That trio – Colin Myler, Tom Crone and Jon Chapman – have all made recent statements questioning Mr Murdoch’s insistence that he was unaware of any claims that the practice was carried out by more than one solo reporter.
Tom Watson, the Labour backbencher who sits on the committee, had wanted to recall Mr Murdoch immediately. But the MPs agreed to send further letters to the individuals asking for more detailed answers.
“If they do dispute some of the evidence that James Murdoch has given to us then I think it’s very possible we may wish to call James Murdoch back to address that particular point,” said John Whittingdale, chairman of the committee.
Mirror and Sun fined for contempt
The Daily Mirror has been fined £50,000 and the Sun £18,000 after the newspapers were found guilty of contempt of court for articles relating to the death of Jo Yeates, the Bristol landscape architect, writes Jane Croft.
High Court judges ruled that the articles had “created substantial risks to the course of justice”.
Ms Yeates disappeared last December and her body was discovered on Christmas day. The coverage in the Sun and Mirror concentrated on her landlord Christopher Jefferies who was under arrest at the time.
Mr Jefferies was later released without charge. The judges noted: “As a matter of fact and reality he is innocent. He is not facing trial, and he will never face trial.”
Vincent Tabak, a neighbour, has since pleaded guilty to Ms Yeates’ manslaughter but has denied murder on the basis of diminished responsibility.
Meanwhile it emerged that Baroness Buscombe is to step down as chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, a role in which she has been heavily criticised for failing to deal with the scandal. The Daily Mirror has been fined £50,000 and the Sun £18,000 after the newspapers were found guilty of contempt of court for articles relating to the death of Jo Yeates, the Bristol landscape architect, writes Jane Croft.
High Court judges ruled that the articles had “created substantial risks to the course of justice”.
Ms Yeates disappeared last December and her body was discovered on Christmas day. The coverage in the Sun and Mirror concentrated on her landlord Christopher Jefferies who was under arrest at the time.
Mr Jefferies was later released without charge. The judges noted: “As a matter of fact and reality he is innocent. He is not facing trial, and he will never face trial.”
Vincent Tabak, a neighbour, has since pleaded guilty to Ms Yeates’ manslaughter but has denied murder on the basis of diminished responsibility.
The PCC was castigated for accepting a claim by News International, parent of the News of the World, that only one reporter was responsible for phone hacking despite reports in The Guardian in 2009 that it was far more widespread.
A PCC report in November 2009, four months after the scandal was revealed, cleared the Sunday tabloid while reprimanding The Guardian for its reporting. As the true scale of events unfolded, showing that thousands of people may have been targeted by many journalists, MPs called the report a whitewash.
Meanwhile Louise Mensch, a Tory member of the DCMS committee, apologised to Piers Morgan after using parliamentary privilege to link the former editor of the Mirror and News of the World to the scandal.
In a letter to John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Commons culture select committee, Ms Mensch admitted that she had made an error on July 19 by saying that Mr Morgan had been “open about personally hacking phones” in his memoirs.
It emerged on Thursday that the phone number of Sara Payne, mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne – who was befriended by the News of the World – was among the documents of Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator.
Mr Mulcaire’s lawyers on Friday issued a statement saying he “acted on the instructions of others”, adding “any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue”.
By Jim Pickard and Ben Fenton taken from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b02d2564-ba06-11e0-b7a9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1TmFtdL5e
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