Hacking inquiry – Hacked off

by Brian Cathcart Peter Hill was editor of the Daily Express for seven years, from the end of 2003 to early 2011. Among his claims to fame is that he edited the newspaper throughout the Madeleine McCann affair in 2007-8, overseeing coverage that led to a £550,000 libel pay-out by the group and to grovelling [...]

A crime reporter has told the Leveson Inquiry how he was asked to pay police officers for information when working for the News of the World thirty years ago. Jeff Edwards, now president of the Crime Reporters Association, said he was told by his news editor to bribe officers for information after failing to deliver [...]

The phone hacking investigation was not reopened because of a “closed mindset in the force”, a former Metropolitan Police commissioner has said. Sir Paul Stephenson told the Leveson Inquiry the Met developed a “fixed mindset and a defensive mindset” in 2009, when the original investigation was reviewed by Assistant Commissioner John Yates. He said there was a [...]

By Brian Cathcart As Corporal Jones might have said, they don’t like it up ‘em. The ruthless methods of mass circulation papers are being exposed at the Leveson inquiry as never before, so they are lashing out like cornered animals. Their attacks on the Guardian this week in relation to last July’s Milly Dowler story [...]

There is no evidence from Surrey Police’s records that messages on murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s mobile voicemail were deleted or caused to be deleted by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire or News of the World reporters. “So the story published by the Guardian on July 4 is a lie”, cry tabloids and broadsheets in unison. Well, [...]

Nick Davies is a freelance journalist who has worked under part-time contract for Guardian News and Media Limited since 1989. He trained as a journalist from 1976 to 1978 with a scheme for university graduates which was run by the Mirror Group, based in Devon and Cornwall. Since then, he has also worked as a [...]