Shouldn’t the police also investigate the Daily Mail over #hackgate?


by Guest    
July 19, 2011 at 9:30 am

contribution by Andy May

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is falling apart at the seams, but we are at grave risk of missing the big picture here.

It is excellent news that the illegal activities at the News of the World and subsequent cover-up are finally being properly investigated but it is also abundantly clear they did not happen in isolation. Any journalist who worked in those years will tell you that other powerful press barons were up to their neck in it.

So who are the other culprits when it comes to illegal activity – could the Daily Mail be next?

The taped conversations between Paul McMullan and Hugh Grant that lifted the News of the World scandal also contained a throwaway comment on phone hacking and illegal data gathering.

In his McMullan’s own words: “When I went freelance in 2004 the biggest payers – you’d have thought it would be the NoW, but actually it was the Daily Mail…”

Meanwhile a 2006 Information Commissioners Office report identifies 952 illegal data transactions traceable to Daily Mail Journalists – four times that of the News of the World during the same period.

To add insult to injury, during this time the current editor of the Daily Mail was also Chair of the Committee that oversees the Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice [title fixed] – the same regulatory body supposed to hold newspapers to account. He spent his time championing self regulation and railing against media regulation whilst the industry was rife with phone hacking and illegal data gathering.

I contacted the Metropolitan press office to find out if they were investigating other newspapers such as the Mail. I was told by a press officer record that; “It would seem highly unlikely that only one news organisation was involved in this scale of hacking alone”.

Yet from my conversation it appears the police investigation has thus far failed to investigate any other sources than Mulcaire’s original file of News of the World phone hacking victims. Something that Sue Akers the lead police officer on the investigation should quickly clarify.

The Department of Culture Media and Sport should order the Police to broaden their investigation to the Daily Mail and other big offenders listed in the ICO report. Removing Murdoch’s grip on our country won’t address the wider abuses to public privacy other owners and editors of our newspapers have allowed.


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Reader comments


1. James Baker

Yes they should do, but also other papers were at it such as the Observer where the ICO had identified 103 instances of illegal transactions. They should also examine why the government of the day failed to act on the ICO’s report when it landed in their in-boxes.

2. JC

I understand the Mirror is also up to it’s neck in this. The investigation should be about illegal hacking and not be used to to try to censor views you don’t like. That’s akin to accepting hacking unless it’s done by “the right wing”.

3. Flowerpower

@ 2

Two of those NI staff who have already been interviewed under caution had moved across to the NoW from Mirror Group.

It is theoretically possible that that’s where the (mal)practice began.

4. Andy May

@James, JC – totally agree, I picked the Mail as top of the list of others to investigate because of the shreds of evidence already out there and because of Paul Dacres very prominent role as a champion of self regulation. There are plenty more that could be add to the list.

5. Lee Griffin

Absolutely, I’ve written to my MP today for assurances he’ll push for the investigation to be fuller than just news International.

6. IanVisits

The Guardian was printing stolen computer data – investigate them as well – or should only the papers on the political right be investigated?

7. Paul Newman

As I thought…… Polly Toynbee started off on this last w/e. In reaction to that and having noticed a post on this blog asking for control of the Press I wrote to the local Paper thusly ….

I should explain they are very into Tom Paine around here ….(not that anyone cares what I think obviously )

“If Lewes stands for anything it should be standing up for the Daily Mail.The Guardian and its tribe are having an orgy of self congratulation at their defeat of Murdoch. The prominence of local left wing campaigner Nick Davies gives us a special interest
OK,they broke the law but they were not alone. In “What Price Privacy Now“, the information Commissioners reports on a ubiquitous trade in illegally obtained information. In the league table of offenders the Mirror is prominent. The News of The World was better than many.
Is it , in any case, a simple issue? Many MPs of ,still sore about expenses, are delighted to shut that window on the truth. Nixon would have liked a bit less pilfering and while there is a debate to be had I question whether a howling mob, justifiably enraged by the sick making treatment of the Dowler family, have much to add to it .

Lets not waste sympathy on the digger. His acolytes colluded in the corrupt relationship between the political power brokers and the media through the Blair and Brown period. Parliament was replaced by a media obsessed entourage of self delighted courtiers like Alistair Campbell. An end to that would be welcome and Cameron seems to be gasping the opportunity

On the other hand Polly Toynbee wants to neuter the Mail with some sort of supercharged PCC and who knows what Fascist legislation .Liberal Conspiracy the top leftwing blog , carried a post recommending we enforce political ”neutrality” on the printed media. In whose opinion? The same people that entrusted Polly Toynbee with editorship of social affairs at the BBC no doubt .
I fear an unholy alliance of would-be troughers, corrupt elitists, and freedom hating socialists turning the blood lust on all their enemies. Danger, Will Robinson; danger !

That’s why Lewesians of all shades of opinion must defend the Mail. Put it this way “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself” (Tom Paine .)

Hoo ha …. and as we know Lewes ( A weeny little place in Sussex) is the fulcrum of the political universe . I must say I was gratified to see some Liberal left opinion on this site getting nervous about this clamp down and mob hysteria …I hope such voices will prevail over the Fascist left ( step forward jack booted Andy may and receive your medal)

8. Andy May

@Paul Newman – there is delicious irony in you – a defender of the Daily Mail – accusing me of facism ;-p Lord Rothermere would be proud.

If the Daily Mail doesn’t have anything to hide surely it would welcome a broader police investigation – along with the Mirror and other tabloid newspapers.

9. James

Sorry for being a pedant but Paul Dacre is not Chairman of the PCC and never has been. He’s Chair of the Editors’ Code Committee, which oversees the Code of Practice.

10. Lee Griffin

“The Guardian was printing stolen computer data – investigate them as well – or should only the papers on the political right be investigated?”

Is the Mirror on the right?

11. who cares

look at the little righties out there, getting all irate cause Murdoch is getting a beating…. ‘What if Guardian did this, what if the Mirror did that, what if the Indy done this’…yeah what if, but what we do know is what the right wing Murdoch press have done. Admit it, your boys have taken one helluva beaten.

12. pagar

It does seem that a number of different issues have been conflated in the same furore.

1) News International is and was too big and too powerful.
2) Most journalists and editors are not overly concerned about privacy laws and were prepared to pay for stories in a competitive environment.
3) Politicians will do anything to get elected and will even go to the weddings and parties of people they hate.
4) The Metropolitan police force is institutionally corrupt and run by poor calibre individuals.
5) NOTW were unlucky to be the ones caught with their ears to the voicemail- others have probably done as bad or worse.
6) The British public are not much concerned about privacy rights except for those of dead teenagers.

We have been allowed a glimpse of the sewer. Now who wants to put their hands in?

13. Charles Wheeler

At every stage in this process the authorities have had to be pushed into investigating each aspect, with firewalls being constructed around ‘lone’ hackers, ‘lone’ executives, and now small groups of executives, policemen, and so on. Each time one firewall collapses a new one is constructed. At the moment we have one around News International – but it seems difficult to believe that it was the only news organisation hiring freelance crooks. Nothing is going to be volunteered.

14. ukliberty

it seems difficult to believe that it was the only news organisation hiring freelance crooks

It wasn’t. See page 9 of What Price Privacy Now? linked to in the OP.

15. Cylux

@6 Technically speaking the Telegraph was printing stolen computer data when it exposed the expenses scandal, it’s up to you if you really want to pursue this path of false equivalence further.

16. Mike Killingworth

There is of course the possibility that this afternoon Murdoch will claim “we only did it because we found out that the others were at it”. What’s he got to lose?

17. Kojak

Try looking at this chart from Guido Fauwkes blog, before we all get carried away with ourselves:

http://order-order.com/2011/07/16/we-are-on-the-verge-of-killing-popular-journalism/

The Mirror up in the lead of blaggers – quite a way in front of The Mail – and way way in front of News International.

So it doesn’t look like all naughty practices went over the side with Captain Bob.

But why let that get in the way of the mob?

18. Cherub

It seems the true meaning of public interest is yet again being ignored by the righty apologists.

Exposure of government complicity in torture through stolen computer files is in the public interest. Hacking Millie Dowler’s mobile isn’t.

19. wibble wibble

Yes, as far as I can see from the published stats they were all at it, the mirror group being the pack leaders. Go for all of them, their connections in the police forces of GB and UK and the politicians who turned a blind eye or courted them.

20. Leon Wolfson

@17 – That’d be unfortunate. But..so be it. No democracy can afford to ignore this sort of thing.

Besides, bluntly, there are those of us who have the talents to work in part of the field, and who currently are not, who would flock to the banner of a new news group. It’s not rocket science, it’s sociology, and there are plenty of hungry young faces out there.

21. jungle

To all the right wingers salivating over the idea of the Guardian/Observer being dragged into the mud too, allowing the “pot, kettle, black” defence to be deployed… well, do you *really* think they’d have kept pushing the story in the face of ridicule for years if they thought they were also guilty?

I may have a rose-tinted view of the Guardian, but I’m fairly confident they’re not that altruistic that they’d spend years blasting away at an investigation which might land their own management in jail.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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