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MEDIAWISE – FOR BETTER JOURNALISM

10 July 2009 - 2009 may be the year that investigative journalism makes a comeback – as editors realise that the public has a real appetite for the juicy revelations provided by the Daily Telegraph on MPs’ expenses and The Guardian on underhand methods at the News of the World and elsewhere.

None of it is really news, of course. We have long known that politicians have feet of clay and a deep distrust of their constituents finding out how they make and spend their money. The devil, as ever, is in the detail.

MediaWise has delivered dossier after dossier of information to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, and its predecessors, about the underhand methods of newspapers in gathering information about ordinary members of the public let alone public figures. Before the era of mobile phones and the internet, journalists and private investigators were gaining improper access to telephone records, criminal records, bank accounts and vehicle licences, and going through dustbins. Inevitably money would change hands in some of these transactions, so it should have come as no surprise when the Information Commissioner revealed in 2006 that thousands of illicit items of information had been dredged up for journalists by one investigation agency alone.


But what is to be done about it? In the past no-one has really been prepared to take tough action against an errant press because they know where too many of the skeletons are buried. Politicians court editors and proprietors when elections are in the offing, rattle sabres when the public take umbrage at tabloid excesses but quickly sheath them when one of their colleagues is caught with his pants down.

Westminster may be up for some payback right now, but a bunch of bitter MPs, who might prefer to blame their recent fall from grace on the media rather than their own mendacity, are not the best placed to clear up the Augean stables. And besides, of late the arguments for lightening regulation altogether as communications technologies merge have been finding favour in the corridors of power.

No sensible person would want the police to police the press, and the courts should be reserved as a last resort for criminal behaviour.

The press, which rightly rails against all others who look after their own through systems of self-regulation, always insists that it must keep its own house in order. For the umpteenth time the Press Complaints Commission has been outwitted by those it is supposed to hold to account.

Root and branch reform is in order if public confidence is to be restored. Allow a rotating seat for one editor on the PCC, and kick the rest off; bring in more members of the public and at least one representative of journalists organisations so that the working stiffs, currently denied the right to a conscience clause, can help unpick the editorial judgements of their bosses. More importantly impose graduated fines for breaches of the Editors’ Code and award compensation commensurate with the time and trouble caused to complainants about inaccurate, unwarranted or intrusive coverage. Ignore the hypocritical howls of editors that this will bring lawyers into the complaints system – newspapers employ their own lawyers to defend their corner already.

Oh, and if they really want to restore public confidence and increase sales, editors could try ditching prurient and petty stories in favour of more investigative journalism.

Mike Jempson
Director, MediaWise

GUARDIAN: POLITICS BLOG

21 JULY 2009

Minute-by-minute coverage as David Cameron’s spin doctor, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, is grilled by MPs

Andy Coulson. Photograph: Martin Argles

10.23am: Today Andy Coulson breaks his silence. Coulson, David Cameron’s communications chief, is one of four News of the World and ex-News of the World executives giving evidence to the Commons culture committee about phone-hacking. They are there to answer the Guardian allegations – first raised in Nick Davies’s story about the secret phone-hacking pay-out and then amplified by the dramatic evidence Davies gave to the culture committee last week - that the the use of illegal surveillance methods by the News of the World has been far more widespread than the paper has ever admitted.

The hearing is important for four groups or individuals.

1. The News of the World. What will they say?

After the first Davies story was published, News of the World eventually issued a statement strongly contesting many of his allegations. Two days later the News of the World adopted much the same stance in aneditorial accusing the Guardian of “hysterical” journalism. But since Davies produced his new allegations a week ago today, the paper has – as far as I’m aware – not responded to them. Today its executives will have to.

2. Andy Coulson. Will he adopt the News International line, or the David Cameron line?

Until now, the News International line on phone-hacking has been that Clive Goodman, the NoW royal reporter jailed for phone-hacking in 2007, was a one-off acting alone and that no-one else at the paper knew anything about it, or did anything wrong. When Coulson resigned as NoW editor after Goodman went to prison, News International said that he was taking responsibility for what happened while he was in charge, even though he did not know about it.

David Cameron’s line has been subtly different. He has not contradicted anything said by News International. But, defending his decision to hire Coulson, he said that he believed in giving people a second chance – implying that Coulson was somehow at fault for allowing a culture to develop at the NoW where phone-hacking was condoned.

In April this year Francis Elliott and James Hanning, Cameron’s biographers, said there was still no on-the-record denial from Coulson himself saying that he did not know what Goodman was doing.Coulson did issue a four-sentence statement about the affair after Nick Davies published his story two weeks ago, saying he resigned because he took responsibility for what happened “without my knowledge”, but it is not clear whether he was just denying knowledge of specific actions taken by Goodman, or whether he was denying any knowledge of any culture of phone-tapping.

Today he’ll have to elaborate.

3. The culture committee. Is it carrying out a thorough investigation?

Commons select committee are not always very good at carrying out investigations that require witnesses to be cross-examined forensically. And the NoW witnesses are smart and media-savvy. This will be a good test of whether the committee is up to the job.

4. John Whittingdale. How will he handle the job from hell?

Whittingdale, the committee chairman, is a Tory MP who could plausibly expect a job in a Cameron govenment. Now he’s running an inquiry that could potentially damage his boss (Cameron) and one of the most powerful figures in the Conservative party. So far he seems to be running the investigation very properly, although at some level he must wish this job had never landed on his plate.

The hearing starts at 10.30am. The first witnesses will be Colin Myler, the NoW editor, and Tom Crone, the legal manager for News Group newspapers. They will be questioned for about an hour. Then, at 11.30am, Coulson will give evidence alongside Stuart Kuttner, the outgoing NoW managing editor

MEDIAGUARDIAN 

21 JULY 2009

Pressure on Scotland Yard as prosecutors say detectives did not give them a key email in News of the World phone-hacking case

Neville Thurlbeck: News of the World chief reporter. Photograph: Peter J Jordan/PA

Scotland Yard will come under fresh pressure today to reopen its inquiry into phone-hacking and the News of the World after prosecutors said they were never handed a document that appeared to implicate another of the paper’s senior staff.

The Crown Prosecution Service told the Guardian that detectives did not give them a key email naming the tabloid’s chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck.

In the email, a junior News of the World reporter has copied a transcript of more than 30 messages hacked from the phones of the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive, Gordon Taylor, and his legal adviser Jo Armstrong.

The email recorded that the transcript had been prepared “for Neville”.

The News of the World has consistently claimed that the hacking of voicemail by a private investigator involved only one rogue journalist, their royal reporter Clive Goodman, acting alone.

The CPS confirmed that the email was not “physically” provided to them as evidence to support the prosecution of Goodman and private investigator Glen Mulcaire.

Instead it formed part of a bundle of documentary evidence that was retained by the police. Prosecuting counsel would have seen it, but as it had no specific relevacne to the case, the wider significance of it would not have been obvious.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, last week carried out an internal review of the 2007 files and decided not to reopen them, saying that the case had been properly dealt with at the time based on the evidence provided to them by the police.

In a new statement, the CPS said: “The email was not in the possession of the CPS and so did not form part of the examination that the DPP carried out earlier this week.”

The statement added: “The DPP is now considering whether any further action is necessary.”

This development follows previous disclosures that:

• Police never interviewed Thurlbeck or other journalists named, according to the paper.

• Police failed to warn everyone who may have been hacked and are now still in the process of informing people who were potential targets.

• Police did not investigate the possibility the tabloid’s private eye succeeded in hacking the phones of many other targeted public figures, including the former deputy prime minister John Prescott.

The previously unknown email was one of the documents obtained by the Guardian and was provided to the House of Commons media select committee. The committee is due tomorrow to question the News of the World’s then editor, Andy Coulson, on his claims of ignorance.

The Guardian also handed over a contract in which the News of the World’s then assistant editor for news, Greg Miskiw, agreed to pay a bonus of £7,000 for information about Taylor. The CPS says that, unlike the email, that contract was passed to prosecutors by police, and was available to them as part of the evidence.

At the time of the investigation, Miskiw was no longer working for the News of the World, having left in 2005.

The documents only came to light because victims took legal actions in which police were required to hand over “unused material” they had obtained in a raid on the private detective concerned, which garnered a mass of paperwork.

The Guardian two weeks ago disclosed that the News of the World then paid more than £1m to secretly settle the legal actions by Taylor and two other figures from the football world.

Their lawyers had uncovered the evidence that other journalists had been involved.

Scotland Yard’s original inquiry began in December 2005 after members of the royal household suspected their voicemails were being intercepted.

In January 2007, the News of the World’s royal reporter, Clive Goodman, and Mulcaire, were jailed as a result. But their guilty pleas avoided a full trial at which more evidence may have come out.

More evidence may now be disclosed in legal actions being brought by other hacking victims, including the celebrity publicist Max Clifford, who has hired Taylor’s legal team.

News International said in an earlier statement that, apart from Goodman, “the police have not considered it necessary to arrest or question any other member of the News of the World staff”.

After saying last week that “where there was clear evidence that people had been the subject of tapping, they were all contacted by the police”, Scotland Yard 24 hours later announced that they were now also contacting people where there was a suspicion that they had been hacked

Statements from the DPP and Scotland Yard indicate that to avoid the case becoming unmanageable, they investigated at the time only a small sample of half a dozen, choosing those where evidence was strong, corroboration was available and the victims were willing to testify.

Tomorrow the spotlight moves to News International figures due to give evidence to the media select committee. As well as Coulson, listed witnesses include the paper’s former managing editor Stuart Kuttner and its current editor, Colin Myler.

The committee reopened its inquiry after noting “some contradiction” between disclosures in the Guardian and evidence given two years ago by News International’s then chairman, Les Hinton.

So far, the News of the World has remained silent following publication of the Thurlbeck and Miskiw documents.

The Metropolitan police said in a statement that the CPS trial barristers would have seen the Thurlbeck email at the time, because it had been in the police’s own files of “unused material”.

Scotland Yard did not explain why detectives had not followed it up, or turned it over to the DPP in their original submission of evidence.

The CPS said that “as in every case”, “The unused material was seen by prosecution counsel to determine whether or not it was capable of assisting the defence case.”

The Thurlbeck email would have been irrelevant to the Goodman and Mulcaire defence.

PRESS GAZETTE
21 July 2009
By PA Mediapoint

Express Newspapers owner Richard Desmond told a business associate that he was the “worst fucking enemy you’ll ever have” just days before before a critical article appeared about his company in the Sunday Express, the High Court heard today.

The jury in Desmond’s libel action against Conrad Black’s biographer Tom Bower has heard evidence that Desmond did not have a grudge against Jafar Omid, managing director of hedge fund Pentagon Capital Management, in which Desmond’s son, Robert, had invested £50,000 in March 2003.

But, three days before an article headlined “David Cameron’s Friend and £1bn He Won’t Give Back” appeared on 13 July 2008, Desmond was involved in an acrimonious phone call with Omid.

Desmond is suing Bower over claims made in Bower’s book “Conrad And Lady Black: Dancing On The Edge” that he had abused his position to pursue a personal campaign against Black and was then forced into a humiliating climbdown.

His QC, Ian Winter, has told Mr Justice Eady and a London jury that the allegations were “highly defamatory and wholly false”.

Bower denies libel and says that what he wrote was substantially true and was not, in any event, defamatory.


Bower’s QC, Ronald Thwaites, has asked Desmond about the Pentagon story, which was later the subject of a settled libel action in which Desmond was a named defendant.

Desmond agreed that when his son could not get back his investment – which had grown to £75,000 – in 2008, because of problems with liquidating assets, he was upset and discussed the matter at a meeting of his fellow Northern & Shell directors.

But he has denied making any contribution to the story or that it was an example of him getting back at someone against whom he had a “grudge”.

“I did not have a grudge. My son would have liked to get his life savings back.”

Today, the jury heard a recording of a telephone conversation between Desmond and Omid, on 10 July 2008, in which Omid tried to explain why he could not repay the sum.

Desmond is heard to say: “It’s 75 grand you know, and I think fuck me, you know, we’ve done so much you know business together you know. Tens of millions of pounds. And we got you know a little, what’s the word, situation over 75 grand. The problem is it’s on my mind you see. It doesn’t matter if it was 75 grand or 75 million, it’s on my mind all the time.”

When Omid tries to explain the “reality” of the situation, Desmond says: “I understand every, I think I understand everything, but it’s on my fucking mind. And it, 75 grand, write a cheque out, we’ll sign it over to you and that’s it. That’s a wrap up our business.”

Omid: “Unfortunately this is not how it works and this is not.”

Desmond: “Please, please Jafar don’t go on because you’re going to aggravate me. So, look, just send me a cheque back, all right, or we, or we’re not going to be friends. In fact, we’re going to be enemies. OK? And you got till, what’s today, Thursday.”

Omid: “Listen, listen.”

Desmond: “No. That’s it mate. Please, because I don’t want to lose my temper with you but I’m not.”

Omid: “It’s not a case of.”

Desmond: “You know what a good friend I am Jafar, don’t you?”

Omid: “I know, this is the whole point, you’ve been so supportive in this, you’ve been.”

Desmond: “Let me tell you mate, let me tell you something, let me tell you something Jafar as good a fucking, as good as a friend I am, I am the worst fucking enemy you’ll ever have. Please get me a cheque round, thank you very much.”

As Omid says: “But you know you…”

Desmond hangs up.

Thwaites said that when Omid sent Desmond a follow-up email later that day, Desmond replied: “Jafar, there is no point in us meeting – you are out of order.”

The hearing was adjourned

PRESS GAZZETTE

14 July 2009

The News of the World’s chief reporter was accused today of involvement in phone-hacking.

Transcripts of intercepted calls were prepared for Neville Thurlbeck, the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee was told.

Guardian journalist Nick Davies made the allegation as he gave evidence to the MPs investigating the issue.

Davies handed over an email including a typed record of voicemail messages exchanged between Professional Football Association boss Gordon Taylor and his legal adviser.

The missive was apparently sent in June 2005 by a member of the News of the World’s staff, from a company account, to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was later jailed for hacking phone messages.

The email stated: “This is a transcript for Neville.”

Davies said that was a clear reference to Thurlbeck, although he accepted that none of the material involved was ever used in a story.

Davies claimed to have the names of 27 other reporters from the News of the World, and four from sister paper The Sun, who he said were implicated in the row.

News International, the News of the World’s parent company, is said to have paid out £1 million to settle civil damages cases brought by Taylor and other alleged targets.

Davies said: “I think it is very hard to resist the conclusion that News International has been involved in covering up their journalists’ involvement with private investigators who were breaking the law.

“It is very worrying that Scotland Yard do not appear to have always done as much as they could have done to stop this.”

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger also told the MPs that the News of the World had been mounting an “aggressive campaign” to discredit his newspaper’s story on the phone-hacking allegations.

In a leader column on Sunday the News of the World said that the Guardian’s reporting of phone-hacking allegations was “inaccurate, selective and purposely misleading”.

A spokesman for the News of the World declined to comment on the latest allegations.

The newspaper has previously insisted there is no fresh evidence that its journalists were involved in phone-hacking.

Its former royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, was jailed along with Mr Mulcaire in 2007 after the phone messages of royal aides and celebrities were accessed.

Andy Coulson also quit as News of the World editor after admitting ultimate responsibility for the hacking – although he denied any knowledge of what had been going on. He is now Tory leader David Cameron’s key communications aide.

Davies said he had not seen any evidence that Mr Coulson knew of the phone-hacking, although he said other executives were directly involved in authorising payments to Mulcaire.