Media baron Rupert Murdoch controlled News International is in advanced talks with the phone hacking victim’s family for settlement that may run to £3 million, a part of which will be paid by Murdoch personally to a charity of the family’s choice.
It is also reported that News International could be setting aside as much as £20 million, for possible claims by other victims of the phone hacking scandal, that resulted in the closure of News of The World (NoTW), a weekly tabloid owned and run by News International.
In 2002, private investigators hired by NoTW, hacked Milly Dowler's phone after her death. It later emerged that voice messages to Milly Dowler’s mobile phone were systematically deleted to allow fresh recording, thereby helping feed the paper with more stories about the murder of Milly Dowler and the subsequent and futile search for her. The deletion of old messages that enabled the recording of new ones led the family to believe that the 13-year old was alive, while she was actually dead.
These incidents happened in 2002, but came to light only this year. The revelations led to the closure of Britain’s most popular tabloid NoTW in mid-July, after being in print for 168 years.The broad strokes of the agreement between News International and the Dowler family is expected to be in two parts. News International will pay £2 million to the family and Murdoch will personally pledge £1 million for a charity chosen by the Dowler family.
There is an ongoing investigation into the phone hacking scandal and two separate Parliamentary committees are also looking into the controversy with distinct terms of reference. The controversy also sealed the fate of Murdoch’s plans to enable News Corp acquire the balance 61 per cent in British broadcasting company BSkyB.
In the past, NoTW had reached settlements with other victims of phone hacking including actress Sienna Miller, who was paid £100,000 after her voicemail was intercepted, and football expert Andy Gray, who received £20,000. Public relations expert Max Clifford was paid £1 million.
The settlement with the Dowler family would be the biggest single settlement in the phone hacking scandal so far.
