The British phone hacking scandal
The British phone hacking scandal that has transfixed Britons this week and affected the highest levels of their government actually started nine years ago.
Here’s a look at related developmentsTIMELINE
March 21, 2002:
13-year old Milly Dowler from Surrey, UK, vanishes while walking home from school.
April 14, 2002:
The News of the World publish a story about Milly’s disappearance, and make no effort to conceal their phone hacking, writing, “…it was on March 27, six days after Milly went missing, that the employment agency appears to have phoned her mobile.”
September 20, 2002:
Dowler’s remains are discovered by mushroom pickers in a wooded area in Yateley Heath, Hampshire, 40 kilometres from her home.
December 2005:
The British royal family suspects there has been interference with the voice messages of royal staff. Buckingham Palace calls in Scotland Yard to investigate.
January 2006:
Scotland Yard investigates the News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and hired private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who they suspected hacked into the phones of three senior aides to Britain’s royal family.
April 9, 2006:
Goodman publishes a story in News of the World, quoting verbatim a voice message left on Prince Harry’s cellphone.
August 8, 2006:
Police in England arrest three men connected to the News of the World royal family phone hacking scandal, including Goodman and Mulcaire. Police seize computers records and stacks of paperwork.
January 2007:
Goodman is jailed for four months for plotting to intercept voicemail left on the royal aides’ phones. Mulcaire is jailed for six months after pleading guilty to the same charge. Meanwhile, Andy Coulson resigns as editor of News of the World, but claims to have known nothing of the hacking.
July 2007:
Coulson becomes the communications director for Britain’s Conservative Party under David Cameron.
July 2009:
The Guardian begins making a series of allegations against the News of the World, saying their illegal activities date back much further than the 2007 royal phone hack. The allegations note multiple politicians, athletes and celebrities the publication believes to be victim to a similar hack.
Andy Coulson tells a parliamentary committee he never “condoned use of phone hacking.”
September 2009:
Scotland Yard says it found suspected hacking victims within the royal household, government, and police.
Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World and its sister paper The Sun, is named chief executive of News International, News Corp.’s British arm.
February 2010:
The Guardian publishes a report saying three major phone companies in Britain had discovered that customers in 2007 had their voice messages hacked by Goodman and Mulcaire.
A parliamentary committee finds no evidence that Coulson knew about phone-hacking but states it’s “inconceivable” that no one apart from royal correspondent Goodman knew about it.
April 2010:
News of the World writer Dan Evans is suspended following new hacking allegations.
May 2010:
Conservative David Cameron becomes prime minister; Coulson is named Downing Street communications chief.
December 2010:
Charges against Coulson are dropped, due to a lack of evidence. The charges stemmed from allegations that Coulson had approved the plan to hack into Prince William’s phone messages.
January 2011:
Scotland Yard says they will not reopen an investigation into the News of the World phone hacking, despite the suspension of the tabloid’s assistant editor Ian Edmondson.
New allegations link Edmondson to the hacking of actress Sienna Miller’s cell phone, as well as her then-boyfriend actor Jude Law. Miller is suing the tabloid’s parent company, News Group, after documents seized from Mulcaire imply that Edmondson was involved in hacking her phone.
Andy Coulson announces he will no longer serve as PM Cameron’s communications advisor, because of continual criticism regarding the phone hacking coverage.
June 2011:
Sienna Miller and TalkSport presenter Andy Gray are both granted a settlement from News Group in their phone hacking claims against the News of the World. The newspaper group offered £20,000 to Gray, and was ordered to pay Miller £100,000.
June 23, 2011:
The lead suspect in Milly’s murder, Levi Bellfield, is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for her abduction and murder.
July 4, 2011:
British newspaper The Guardian reports that the British tabloid News of the World interfered with the police investigation into Milly’s disappearance in March 2002, by illegally hacking into the 13-year old’s cellphone.
It is alleged that News of the World repeatedly intercepted phone messages left on Milly’s phone, even going so far as deleting messages in the phone’s mailbox to make room for new messages.
At a time when no one knew what had happened to Milly, her family was given false hope that she was alive, thinking she was the one deleting the messages.
The deleted messages also compromised the police investigation into Milly’s disappearance, destroying potentially valuable information.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer for Milly’s family, issues a statement, calling the phone hacking “heinous” and “despicable.” Lewis says the Dowler family will pursue damages against the tabloid.
July 5, 2011:
Former editor of the News of the World, Rebekah Brooks issues a statement saying she was “appalled” and “shocked” when she heard the reports of the phone hacking. Brooks was editor of the tabloid at the time of Milly’s disappearance. Brooks says it is “inconceivable” she knew about the phone hacking in the Milly Dowler case.
Glenn Mulcaire issues a statement at the request of The Guardian, apologizing for anyone hurt by his activity. Mulcaire’s statement makes no reference to the Milly Dowler hacking allegations, but does say he never intended to interfere with any police investigation. Mulcaire says he was under constant pressure by News of the World to produce results.
News of the World advertisers boycott the paper.
July 6, 2011:
Media baron Rupert Murdoch says embattled executive Brooks will continue to lead his company in Britain despite calls for her resignation amid a burgeoning tabloid phone-hacking scandal.
Murdoch supported Brooks as politicians called for her to step down because of the tabloid’s actions when she was its editor.
She now heads News International, part of Murdoch’s global News Corp. empire
July 7, 2011:
UK police appeal for public’s patience while investigators contact nearly 4,000 potential hacking victims. The tabloid’s prestigious link to with the Royal British Legion suffers a major blow following reports the family members of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan may have also had their phones hacked.
Michael Mansfield, a lawyer who represented the family of Princess Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed at the inquest into her death, says police have warned him his voicemails may have been hacked.
More UK companies request their ads be pulled from the News of the World. J. Sainsbury, Britain’s third-largest supermarket group, energy company Npower, national pharmacy chain Boots and mobile phone company O2 will withdraw advertising, joining Ford, Vauxhall and others which previously backed out.
July 7, 2011:
News International says it will shut down the News of the World tabloid at the centre of phone hacking scandal. James Murdoch, who heads the newspaper’s European operations, says the 168-year-old newspaper will publish its last edition Sunday. The scandal has cost the paper prestige and advertisers.
James Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation and chairman of News International, makes the announcement to staff. Read the full statement.
July 8, 2011:
Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor and former communications chief to British Prime Minister David Cameron, is arrested on suspicion of corruption and “conspiring to intercept communications.” Coulson is not charged.
One of his former colleagues at the paper, Clive Goodman, is also arrested, this time for suspected illegal payments to police.. He previously served four months in prison for intercepting royal phone calls. Both Goodman and Coulson are released on bail.
Police later announce they have arrested a 63-year-old man as part of the phone hacking investigation.
UK PM Cameron announces there will be inquiries.
July 10, 2011
The final issue of News of the World hits news stands. Unofficial results say all 4.5 million copies sold, making it the highest sales the tabloid has seen since 1998.
July 11, 2011
The News of the World phone hacking scandal expands to include other publications in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Murdoch’s empire was besieged Monday by accusations that two more of his British newspapers engaged in privacy violations that included accessing former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s bank account information and stealing the medical records of his seriously ill baby son.
July 12, 2011
The British government announces it will urge Rupert Murdoch to withdraw his bid to take control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB, in light of new details emerging in the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
July 13, 2011
British Prime Minister David Cameron vows to look into whether 9/11 victims were targeted in Britain’s phone hacking scandal, as lawmakers were poised to demand that Rupert Murdoch give up his goal of taking over a lucrative U.K. broadcaster.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. gives up on making an offer to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting. News Corp. deputy chairman and president Chase Carey said “it has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate.”
July 14, 2011
Police make another arrest in the News of the World scandal. Metropolitan Police said Neil Wallis, deputy editor under Andy Coulson from 2003 to 2007, was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport committee issues summonses to Rupert and James Murdoch, but it is unclear if Rupert Murdoch could be compelled to testify because he is a U.S. citizen. Rebekah Brooks agrees to appear before a hacking committee.
July 15, 2011
Rebekah Brooks resigns as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s embattled British newspapers.
British media say Rupert Murdoch is meeting with the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was hacked by the now-defunct tabloid News of the World.
Actor Jude Law is taking legal action against The Sun newspaper, claiming the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid hacked into voice mails for stories about his private life.
Les Hinton, the chief executive of Dow Jones & Co.,resigns. For 12 years, he served as executive chairman of the British unit that oversaw News Corp.’s U.K. tabloid newspapers at the heart of the scandal. Hinton, who became head of Dow Jones in December 2007, said in a statement that he was “ignorant of what apparently happened” but felt it was proper to resign.
July 16, 2011
The British government defends its close contacts within Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch runs full-page “We are sorry” ads in newspapers across the UK.
July 17, 2011
London police arrested Rebekah Brooks. The former NotW editor said she was “assisting the police with their inquiries.” Brooks was arrested at a London police station at noon Sunday by appointment. She is being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications – phone hacking – and on suspicion of corruption, which relates to bribing police for information.
London’s police chief Paul Stephenson resigns. Stephenson has been criticized for hiring Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor arrested last week in the scandal, as a part-time PR consultant for a year until September 2010.
July 18, 2011
The BBC reported that Rebekah Brooks will testify to a parliamentary committee, despite her arrest.
David Cameron called for an emergency session of Parliament to brief lawmakers on the spreading phone hacking scandal, trying to gain control of a crisis that is threatening Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, the upper echelons of London’s police force and the country’s leader himself.
Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates stepped down. Yates was the official who decided two years ago not to reopen police inquiries into phone hacking and police bribery by tabloid journalists, saying he did not believe there was any new evidence to consider.
News of the World whistleblower Sean Hoare was found dead Monday morning in his Watford, UK, home. Police do not confirm Hoare’s identity, but state the death is “unexplained” but not suspicious.
London police confirm Alex Marunchak, a former employee at News of the World, was employed by Scotland Yard as a Ukrainian language interpreter with access to highly sensitive police information between 1980 and 2000. Source - http://www.globalmontreal.com/
