Monday 11 July 2011

Rebekah Brooks may be interviewed by police investigating phone hacking at the News Of The World,

Sky sources say – amid claims other top executives were aware of widespread illegal activity at the paper.
Les Hinton, Andy Coulson, Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks
Mrs Brooks, chief executive of News International (NI), could be questioned by Scotland Yard detectives formally as a witness, a source at the company said.
She has previously said she will co-operate fully with the investigation. There is no suggestion that Mrs Brooks is suspected of wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch is expected to hold top-level meetings today, as he attempts to fire-fight the crisis.
After flying to London on Sunday, he had dinner with Mrs Brooks and suggested she had his full backing. When asked by reporters what his priority was, he gestured to her and said: "This one."

He has been urged by Labour leader Ed Miliband to put his plans to takeover BSkyB – owner of Sky News – on ice for the duration of the criminal investigation.
And Mr Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, NI's parent company, faces a further headache over claims about what other senior executives knew about phone hacking.
The Guardian reports that some executives could be quizzed over "smoking gun" emails which apparently showed several NOTW journalists – not just jailed royal editor Clive Goodman – were implicated in phone hacking.
An internal investigation in 2007 is said to have gathered 2,500 emails from NOTW staff.
The messages which formed the inquiry were reportedly sent to police earlier this year after newer executives at NI discovered its existence.

News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks
But despite the alleged revelations of the inquiry, NI executives repeatedly went on the record to say hacking was confined to a "rogue reporter".
The Guardian reports that Les Hinton, one of Rupert Murdoch’s most loyal lieutenants, was one of five people who had access to the report.
Mr Hinton, who has worked for News Corporation for about 50 years, ran NI for 10 years until December 2007.
He has twice told a parliamentary committee investigating phone hacking that there was no evidence to suggest the practice had gone beyond a lone reporter.
In September 2009, he told the committee: "There was never any evidence delivered to me that suggested that the conduct of Clive Goodman spread beyond him… We went, I promise you, to extraordinary lengths within the News Of The World."

Colin Myler was made News Of The World editor in 2007
James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch's son, took over the running of NI from Mr Hinton and it is understood he had no knowledge of the 2007 internal inquiry until recently. Also in the dark, The Guardian reports, was Mrs Brooks.
The Guardian says it understands that the then-NOTW editor Colin Myler, and a lawyer, Tom Crone, were also aware of evidence that showed more widespread illegal activity.
Mr Myler was appointed NOTW editor in 2007 and was charged with repairing the reputation of the newspaper after the Goodman affair.
He told the Commons culture, media and sport select committee in 2009 that he had run an internal investigation of emails and found hacking was restricted to Goodman.
Mr Crone, once the chief lawyer at the NOTW, was responsible for ensuring the newspaper's potentially libellous stories could not be challenged in court.
The Guardian alleges it was Mr Crone and Mr Myler who asked James Murdoch in 2008 to sign off a payment to Gordon Taylor, the head of the Professional Footballers’ Association, to settle a phone-hacking claim against the NOTW.

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