The phone-hacking scandal engulfing Mr Rupert Murdoch's media empire intensified on Wednesday, as the Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, called for an official inquiry — or even inquiries — into the latest allegations made against the News of the World tabloid.
“Everyone in this house and indeed in this country will be revolted by what they have heard and what they have seen on their television screens,” Mr Cameron told Members of Parliament on Wednesday.
allegations
His call came amid allegations that mobile phones belonging to families of victims of the 2005 terrorist attacks on London may have been hacked into.
Scotland Yard has contacted relatives of the victims of the bombings on July 7, 2005, to warn them that their phone messages may have been accessed by Mr Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator hired by the tabloid
Mr Graham Foulkes, whose son died in the bombings, told BBC Radio 4 of his deep horror when told by police that the News of the World had had all his personal details, including an ex-directory landline number and mobile phone number and was possibly listening into the frantic phone calls he was making in the days after the blast. “I'd very much like to meet [Rupert Murdoch] face to face,” he said. A day earlier, News International, a subsidiary of News Corp, revealed it had passed on details of possible payments made by the paper to senior police officers during a period when Mr Andy Coulson, former director of communications to the Prime Minister, had been Editor of the paper.
Mr Coulson resigned earlier this year from Downing Street over the hacking scandal. Equally damning was news that Mr Mulcaire had hacked into the phone of Ms Milly Dowler, a school girl who was murdered in 2002. This took place while Ms Rebekah Brookes, head of News International, was at the helm of the paper. Ms Brookes has denied all knowledge and declined calls to resign from her position at News International.
The scandal has been slow to evolve and dates back to August 2006 when the News of the World 's royal editor, Mr Clive Goodman, and Mr Mulcaire, a private investigator, were arrested for intercepting messages of aides to the Royal family.
Though the two were found guilty and sentenced to prison, the scandal was temporarily put to rest after the Press Complaints Commission investigation concluded that the buck stopped with the two and no one senior was involved.
Since then pressure has continued to build, though slowly.
British practice
In February last year, a parliamentary committee condemned the response by News of the World staff to their inquiry, which they said included an unwillingness to provide information, claims of ignorance or lack of recall and deliberate obfuscation. A New York Times story last year suggested that not only was the hacking not limited to those few journalists at the News of the World , but that tabloids across Britain sometimes used illicit means to obtain private information in their quest for even juicier and more scandalous stories.
However, it was only this January that the floodgates opened, with Scotland Yard re-opening its investigation into phone-hacking after receiving significant new information regarding a senior editor's knowledge of the goings on. Two journalists — the then chief reporter, Mr Neville Thurlbeck, and former News Editor, Mr Ian Edmondson — were soon arrested. The scale of the phone-hacking soon became clear with celebrities from Sienna Miller to the Labour Member of Parliament, Mr John Prescott, among the paper's alleged hacking victims.
While the earlier claims shocked the nation, this week's revelations suggesting the paper had tapped into the phones of many victims of crimes and their family are the ones that have created the most outrage, and most financial trouble for the paper.
Ford and Vauxhall have said they're suspending advertising from the News of the World till the investigation is complete, while other companies have said they're reviewing their position.
However, most significant of all could be the impact on the bid that News Corporation is making to fully takeover cable network British Sky Broadcasting. The Prime Minister stood by the way the it had handled the controversial takeover on Wednesday, rejecting calls from the Opposition that it be referred to the Competition Commission. Still, many commentators appear to think a delay in the deal is inevitable, with the execution risk of the deal and, therefore, price tag rising sharply.
Mr Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation will almost certainly have to delay their takeover of BSkyB — at least until it is apparent that the News of the World and News International have been cleaned up, remarked the BBC's Business Editor, Mr Robert Peston, who says his thinking is corroborated by those close to the two companies.