Invading people’s privacy by listening to their voicemail is wrong. Paying police officers for information is wrong. This is why News International is co-operating fully with the police, whose job it is to see that justice is done. [Rupert Murdoch 2011]
"We're talking about payments for news tips from cops: that's been going on a hundred years, absolutely...But why are the police behaving in this way? It’s the biggest inquiry ever over next to nothing. " [Rupert Murdoch 2013]
US media mogul Rupert Murdoch mocks police and the investigation into News of the World telephone hacking.
According to Channel 4 3 July 2013:
Throughout the
recording, which lasts about 45 minutes, the News Corp boss repeatedly accuses
the police of incompetence - of being "unbelievably slow" he says at
one point.
At another point, he
said of the police that he didn't really trust anything they said.
But if he is
contemptuous of the police, he also shows remarkable disdain for the offence
they're investigating.
He belittles the corrupt
payments issue. And for anyone convicted over it - the message is: he'll be
there for them....
One of the clips starts, Channel
4 News understands, with the sound of Murdoch slapping the table.
"What they're
doing, what they did to you, and how they treated people at [******], saying 'a
couple of you come in for a cup of tea at four in the afternoon''," he
says.
"You guys got
thrown out of bed by gangs of cops at six in the morning, and I'm just as
annoyed as you are."
"It would be nice
to hit back when we can", one journalist suggests later in the meeting.
"We will",
replies Mr Murdoch. "We will".
Tom Watson a Member of the House of Commons UK sent this Letter
to Senator Rockefeller:
July 4th, 2013
Senator John D.
Rockefeller IV
Chairman
United States Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
Washington
DC 20510-6125
USA
Dear Sir
I am writing to you by
virtue of your role as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science
& Transportation and this Committee’s interest in the conduct of News
Corporation. I am also copying this letter to Senator Patrick Leahy in
his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary which I
understand oversees matters relating to the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act.
I attach to this letter
a transcript of a meeting that took place earlier this year in the offices of
News International Limited, a subsidiary of News Corporation. The meeting
records the exchanges between Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, and
employees who had been arrested or were otherwise under investigation by the UK
Metropolitan Police. As you will be aware this police force has been
investigating alleged criminal conduct by News International (or its subsidiary
News Group Newspapers) employees relating to phone hacking and corrupt payments
by journalists to public officials.
The transcript reveals
Mr Murdoch’s approach to the alleged criminality within his organisation. It
also reveals how his employees claim that they were simply doing what was
expected of them and that they had continued a practice of paying public
officials that had been going on for decades. Mr Murdoch’s replies, in my
view, demonstrate a significant level of knowledge of the practice and a
shocking contempt for the police investigation into it. Perhaps even more
sinister is his confirmation that his organisation will “hit back” at the
police because of their investigation.
No doubt you will read
the entire transcript and come to your own conclusions.
It has been my view from
the outset that the most senior executives within News Corporation should be
held responsible and called to account for the wrongdoing of the UK journalists
and other employees of its subsidiaries. It is Rupert Murdoch who is most
responsible for the culture in his organisation. We now know more of his
attitude towards, and knowledge of, the culture of corruption in his UK
newspapers (and, he alleges, across his competitors) and his condemnation of
the police’s attempts to route it out. Having had this revealed, I would
encourage the authorities both in the UK and US to ensure that their investigations
into News Corporation are not inhibited in going to the very top,
notwithstanding the power and influence wielded by Mr Murdoch.
If I can assist you in
any way, please do not hesitate to contact me.
The
Guardian UK 6
July 2013:
DCI Laurence Smith told
Exaro News that the police would seek a production order compelling it to
disclose the recording if it did not do so voluntarily. It is understood the
police have also approached Channel 4, which aired a small part of the recordings.
The development is the
clearest indication yet that police in London are ready to examine
Murdoch's private disclosures since the tapes emerged on Wednesday night.
Murdoch is recorded saying the culture of paying police officers for stories
"existed at every newspaper in Fleet Street. Long since forgotten. But
absolutely."...
The press law campaign
group Hacked Off on Friday urged the Commons culture, media and sport select
committee to recall Murdoch, and said he "may have committed contempt of
parliament". Evan Harris, the
associate director of the group, wrote to the cross-party committee's chairman,
John Whittingdale MP, saying: "There is a strong prima facie case that Mr
Murdoch may have committed contempt of parliament by misleading your committee
over his true response to the police investigations into phone hacking and
bribery of public officials....
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