Looks like Murdoch’s going to get off scot free over his companies phone hacking guilt – after years of denying any such thing was happening at the News of the World and sticking to the line that it was just an isolated rogue reporter we now have:
Rupert Murdoch’s News International has issued a public apology to eight victims of phone hacking, including the actor Sienna Miller and former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, and admitted for the first time that the practice was rife at the News of the World. James Robinson, The Guardian.
So it wasn’t just one rogue reporter then. So why’s Murdoch doing this? Well it avoids a lot of potentially damaging evidence coming to light at trials Murdoch now realises he’s going to lose.
Some of those bringing cases were specifically aiming to get Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, his predecessor as News of the World editor, now chief executive, in the witness box. They may not succeed – because as the company argues, once it has conceded liability, the only thing left to argue about is the level of damages. And while it will be necessary for some document disclosure to assess the level of damages, the evidence flying around will be far less than would be necessary if the battle were over establishing guilt. In short, as a result of the settlements, it is likely that only a fraction of the evidence will now be disclosed in the civil actions. Dan Sabbagh, The Guardian.
Estimates for the cost of settlements range for £20 – £40 million which is small beer when compared to the $2.5bn profits Murdoch achieved last year
After all this you might have thought the Tories wouldn’t be quite so keen on handing Murdoch the cable broadcaster BSkyB which is effectively keys to dominance of the British media.
One can’t help feeling that some people who’ve had their phones hacked are about as worried as Murdoch appears to be about what might become public at a trial.
