RUPERT MURDOCH'S News International media group, owners of the Timesand Sunday Timesin London and the tabloid Sunand News of the Worldnewspapers, issued a public apology yesterday to eight victims of his company's phone hacking and admitted for the first time that the practice was rife at the News of the World.
In a move likely to cost the company many millions of pounds, it said it would offer compensation to some of the 24 high-profile figures who have started legal proceedings against the News of the World in the high court for breach of privacy.
News International also admitted its previous investigations into hacking had not been “sufficiently robust”.
The unprecedented statement of contrition is a remarkable volte face for Britain’s most powerful news organisation, which was claiming until the start of this year, in the face of growing evidence to the contrary, that hacking was the work of a single reporter.
It comes as a Scotland Yard investigation into phone hacking gathers pace. The News of the World'schief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, was questioned by police on Tuesday along with Ian Edmondson, who was sacked from his post as the News of the World's associate editor in January. The company said it had decided to offer an "unreserved apology" in certain cases but it would continue to fight others, including claims brought by Steve Coogan and the jockey Kieren Fallon.
“Past behaviour at the News of the World in relation to voicemail interception is a matter of genuine regret,” it said. “It is now apparent that our previous inquiries failed to uncover important evidence and we acknowledge our actions then were not sufficiently robust.”
At least one of the victims indicated privately that she was unlikely to accept News International’s offer, although others are believed to be considering the proposal.
The former British deputy prime minister John Prescott, who is suing London's Metropolitan police over its handling of the original 2006 phone-hacking inquiry, said: "The News of the Worldhas admitted mass criminality." He repeated his call for Murdoch's takeover bid for the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB to be blocked until the hacking allegations have been investigated fully.
The eight people to be offered compensation, likely to be an estimated £100,000, each, but News International insiders said more offers are certain to follow as further evidence emerges in court cases.
The action is an attempt to prevent further damaging revelations about hacking involving the News of the World emerging in the course of court hearings, the first of which will take place later in the year.
Over the next few weeks, News International will be forced to hand over hundreds of internal e-mails sent by reporters and executives in order to comply with a high court order.
They could reveal how much senior executives at the paper knew about the activities of Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the News of the World.
Rupert Murdoch’s son James, who was promoted last week to become the third most powerful executive in his father’s media empire, said it had isolated the issue.
He said: "What we were able to do is really put this problem into a box. If you get everybody sucked into something like that, then the whole business will sputter, which you don't want."– ( Guardianservice)