Britain’s Tory Prime Minister David Cameron came under intense criticism by the Opposition Labour Party and political commentators for his “extraordinary lack of judgement” in meeting his former director of communication Andy Coulson two months after he had resigned.
Coulson was forced to quit his job in January following reports of alleged phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch-controlled News of The World(NoTW) during his tenure as the editor.
The Independent reported that Cameron had met executives from Murdoch’s empire 26 times in the 15 months since he had become prime minister and twice as many times he had met representatives of other media groups. The revelations have been used by Cameron’s critics to highlight his proximity to Murdoch and his media empire.
Late Friday evening, Murdoch’s New York-based right hand man and CEO of Dow Jones (publishers of Wall Street Journal) Les Hinton resigned. Hinton was the CEO of News International between 1995 and 2007, during which NoTW (published by News International) is alleged to have hacked into several phone networks, including that of a dead teenage girl Milly Dowler. Hinton had worked with Murdoch for more than 50 years — their association going back to Adelaide in Australia, where Hinton as a cub reporter would fetch Murdoch his lunch sandwich.
“It is a deeply, deeply sad day for me. When I left News International in December 2007, I believed that the rotten element at the News of the World had been eliminated. That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant,” his departure note to his staff read. “I feel it is proper for me to resign from News Corp.”
News International’s London-based CEO Rebekah Brooks had resigned earlier after immense public and political pressure for her alleged role in the hacking controversy at NoTW while she was the editor of the weekly tabloid.
Today, Murdoch released full page advertisements in seven rival newspapers, personally apologising to the people for the hacking episode. The adverts, which had a large type-faced title “We are sorry”, said: “We regret not acting faster to sort things out. I realise that simply apologising is not enough. Our business was founded on the idea that a free and open press should be a positive force in a society. We need to live up to this. In the coming days, we will take further concrete steps to resolve these issues and make amends for the damage they have caused. You will hear more from us.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has started looking into the possibilities of NoTW reporters hacking into phones of 9/11 victims.
The world now eagerly await to hear Rupert and James Murdoch, and Brooks when they appear next Tuesday before the House of Commons Select Committee that is looking into the phone hacking cases in the UK.
