Showing posts with label Phonehacking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phonehacking. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Phone-hacking scandal: Tuesday's key quotes - The Guardian

Gordon Brown said he was 'genuinely shocked' by recent News International allegations. Photograph: David Gadd/Allstar/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar(router,verizon wireless,wireless network,wireless internet,i phone,i phone verizon,my verizon wireless,wireless adapter,att wireless)

Allegations that the former prime minister Gordon Brown was the victim of systematic hacking and "blagging" have upped the stakes in the News International scandal still further. Here are some of Tuesday's key quotes:
• "I'm shocked, I'm genuinely shocked, (router,verizon wireless,wireless network,wireless internet,i phone,i phone verizon,my verizon wireless,wireless adapter,att wireless)
to find that this happened because of their links with criminals, known criminals, who were undertaking this activity, hired by investigators with the Sunday Times. I just can't understand this – if I, with all the protection and all the defences and all the security that a chancellor of the exchequer or a prime minister, am so vulnerable to unscrupulous tactics, to unlawful tactics, methods that have been used in the way we have found, what about the ordinary citizen? What about the person, like the family of Milly Dowler, who are in the most desperate of circumstances, the most difficult occasions in their lives, in huge grief and then they find that they are totally defenceless in this moment of greatest grief from people who are employing these ruthless tactics with links to known criminals." – Gordon Brown reacts to allegations that his family were targeted by News International journalists.
• "In tears. Your son is now going to be broadcast across the media. Sarah and I were incredibly upset about it. We were thinking about his long-term future. We were thinking about our family. But there's nothing that you can do about it. You're in public life. And this story appears. You don't know how it's appeared. I've not questioned how it's appeared. I've not made any allegations about how it's appeared. I've not made any claims about [how it appeared]. But the fact is it did appear. And it did appear in the Sun newspaper." – Brown on how he and his wife reacted to the news that the Sun had obtained his son's medical records.
• "I find it quite incredible that a supposedly reputable organisation made its money, produced its commercial results, at the expense of ordinary people by using known criminals. That is now what has got to be investigated." – Brown on what must happen next.
• "When the record of my time as prime minister is looked at – and all the papers will be there for people to see – they will show that we stood up to News International, that we refused to support their commercial ambitions when we thought they were against the public interest." – Brown on suggestions that his government was too close to News International.
"From the methods I know that are used, and the impact it has on your phone, your pin number, I am 99% certain my phone was hacked during a period of 2005-06. Who by, I don't know. The records don't exist any more." – Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates, who decided not to reopen investigations into hacking in 2009, giving evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee.
"I can assure you all that I have never lied and all the information that I've provided to this committee has been given in good faith," Yates told the MPs. He added that his decision not to pursue hacking allegations in 2009 was a "poor decision", saying: "We didn't have the information we should have done."
• "I think it's terrible what happened to Gordon. I think it's disgusting, and I think it just adds to the long list of outrages that we've seen practised by certain newspapers and I think it reinforces the need for comprehensive action to be taken. There can be nothing good about this crisis but one thing that can come out of it is a determination among politicians, journalists and others to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again." – the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, gives Sky News his reaction to the situation.
• "John Yates is in charge of counter-terrorism. He is doing a very good job in that role. I have confidence in John Yates." – the home secretary, Theresa May.
• "If I'd have ordered a public inquiry at the time, I'd have probably been castigated because in the runup to a general election people would have said it was an attempt to get at Andy Coulson who'd been appointed by Cameron. So you can't take today's knowledge and just apply it retrospectively. You have to look at the information that was available at the time." – the former Labour home secretary Alan Johnson tells Sky News why he did not set up an inquiry into phone hacking.
• "We note the allegations made today concerning the reporting of matters relating to Gordon Brown. So that we can investigate these matters further, we ask that all information concerning these allegations is provided to us." – News International reacts to the Brown allegations.
• "The latest revelations that the details, personal details of a former prime minister, were obtained, the fact that police officers may have been involved in protecting members of the royal family and then selling that information on to journalists – these are all very serious allegations, the most serious allegations, certainly this committee has seen over the last few years." – Keith Vaz, chair of the Commons home affairs committee.
"Unconvincing." – Vaz describes the view of the committee on Yates's evidence.
View the original article here

Monday, 11 July 2011

Phone-hacking probe: Dowler family meeting Clegg - BBC News

11 July 2011 Last updated at 08:17 GMT


 Sally and Gemma Dowler meeting Nick Clegg Sally and Gemma Dowler will also meet David Cameron and Ed Miliband this week Relatives of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler are meeting Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg for talks about the phone-hacking scandal.



They will also meet Prime Minister David Cameron later this week.


Martin Moore, from the Media Standards Trust, said the Dowlers wanted the public inquiry into hacking to begin sooner than Mr Cameron has suggested.


The News of the World has closed in the wake of claims including that Milly's phone was hacked after her abduction.


The Media Standards Trust charity led the Hacked Off campaign for a public inquiry into phone-hacking by journalists.


Martin Moore, from the trust, told the BBC News website the body wanted to make sure the inquiry was conducted in the right way and in a reasonable time frame.


"Our particular concern is there have been a number of inquiries into this which haven't achieved very much," he said.


"There are also a number of vested interests here - the police, press and politicians - an awful lot of people for whom this will be a very uncomfortable and difficult inquiry, and we think it's important that the voices of the victims and the many other concerned members of the public aren't lost."

Mr Moore said the Inquiries Act 2005 had been set up specifically to prevent inquiries dragging on too long and to make it possible for them to be carried out in parallel with a police investigation in certain circumstances.


"The police investigation could go on for another two or three years so the inquiry might not even get going until 2014 or 2015 and we could be looking at 10 years before we get any answers," he added.


"That's too long - we want to get going as soon as possible."


Milly's mother Sally and her sister Gemma will be among a number of alleged victims of phone hacking talking part in the talks in Downing Street.


They will also meet Labour leader Ed Miliband to discuss the scandal.


Former Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick, who is also attending the talks, told the BBC the Dowler family had been told about the hacking of Milly's voicemail a week before the start of the trial of her killer Levi Bellfield.

Takeover 'pause'

Labour wants to halt News Corporation's bid to buy BSkyB pending police investigations into phone-hacking.

Milly Dowler Thirteen-year-old Milly was found murdered six months after her abduction in March 2002

The party plans to force a vote by MPs during an opposition day debate on Wednesday in an attempt to suspend the takeover bid by News Corp - of which News of the World (NoW) publisher News International is part.


A spokeswoman for Labour leader Ed Miliband said she believed there would be support from MPs of all parties for the takeover to be delayed and hoped the government would heed the calls for a "pause".


Any Commons vote on Wednesday will not be binding on the government but Lib Dem MPs and some Conservatives are expected to vote for a delay to the deal or for it be blocked altogether, which will increase pressure on Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to act.


News International announced the closure of the NoW last week following the latest hacking allegations.


The 168-year-old paper published its final edition this weekend, in which it said it was "truly sorry".


Its editorial said: "There is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing. No justification for the pain caused to victims, nor for the deep stain it has left on a great history.


"Yet when this outrage has been atoned, we hope history will eventually judge us on all our years."


View the original article here