Friday, March 30, 2012

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

They Hacked Everyone.

Andy Coulson in fresh bid to appeal over legal fees

11 March 2012
By PA Media Lawyer

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson has renewed his application for permission to appeal against a High Court decision that News Group Newspapers (NGN) does not have to pay his potential legal costs over the phone-hacking affair.

The renewed application means he will get an oral hearing of the application.

The Casetracker website run by the Ministry of Justice says the case has been listed for a hearing on for permission to appeal 8 May in front of a three-judge panel consisting of Lord Justice Maurice Kay, Vice President of the Court of Appeal Civil Division, Lord Justice Etherton, and Lord Justice Aikens.

Coulson's original application for permission to appeal was refused, on the papers, by Sir Richard Buxton, a former Lord Justice, on 14 February.

Coulson reportedly put his detached south London house on the market for GBP1.6 million after the original ruling in December in which Justice Supperstone rejected his bid and ordered him to pay NGN's costs.

His lawyers had argued that a clause in his severance deal meant NGN should pay professional costs and expenses incurred by him "in defending allegations of criminal conduct" during his tenure as editor.

In July last year Coulson, who had resigned as Prime Minister David Cameron's communications director the previous January, and who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, was arrested then bailed by officers from Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police investigation into phone-hacking at the News of the World.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Attempted Suicide At News International.

LONDON (Reuters) - Two senior journalists working for Rupert Murdoch's News International have apparently attempted suicide as pressure mounts at the scandal-hit publisher of the now-defunct News of the World.

Three sources close to the company told Reuters on Tuesday the two journalists at the Sun daily appeared to have tried to take their own lives. Investigations sparked by a phone-hacking scandal continue to expose dubious practices by present and past employees.

Eleven current and former staff of the Sun, Britain's best-selling daily tabloid, have been arrested this year on suspicion of bribing police or civil servants for tip-offs.

Their arrests have come as a result of information provided to the police by the Management and Standards Committee (MSC), a body set up by parent company News Corp to facilitate police investigations and liaise with the courts.
The work of the MSC, which was set up to be independent of the conglomerate's British newspaper arm News International, has caused bitterness among staff, many of whom feel betrayed by an employer they have loyally served.

"People think that they've been thrown under a bus," one News International employee told Reuters. "They're beyond angry - there's an utter sense of betrayal, not just with the organisation but with a general lynch-mob hysteria."

News International is facing multiple criminal investigations and civil court cases as well as a public inquiry into press standards after long-simmering criticism of its practices came to a head last July.

Politicians once close to Murdoch, including Prime Minister David Cameron, turned their backs on him and demanded answers after the Guardian newspaper revealed the News of the World had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Police officer Sue Akers, who is heading three criminal inquiries into News International, said last week there appeared to have been "a culture of illegal payments" at the Sun.

Staff at the tabloid have been under additional pressure for the past two weeks because they have also had to produce a Sunday paper, hastily announced by Murdoch to replace the News of the World.

News International has increased the level of psychiatric help available to employees to help them cope.
(editing by Tim Pearce and Robert Woodward)

Sunday, March 04, 2012