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UK police seek information on newspaper eavesdropping

Shayah

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UK police seek information on newspaper eavesdropping
Sun Sep 5, 2010

LONDON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - British police said on Sunday they had sought more information about claims that reporters at the News of the World newspaper illegally hacked into voicemail accounts to eavesdrop on people's phone messages. The issue shines an awkward spotlight on the former career of the head of communications in Prime Minister David Cameron's office, Andy Coulson, a former editor at the mass-market weekly paper, which has Britain's highest circulation.

The issue resurfaced last week after the New York Times reported that illegal eavesdropping by reporters at the paper was widespread. Since then, former News of the World reporter Sean Hoare has said in a BBC interview that Coulson knew of it. John Yates, assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, said the force had sought more information from the New York Times "and will consider this material, along with Sean Hoare's recent BBC Radio interview, and will consult the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) on how best to progress".

On Friday, the News of the World said: "The New York Times story contains no new evidence -- it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper."
UK police seek information on newspaper eavesdropping | Reuters

Brits... what in the hell is going on here?
 

The News of the World (a Murdoch Sunday tabloid) has been using phone-taps on politicians, royals and celebrities in order to make their scoops. Their royal corrspondent was gaoled for commissioning a PI to tap into royal phones and now several politicians are demanding that the police, who possess information on the wider group of people the NOTW tapped, release that information. The Prime Minister's press secretary is a former editor of the NOTW during the time that these taps were happening, hence people want to know more about his involvement in the scandal. An ex-employee of NOTW told the NYT about the practices and the NYT published an article, but have not provided the police with any evidence it holds on the matter.

Should the PM's press secretary be charged with illegal phone-tapping it could be deeply embarassing for the government.
 
The News of the World (a Murdoch Sunday tabloid) has been using phone-taps on politicians, royals and celebrities in order to make their scoops. Their royal corrspondent was gaoled for commissioning a PI to tap into royal phones and now several politicians are demanding that the police, who possess information on the wider group of people the NOTW tapped, release that information. The Prime Minister's press secretary is a former editor of the NOTW during the time that these taps were happening, hence people want to know more about his involvement in the scandal. An ex-employee of NOTW told the NYT about the practices and the NYT published an article, but have not provided the police with any evidence it holds on the matter.

Should the PM's press secretary be charged with illegal phone-tapping it could be deeply embarassing for the government.

This could be very bad for the present government and could make it fall.

The way the question time went today, live on all networks, showed a total out of touch government trying to ride out a storm.

Just after the government representative claimed that all people who had been tapped or suspected of being tapped had been contacted, a MP stood up saying he had to ring up the police to ask if he had been taped, and getting the police saying better check with your cell provider (basically confirming that he had been tapped) and then getting conformation that his phone had been tapped from his cell provider. It basically showed the government is either lieing or totally out of touch.

What can make this government fall is the fact that most of those tapped were non Torries and the man possibly responsible for the tapping is now the communications director of the PM. If it comes out that say Nick Cleggs phones were tapped... then I doubt the government will last long.
 
-- What can make this government fall is the fact that most of those tapped were non Torries and the man possibly responsible for the tapping is now the communications director of the PM. If it comes out that say Nick Cleggs phones were tapped... then I doubt the government will last long.

The Liberals weren't important (or interesting) enough to phone-tap at the time he was at the News of the World and when Charles Kennedy was leader he ws so drunk that he didn't need a phone tap to get his confidential information.
 
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