The Rise and Fall of the Murdoch Empire. John Lisners
which meant Scotland Yard had to open the files of their original investigation into hacking and provide full details to the lawyer. In fact, the police had an Aladdin’s cave of illegally obtained information documented by the private detective, who had been a meticulous note-taker, logging thousands of entries. Later there would be a re-opening of the investigation and further arrests made but that was only after the police had been publicly criticised for limiting their enquiries to one single case of a ‘rogue’ reporter.
But News Group Newspapers now had a dilemma. The previous December, James Murdoch had been appointed News Corporation’s chief executive for operations in Europe and Asia and the Murdochs’ long-term plans appeared to be in place. James had done a good job at Sky and Brooks had settled in well as editor of the Sun and would soon become chief executive of News International. A lack of controversy would guarantee NI’s eventual takeover of BSkyB and Rupert Murdoch’s dynastic ambitions would be fulfilled. Politically, the firm was on good terms with the Labour Party and Murdoch, sharing Scottish ancestry with Gordon Brown – who had at last succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister – enjoyed cordial relations with Downing Street. Labour’s prospects for re-election looked bleak but Brooks had charmed the Tories so bets were hedged either way. Andy Coulson had also excelled in his job as the Conservative leader’s advisor and the last thing News International needed was a revival of the hacking scandal.
When Mark Lewis first set out Gordon Taylor’s case to the News of the World’s legal team in April 2008, Tom Crone, the newspaper’s legal manager, expressed surprise, saying he thought Lewis had suggested settling the case for £250,000. Yet evidence included a much discussed email with the words ‘…transcript for Neville’ [believed to refer to Neville Thurlbeck, chief reporter, although there was no proof of this] with tape transcripts concerning 35 voicemail messages to ‘GT’ (Gordon Taylor) and 17 to his advisor ‘JA’ (Jo Armstrong). They had been sent to Mulcaire by reporter Ross Hindley.
Taylor’s lawyers also presented further damning evidence of a contract between Glenn Mulcaire using the alias Paul Williams and assistant news editor Greg Miskiw agreeing that News of the World would pay a minimum of £7,000 if it printed a story about Gordon Taylor provided by Mr ‘Williams’. Scotland Yard had also provided an audiotape on which Mulcaire was heard giving instructions to a journalist, believed to be from another newspaper but moonlighting for the News of the World, on how to access Gordon Taylor’s voicemail. The clincher came when Mr Lewis applied to the High Court and successfully argued for an order that Mulcaire identify the journalist and provide further information. News International lawyers immediately contacted him to negotiate a settlement. The newspaper agreed to pay Gordon Taylor £700,000, which included his legal expenses. Additionally, two further sums were paid to his colleagues whose phones were hacked, bringing the total payout to around £1 million.
To avoid public disclosure, the settlement contained a gagging clause and it was not until a year later that news of the deal leaked out. Journalist Nick Davies broke the story in the Guardian newspaper on 8 July 2009, stating that ‘Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers has paid out more than £1 million to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal evidence of his journalists’ repeated involvement in the use of criminal methods to get stories.’ Putting the boot in, the article suggested, ‘…the suppressed evidence … may open the door to hundreds more legal actions by victims of News Group.’ That was an invitation that couldn’t be resisted.
Public relations supremo Max Clifford, who for years had been selling stories to News International on behalf of clients and had also been on Mulcaire’s list of hacking victims, immediately announced that he would sue the newspaper. The case never came to court. Clifford had lunch with Rebekah Brooks, who had been made chief executive of News International in June 2009, and a deal was sorted out in ‘no time’ at all. Clifford would be paid £1 million, in return for which he would supply exclusive stories to the newspaper for several years. Other named victims, and people who thought they might have been victims followed his example. News International set aside a multi-million pound fund to deal with individual and class actions.
With the Guardian’s disclosure, the hacking scandal resurfaced and further serious considerations arose that would prolong the agony for News Corporation and raise questions over whether its directors were fit to run a global concern. Coulson’s role as advisor and aide to David Cameron would also come under scrutiny, as would the relationship between News Group newspapers and the Metropolitan Police, including senior Scotland Yard officers. An inevitable consequence would be that NI executives would be recalled for further appearances before the parliamentary committee unimpressed with answers they had previously given.
The second report of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee session was published in February 2010. It included an assessment of the ‘persistent libelling’ of the McCann family following the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine in Portugal in May 2007; the case brought by F1 racing boss Max Mosley against the News of the World (invasion of privacy and breach of confidence); and press standards, following the Guardian allegations that the News of the World had paid over £1 million to settle three civil actions relating to the phone hacking. The latter item, the committee stated, ‘cast doubt on assurances we had been given during our 2007 inquiry … that the phone-hacking at News of the World had been limited to one “rogue reporter”, Clive Goodman.’
The committee criticised ‘the silence of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, their confidentiality settlements with the News of the World and the “collective amnesia” at the newspaper group which we encountered during our inquiry … We find … the newspaper group did not carry out a full and rigorous inquiry, as it assured us and the Press Complaints Commission it had. The circumstances of payoffs 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. The readiness of all concerned – News International, the police and the PCC – to leave Mr Goodman as the sole scapegoat without carrying out full investigations is striking. The verdict of the PCC’s latest inquiry, announced last November, we consider to be simplistic, surprising and a further failure of self-regulation … Throughout we have repeatedly encountered unwillingness to provide the detailed information that we sought, claims of ignorance or lack of recall, and deliberate obfuscation. We strongly condemn this behaviour which reinforces the widely held impression that the press generally regard themselves as unaccountable and that News International in particular has sought to conceal the truth about what really occurred.’
The report was good news for Andy Coulson, particularly at a crucial time with election fever gathering pace. It said that it did not see ‘evidence that Andy Coulson knew that phone hacking was taking place. However, that such hacking took place reveals a serious management failure for which as editor he bore ultimate responsibility, and we believe that he was correct to accept this and resign.’ Les Hinton had also given further evidence and told the committee: ‘There had never been any evidence delivered to me that suggested the conduct had spread beyond one journalist. If others had evidence that wrongdoing went further, I was not told about it.’ Three months later, in May 2010, David Cameron was elected prime minister and rewarded Coulson’s work by appointing him to the role director of communications at No 10 Downing Street.
In the meantime, the Guardian, whose stories on the hacking had received little follow up by other UK newspapers, had been in touch with the New York Times to give their continuing investigation a wider audience. The American newspaper was happy to oblige and sent reporters to the UK to investigate the story. They interviewed some 12 former NoW staff members and alleged in their report that hacking had been widespread at NoW. Some critics argued their report was biased as they were in competition with News Corporation newspapers in New York where Murdoch owned the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch would certainly have put the NYT on his wish list of newspapers despite finding it stuffy and pompous, but it was not for sale. He had known its owners, the Sulzberger family, as a very young man when he and his father Sir Keith visited the USA. Since buying the Post in 1977 Murdoch had been a formidable competitor.
Former News of the World