working for a range of newspapers…’ They included the Daily Mail, the Observer, the Times, and the Daily Mirror.
The report was based in part on findings from the information commissioner office’s own investigation, Operation Motorman, which was begun in 2002 and uncovered large-scale trade in personal information. Private investigators and corrupt officials were involved, with access to personal records relating to police and vehicle ownership. The information commissioner estimated that thousands of offences had taken place that related to Section 55 outlined above and he urged for tougher penalties to face those who carried out such crimes.
In 2003, the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport inquired into privacy and media intrusion. Among those giving evidence was Murdoch’s favourite editor Rebekah Brooks (then editor of the NoW) and her deputy Andy Coulson. Curiously, it took place on 11 March 2003, Rupert Murdoch’s 72nd birthday. Had she not been such a favoured ‘daughter’ of the press magnate, it is doubtful she would have held on to her job after returning to Wapping from Westminster. Under questioning by the committee, she claimed that self-regulation under the PCC had changed the culture in Fleet Street and ‘in every single newsroom in the land’. This was so wide off the mark that one could be forgiven for thinking she was simply naive or totally delusional. Asked if she or her newspaper ever used private detectives, bugged people, paid the police or others for information, she sensibly replied that subterfuge was only ever used in the public interest. But pressed further by Chris Bryant MP on whether she ever paid the police for information, she surprisingly admitted: ‘We have paid the police for information in the past.’
Coulson, seated beside her, acted quickly to correct Brooks’ astonishingly frank admission that NI had paid police for information. Incredibly, it was tantamount to a confession that police had been suborned and surely would have led to instant dismissal by Murdoch had it been anybody else. When Brooks was asked if she would continue to pay the police in future, Coulson swiftly replied on her behalf, stating, ‘We operate within the law and if there is a clear public interest, then we will.’ However, the damage had been done, leaving the newspaper wide open to further investigation. Brooks was furious. She would not readily forget nor forgive Bryant for interrogating her and that would not augur well in the future. The Guardian had carefully noted these proceedings.
Brooks’s conduct during the questioning led some executives at NI to question whether she had been appointed as editor too early in her career or whether she was at all suitable to lead the world’s largest-selling Sunday newspaper. But she had charm and been given power and most of all, she had Rupert Murdoch’s ear. At 35 she had a good relationship with Tony Blair, the prime minister. At press charity functions, she would be one of the first to greet the PM and accompany him, arm-in-arm, during his walkabout before making his short speech to the assembled editors and journalists. On one such occasion at the Australian High Commission, I watched with amusement as Brooks and the Times political columnist Mary Ann Sieghart ‘captured’ Tony Blair, one on each side of him, arms locked as they led him around the grand reception area, closely followed by the News International chairman Les Hinton as rear guard. But even more important than the influence the editor wielded and her elevated role at the newspaper was the protection afforded her by the most powerful media baron in the world. Who would dare attack her in the face of such might?
If Rebekah Brooks lacked a certain amount of journalistic savvy, she more than made up for it with her ability to charm and network. From humble beginnings as a secretary at the News of the World magazine, she was swiftly promoted to features editor of the newspaper and then editor. She conducted a controversial campaign against paedophiles by instigating a policy of naming and shaming. The idea was to alert mothers in case they were unaware that a paedophile lived nearby. Her action provoked a lynch mob mentality among some readers and backfired when people incited by the campaign vandalised a doctor’s house after failing to understand the difference between ‘paedophile’ and ‘paediatrician’. The chief constable of Gloucestershire damned the campaign as ‘grossly irresponsible’ journalism.
During Brooks’s editorship at the NoW from 2000 to 2003, two unrelated murders of young children were to play a defining role in the future of News International. The first was the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne. On 1 July 2000, Sarah disappeared after playing with her siblings in a cornfield at Kingston Gorse, West Sussex. The child’s body was discovered on 17 July some 24 miles away. She had been murdered by Roy Whiting, a known child sex offender with previous convictions who had been listed on a sex offenders register. The case attracted national headlines and was the catalyst for Brooks’s campaign of naming and shaming under the proposed ‘Sarah’s Law’. This was modelled on the American ‘Megan’s Law’, to give parents of young children access to the sex offenders register. A limited trial of Sarah’s Law later proved successful. Brooks developed a strong relationship with the murdered girl’s mother, Sara, and the pair embarked on an effective, if controversial campaign. A close liaison continued between Sara Payne and News International until July 2011 amid the allegations that Sara’s own mobile, given to her by the newspaper, had also been hacked.
The second murder was that of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old who had gone missing on her way home from school in Surrey on 21 March 2002. Her body was found on 18 September 2002. This case received nationwide publicity and a home video of Milly ironing clothes and playing to the camera was given saturation coverage. Detectives who had worked on Sarah Payne’s case were asked for their assistance in finding her. The Sun offered a £100,000 reward for information about her disappearance. Until her body was found, her parents kept sending text messages to Milly’s mobile in the vain hope that she might still be alive. On 23 June 2011, Levi Bellfield, a serial killer, was convicted of the teenager’s murder. At the time of his arrest, he was already serving a life sentence for two other murders and one attempted murder.
By April 2008, Gordon Taylor, the Professional Footballers’ Association chairman, had obtained indisputable evidence that his phone had been hacked by Glenn Mulcaire and that others in the News of the World, apart from Goodman, were involved. Taylor had begun his action shortly after Goodman and Mulcaire were arrested but it had taken his legal team, led