[Update] The News Corp scandal

[Maggy J]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18621949

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has announced plans to split the $60bn media giant into two companies.
The move should ringfence News Corp's profitable film and media business from its UK newspaper business, which is embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal.
News Corp's Fox networks in the US and its stake in UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB would form a film and media unit.

What is the betting that at a later date there will be another bid for BSkyB and this time there won't be a monopoly issue?

[devilincarnate]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18621949



What is the betting that at a later date there will be another bid for BSkyB and this time there won't be a monopoly issue?

Yes very true but let's wait and see what the fit and proper test comes back with from Ofcom (if anything)

[Mick]

But not really, it looks like he has spat out his dummy over the humilation, he has apparently told Fox Business channel that he would be "a lot more reluctant" to invest in Britain now, compared to the US.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...?newsfeed=true

[watzizname]

Originally Posted by Mick

But not really, it looks like he has spat out his dummy over the humilation, he has apparently told Fox Business channel that he would be "a lot more reluctant" to invest in Britain now, compared to the US.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...?newsfeed=true

Indeed, and here's the video..

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/17109...ylist_id=87185

[Maggy J]

Don't let the door etc....

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Mick

But not really, it looks like he has spat out his dummy over the humilation, he has apparently told Fox Business channel that he would be "a lot more reluctant" to invest in Britain now, compared to the US.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...?newsfeed=true

Good then we need to tell him to go forth in short jerky movements and not come back.

[jempalmer]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Good then we need to tell him to go forth in short jerky movements and not come back.

Agreed mate.

[Maggy J]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18704067

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has lost his legal battle to conceal the identity of journalists who instructed him to hack into mobile phone messages.
Mulcaire, who worked for the News of the World, was jailed in January 2007 for unlawfully intercepting voicemail messages received by royal aides.
He appealed to try to avoid being forced to answer questions in civil proceedings that could incriminate him.

NOW things get interesting...

[Maggy J]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...?newsfeed=true

Mulcaire has fought a 20-month legal battle not to reveal the details to protect his privilege against self-incrimination. However, the supreme court has now thrown out his appeal in a unanimous judgment by five senior law lords.

Mulcaire's legal team is weighing up whether to appeal the ruling to Europe. He said in a statement: "I will consider with my lawyers what the wider implications of this judgment are if and when I am asked to answer such questions in other cases."

Well if he does it's going to take even longer to get to the bottom of the cesspit..

---------- Post added at 19:37 ---------- Previous post was at 19:33 ----------

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18716093

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he believes the public was reassured over his handling of the BSkyB deal by his appearance at the Leveson Inquiry.
On Radio 4's The Media Show, Mr Hunt said he took responsibility for the actions of his aide, who resigned, but that did not mean he had to quit.

What planet does he reside on?

[devilincarnate]

Rupert Murdoch sought assurances from then-PM Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s about policing of print union strikes, the Leveson Inquiry has been told.

In a written statement, ex-Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil disputed Mr Murdoch's claim that he had "never asked a prime minister for anything".

Mr Neil also wr

ote of Tony Blair and Mr Murdoch reaching "an understanding".

That "relationship became closer, more extensive and deeper than anything ... during the Thatcher years", he claimed.

"There was at least one time ... when Mr Murdoch's support for Mrs Thatcher paid business dividends and undermines the accuracy of his claim to the Inquiry that he has never asked politicians for anything," wrote Mr Neil, now a BBC presenter.

"In the run-up to the Wapping dispute he made it clear to me one night in late 1985 in my office that he had gone to Mrs Thatcher to get her assurance - to 'square Thatcher' in his words - that enough police would be made available to allow him to get his papers out past the massed pickets at Wapping once the dispute got underway."

Mr Murdoch received assurances from Mrs Thatcher, Mr Neil said, "on the grounds that she was doing no more than upholding the right of his company to go about its lawful business".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18789738

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by devilincarnate

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18789738

Go about its lawful business, there's a laugh

[Maggy J]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18940016

Rupert Murdoch has resigned from a string of directorships controlling his News Corporation's UK newspapers.
Mr Murdoch, 81, quit directorships at NI Group Ltd, NewsCorp Investments and Times Newspaper Holdings on Friday.
News Corp plans to split into two firms, separating its newspaper and book publishing interests from its now dominant TV and film enterprises.
Mr Murdoch is expected to chair both businesses but to be chief executive only of the TV and film side.

He is more slippery than a box of eels..

---------- Post added at 17:33 ---------- Previous post was at 17:08 ----------

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...ewspapers.html

For a start, the boards he's resigning from have no power and very rarely meet. They're boilerplate corporate structures masking the fact Murdoch is in complete control of his U.K. papers.

[Maggy J]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18950691

Two officers at high-security prisons allegedly took illegal payments from Mirror, Express and News International journalists, a senior police officer has told the Leveson Inquiry.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said one officer had allegedly received £35,000.
But she said stories possibly linked to the payments revealed "very limited material of genuine public interest".

In her evidence, DAC Akers gave a breakdown of arrests made and information gathered during the three investigations she is leading, including:

• Forty-one arrests as part of Operation Elveden into corrupt payments to officials
• This includes 23 former or current journalists, four police officers, nine current or former public officials and five alleged "go-betweens"
• Fifteen current and former journalists arrested during Operation Weeting inquiry into phone hacking - 12 are on bail
• Six people, including former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie, have been charged and are to appear in court in September
• Files relating to three police officers and one journalist are currently with the Crown Prosecution Service
• Seven arrests have been made as part of Operation Tuleta into allegations that computers were hacked
• Police are looking into 101 allegations of data intrusion
• Eight to 11 terabytes of electronic data are being examined

Ms Akers also suggested certain information obtained by News International seemed to have come from stolen mobile phones - one taken in London and another in Manchester.
She said police officers were investigating whether this was "the tip of the iceberg" relating to alleged accessing of stolen mobile phones.

Is the the tip of the iceberg overall.?Have some 'got away with it' one wonders?

[Derek]

Squeaky bum time for a number of people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18961228

The Crown Prosecution Service is to announce on Tuesday whether it has decided to bring more charges over allegations of phone-hacking.

Twelve people are due to answer police bail in connection with the Operation Weeting investigation.

[Maggy J]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...e-7966265.html

Two of Rupert Murdoch’s former editors, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, are being charged with conspiring to hack the phone of the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
In all seven senior News of the World journalists are being charged with conspiring to intercept the voicemails of a total of 600 victims, the Crown Prosecution announced today.

Well now we finally have the charges..Wonder when the court cases will be.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18961228

In a statement, Mrs Brooks said: "I am not guilty of these charges. I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship."

Mr Coulson, Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief, will face four charges linked to accusations of accessing the phone messages of Milly, former Labour home secretaries David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and Calum Best, the son of the late footballer George Best.

---------- Post added at 14:52 ---------- Previous post was at 13:10 ----------

That's it it's over.Justice Leveson is off to make his report.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18964165

Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into press ethics is holding its last scheduled hearing, after eight months of evidence.
The inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice was prompted by the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
Some 470 witnesses appeared and 6,000 pages of evidence was presented.
Lawyers representing three newspaper groups and victims of press intrusion are making their closing submissions on the 102nd day of the inquiry.

---------- Post added at 15:52 ---------- Previous post was at 14:52 ----------

And finally just for fun...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18913397