Overview of news media phone hacking scandals

News of the World and its then editor, Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), championed the campaign led by Sarah's mother for legislation to notify parents if a child sex offender lived nearby.

[45] In 2006 an editor of News of the World reportedly hacked into the computer of a British Army intelligence officer in Northern Ireland who had responsibility for contact with an agent embedded in the Provisional IRA and potentially at high risk for assassination if his whereabouts became known.

Fillery reportedly used his relationship with Alex Marunchak to arrange for private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, then doing work for News of the World, to obtain confidential information about Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook.

"Scotland Yard took no further action, apparently reflecting the desire of Dick Fedorcio, Director of Public Affairs and Internal Communication for the Met who had a close working relationship with Brooks, to avoid unnecessary friction with the newspaper.

"[52] No one was charged with illegal acquisition of confidential information as a result of Operation Nigeria, even though the Met reportedly collected hundreds of thousands of incriminating documents during the investigations into Jonathan Rees over his links with corrupt officers.

Upon Rees' release from prison in 2005, he immediately resumed his private investigative work of profitably supplying confidential information to News of the World, where Andy Coulson by that time had succeeded Rebekah Brooks as editor.

[50] Boyall eventually attracted the attention of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), an authority acting independently of the police in the public interest to uphold data privacy rights for individuals.

According to ICO head Richard Thomas, "each pleaded guilty yet, despite the extent and the frequency of their admitted criminality, each was conditionally discharged [for two years], raising important questions for public policy.

By January 2006, Scotland Yard determined there was an "unambiguous trail" to Clive Goodman, the News of the World royal reporter, and to Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who was contracted to do work for the paper."

The seized documents also included a transcript of illegally accessed voice mail messages between Professional Football Association's Gordon Taylor and his legal adviser, Jo Anderson.

The precise nature of the guidance given by CPS to the Met became the subject of public disagreement between them 2011, at which time it was noted, among other things, that the charges brought against Goodman and Mulcaire included counts for which there was no mention or examination of whether messages had already been heard or not.

[17][43] Mulcaire acknowledged hacking the phones of Sky Andrew, Max Clifford, Simon Hughes, Elle Macpherson, and Gordon Taylor in addition to members of the Royal household.

[50] Nonetheless, senior newspaper executives including James Murdoch continued to maintain through early 2011 that the illegal activity was the sole work of this single "rogue reporter" and his private investigator.

[2] After the 2006 imprisonment of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, and with assurances from News International executives and senior Metropolitan Police officials that a thorough investigation of evidence had identified only these two as being involved in phone hacking, the public perception was that the matter was closed.

[50] The Guardian newspaper continued to be critical of Yates, who responded to these accusations by hiring a well known libel firm that threatened legal action against various media outlets for reporting that he had misled Parliament.

[94] Eventually, as queries continued to come in from celebrities and politicians asking if they had been victims of hacking, Yates directed that the evidence from the Mulcaire raid that had been stored in garbage bags for three years be entered into a computer database.

The day in 2005 that the Met seized documents from Goodman and Mulcaire and arrested them for conspiracy to intercept communications without lawful authority, News of the World editors said they were stunned and vowed to conduct an internal investigation.

[43][91] Their report concluded that it was "inconceivable" that no one else, apart from Goodman, knew about the extent of phone hacking at the paper, and that the Committee had "repeatedly encountered an unwillingness to provide the detailed information that we sought, claims of ignorance or lack of recall and deliberate obfuscation".

[103] However, Tom Crone and Colin Myler, respectively the newspaper's legal advisor and editor, claimed they had met with James Murdoch and indicated to him the significance of the email, and it was this that resulted in agreement among them to make a large settlement payment to Taylor.

One commentator observed that "the Goodman-Mulcaire revelations and subsequent prosecution were supposed to have settled the hacking matter forever and might have done just that, except that successful law suits... kept popping up against [News of the World] after the convictions.

This contradicted testimony to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee by newspaper executives and senior Met officials that Mulcaire acted on his own and that there was no evidence of hacking by other than him and a single "rogue reporter," namely Clive Goodman.

Within five weeks of this article appearing, Ian Edmundson was suspended from News of the World,[122] Andy Coulson resigned as Chief Press Secretary to David Cameron,[65][123] the Crown Prosecution Service began a review of evidence it had,[124] and the Met renewed its investigation into phone hacking, something it had declined to do since 2007.

[104] During this period, revelations of unpopular invasions of privacy inflamed public opinion, leading to resignations of senior journalists, media executives and police officials and to reinvigorated investigations of wrongdoing.

[20][131] The new Met Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, took the unusual step of asking a team from an outside police force, the Durham constabulary headed by Jon Stoddart, to review the work of Operation Weeting.

[132] By the end of the year, sixteen people, mostly editors and journalists who had at one time worked for News of the World, were arrested in conjunction with recently renewed investigations of illegal acquisition of confidential information.

[152] James was harshly criticised by the British Office of Communications (Ofcom), which concluded that he "repeatedly fell short of the conduct to be expected of as a chief executive and chairman" and that his lack of action in relation to phone hacking was "difficult to comprehend and ill-judged".

"[157] Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke the 27 Fox broadcast licenses News Corp. holds, claiming significant character deficiencies warranted disqualification since "the House of Commons report makes clear that both Rupert and James Murdoch were complicit in New Corp.'s illegal activities.

Commentators observed that the personal relationships among individuals variously in law enforcement, news media, and political institutions may have compromised principles and judgments, sometimes leading to inappropriate favours or even illegal payments.

Shortly after he resigned, maintaining he know nothing of wrongdoing but accepting responsibility for what happened on his watch, he was hired by the Conservative Party as their director of communications and later became Prime Minister David Cameron's highest paid advisor.

[224] The scandal generated broad interest worldwide shortly after The Guardian reported in July 2011 that murdered teenager Milly Dower's phone had been hacked into by agents of News of the World[225] and after Rupert Murdoch announced that the 168-year-old newspaper would be closed as a consequence.