14 Dec 2011 | Leveson Inquiry
The former legal manager at the News of the World has denied a “culture of cover-up” at the paper in settling a phone hacking claim in 2008.
Tom Crone told the Leveson Inquiry today that News International’s payout to Professional Footballers Association boss Gordon Taylor over a phone hacking claim was made to avoid “reputational damage” from bad publicity. Taylor was eventually paid over £700,000 by NI in 2008, in payment authorised by News Corp boss James Murdoch.
Crone also reiterated his assertion that Murdoch was made aware of “direct and hard evidence” that phone hacking went beyond “one rogue reporter”, saying he had shown Murdoch a copy of the “damning email” that implicated other News of the World reporters in the practice at a 2008 meeting.
Yet, in a letter to MPs released yesterday, Murdoch said he had not read a key email sent to him in June of the same year by former editor Colin Myler that indicated the practice was not limited to one journalist.
When asked by Lord Justice Leveson if the hacking allegations raised concerns about how NI approached ethical compliance, Crone replied that, in alerting Murdoch, he had notified the highest levels of the company.
“I didn’t see corporate compliance as really within my role,” Crone said, adding that ultimate responsibility lay with Murdoch.
However, former director of legal affairs at News International, Jonathan Chapman, told the Inquiry he believed compliance was within Crone’s remit and “would have been picked up by lawyers on the editorial side”.
Reiterating his tesimony from yesterday, Crone also denied knowing that Derek Webb, who was hired by the News of the World in 2010 to survey two lawyers for phone hacking victims, was a private detective. While he admitted he knew Webb was a former policeman, he repeated he was under the impression he was an accredited freelance journalist, with the paper urging Webb to join the National Union of Journalists.
Crone argued surveillance was standard practice in journalism, arguing that “there’s not a newspaper in the country that doesn’t occasionally or regularly watch people.”
It was also revealed that in one email from former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, Webb was referred to as “silent shadow”, though Crone denied that this indicated Webb was an investigator.
This afternoon the Inquiry heard from former editor Colin Myler, who joined the tabloid in 2007 after the resignation of Andy Coulson in the wake of the 2006 phone hacking scandal. In a lengthy back-and-forth with counsel to the Inquiry, Robert Jay QC, Myler reiterated the steps he took to “change” the culture of the paper, which he described as “laddish”. Upon joining the paper he ordered all cash payments be recorded and have a “compelling justification”, and notified staff that the use of private investigators was only permitted in exceptional circumstances.
“Whatever acts that individuals took part in, the full force of the law should take care of them,” Myler said.
He added that he did not recognise the picture painted of the tabloid by Paul McMullan as one where blagging, phone hacking and “doing rather disagreeable things” was rife.
Yet Jay was keen to remind him of some of the paper’s questionable coverage under his editorship, namely the paper’s 2008 splash on Max Mosley, in which the ex-Formula 1 boss was accused of partaking in a Nazi-themed orgy. To Lord Justice Leveson’s amazement, Myler defended publishing the Mosley video on the paper’s website, arguing it was “custom” and not playing to “prurient interest”.
He conceded, however, that he should have reprimanded chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck over contentious emails sent at news editor Ian Edmonson’s request to two women involved in the orgy about a follow-up story. In agreement with Leveson, Myler said the messages were “totally inappropriate”.
He was also pressed about the paper’s 2008 publication of Kate McCann’s dairies on her missing daughter, Madeleine. Asked why he did not seek the McCanns’ consent before publishing, Myler said he was assured Edmonson had made the family’s spokesman aware of the story. Had she known, Myler said, he would not have published. “I felt very bad that she didn’t know,” he said.
The Inquiry continues tomorrow with further evidence from Myler, as well as private investigator Derek Webb and Daniel Sanderson, a former News of the World reporter whose name appeared on the story about McCann’s diaries.
Follow Index on Censorship’s coverage of the Leveson Inquiry on Twitter – @IndexLeveson.
14 Dec 2011 | Russia
Alisher Usmanov, a metal tycoon and owner of Russia’s leading Kommersant publishing house, fired Kommersant Vlast magazine editor-in-chief Maxim Kovalsky and Kommersant-Holdingexecutive director Andrey Galiev.
The reason for the dismissals, according to Usmanov, was the magazine’s latest issue which talked about alleged mass fraud in parliamentary elections in Russia, particularly expatriates voting in London and witnessing election law violations. The publication included photos of graffiti and a bullet with foul against Russian prime-minister and United Russia leader Vladimir Putin.
The photos bordered on petty hooliganism, Usmanov told journalists, claiming he had never interfered in editorial policy before. But according to Kommersant Vlast deputy editor Veronika Kutsillo, he had expressed displeasure over previous publications of Kommersant Vlast. Kutsillo is resigning in protest over the firing of her colleagues.
Kommersant publishing house chief executive Demyan Kudryavtsev also tried to resign, but not in protest. He favoured Usmanov’s decision, claiming it had nothing to do with censorship, and saying he was sorry he hadn’t stopped the publication of the photos as they violated journalistic standards, Russian law and Kommersant internal rules. He kept his post, and his statements didn’t surprise fellow journalists.
Demyan Kudryavtsev supported the removal of Russia’s leading independent monitor GOLOS special project The Map of Election Violations from Gazeta.ru website. Kovalsky denied accusations, explaining it was essential to publish the bulletin photo as it was evidence of election law violation — the bulletin was marked with a vote for Yabloko opposition party, but was considered spoiled because of the obscene words against Putin.
Kommersant journalists appealed to the public with an open letter protesting against Kovalsky’s dismissal and considering it “an attempt to intimidate them in order to prevent any critics of Vladimir Putin”. They highlighted that the justification for the dismissal from Kommersant (“violation of journalistic standards”) is “a forgery, just like the one that insulted people on elections”.
Russian Journalists’ Union head Vsevolod Bogdanov accused Kommersant superiors of censorship, predicting dramatic changes in Kommersant human resources policy.
Meanwhile another oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, who has announced he will run in the presidential election campaign, said he wants to buy the Kommersant publishing house. Usmanov regarded Prokhorov’s offer as a joke, but Kommersant journalists say official negotiations may still be held.
Usmanov’s actions are seen as examples of two processes in Russia. The first shows how media are controlled by oligarchs who stay loyal to Putin, in exchange for his permission to operate superprofits and stay in Forbes’ list of Russia’s richest men. The price oligarchs pay in this deal is abusing the core principle of media independence by intruding the editorial policy or using antiextremism legislation to silence free speech.
The second process includes the government’s and pro-Kremlin oligarchs concerns on staying at or close to power, which is threatened by more people getting to know that the parliamentary elections were allegedly marked with mass fraud.
14 Dec 2011 | Leveson Inquiry
Lord Justice Leveson has dismissed claims that the Milly Dowler case was the only reason his Inquiry into press standards and ethics was set up.
Agreeing with the lawyer for victims of phone hacking David Sherborne, Leveson said the past month of evidence of press intrusion and harassment should “dispel any doubt” that the hacking and deletion of messages on the murdered schoolgirl’s phone was the only reason the Inquiry was taking place.
This follows what Sherborne dubbed had been a “storm of misreporting” after the Metropolitan police announced that the News of the World may not have deleted the girl’s voicemails and giving her family false hope she was alive.
Yesterday Richard Caseby, managing editor of the Sun, accused the Guardian of having “sexed up” their original coverage of the case in which they reported the News of the World was responsible for deleting Dowler’s messages.
Yet it remains uncontested that the tabloid did hack into her phone.
This morning Sherborne told the Inquiry that hacking victims’ solicitor Mark Lewis was contacted on Tuesday evening by a Daily Mail reporter who asked him if the Dowler family will be giving money back in light of revisions.
The Dowlers had previously issued a statement through Lewis, stating they had a “clear recollection” that the police had told them the now-defunct News of the World had deleted their daughter’s voicemails.
Lewis told BBC News the reporter’s actions were “appalling”.
Leveson reiterated the significance of the issue, stressing that it was in the public interest to be resolved in an “orderly manner”.
Follow Index on Censorship’s coverage of the Leveson Inquiry on Twitter – @IndexLeveson.
