This is a partial, alphabetical list of actual victims whose confidential information was reportedly targeted or actually acquired in conjunction with the news media phone hacking scandal. [1] [2] Dates in parentheses, when included, indicate the approximate time frame during which information was acquired. The reference citations, in many cases, indicate who accessed the individual's information.
The precise number of victims is unknown, but a Commons Home Affairs Select Committee report noted in July 2011 that "as many as 12,800 people may have been victims or affected by phone hacking." [3] [4]
In 2003, a raid by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) was made as part of Operation Motorman on the home of private investigator Steve Whittamore. This resulted in seizure of records including more than 13,000 requests for confidential information from newspapers and magazines. [5] In 2006, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas "revealed that hundreds of journalists may have illegally bought private information. [4] [6]
In 2006, the Metropolitan Police Service (Scotland Yard) seized records from another private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, and found a target list with over 4,000 names on it. [7] [8] Release of "the totality of the Mulcaire information" has not yet been achieved but has been requested through the courts. [9] [10] Accordingly, "the seized material included 4,332 names or partial names; 2,987 mobile phone numbers; 30 audiotapes of varying length; and 91 pin codes of a kind needed to access voicemail with the minority of targets who change the factory settings on their mobile phones." [11]
In contrast, John Yates told the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee in September 2009 that the police had only found evidence indicating that "it is very few, it is a handful" of persons that had been subject to message interception. [12] [13]
In January 2011, claims made in the suit filed by Kelly Hoppen suggest illegally accessing voicemail occurred as recently as March 2010. [14] [15] Jade Goody believed she and her mother were being hacked as recently as August 2008. [16]
As of June 2011, according to The Guardian , "Scotland Yard is believed to have collected hundreds of thousands of documents during a series of investigations into private investigator Jonathan Rees. Rick Davies, reporter for The Guardian, believes these "boxloads" of paperwork "could include explosive new evidence of illegal news-gathering by the News of the World and other papers." According to his sources, confidential information sold to newspapers may have been obtained through blagging, burglaries, bribery, and blackmail, sometimes involving corrupt customs officers, VAT inspectors, bank employees and police officers. [1]
In July 2011, it was estimated that only 170 people had so far been informed out of the up to 12,800 people that may have been affected by the illegal acquisition of confidential information . [4] [17] In October 2011, it was estimated that only 5%, or about 200, of people whose confidential information had been acquired by Glenn Mulcaire had been notified. [18] [19]
At News Corporation's annual meeting on 21 October 2011, a shareholder asked how the board was conducting its inquiry into the "thousands" of people whose phones were hacked by News of the World journalists. Chairman Rupert Murdoch responded, "It’s not thousands. I’ve not heard that figure before." [20]
On 3 November 2011, Metropolitan Police, referring to the complete list of full names whose phones were possibly hacked by Glenn Mulcaire for News of the World , said "the current number of identifiable persons who appear in the material, and are thus victims, where names are noted, is 5,795. This figure is very likely to be revised in the future as a result of further analysis." [21] As of 23 July 2012, the Met had identified 4,775 potential victims of phone hacking, of which 2,615 have been notified and 702 people are likely to have been victims. [22]
As of 31 August 2012, the Met had identified 4,744 victims of phone hacking by News of the World whose names and phone numbers had been found in evidence. Of the victims, 658 had been contacted, but 388 were not contactable and police chose not to contact another 23 "for operational reasons". Of the victims, 1,894 had been contacted but 1,781 were not contactable. [23]
Andrew EdwardCoulson is an English journalist and political strategist.
Neville Thurlbeck is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting. Later Thurlbeck was among four ex-News of the World journalists to plead guilty to phone-hacking and was jailed along with Greg Miskiw. The newspaper’s former editor Andy Coulson was also jailed after a jury found him guilty. Before the News of the World, Thurlbeck worked as a reporter for the Today newspaper, as deputy news editor of the Western Mail and as chief reporter for the Harrow Observer.
The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct News of the World and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories. Whilst investigations conducted from 2005 to 2007 appeared to show that the paper's phone hacking activities were limited to celebrities, politicians, and members of the British royal family, in July 2011 it was revealed that the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings had also been hacked. The resulting public outcry against News Corporation and its owner Rupert Murdoch led to several high-profile resignations, including that of Murdoch as News Corporation director, Murdoch's son James as executive chairman, Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton, News International legal manager Tom Crone, and chief executive Rebekah Brooks. The commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), Sir Paul Stephenson, also resigned. Advertiser boycotts led to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011, after 168 years of publication. Public pressure forced News Corporation to cancel its proposed takeover of the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
Glenn Michael Mulcaire is an English private investigator and former non-league footballer. He was closely involved in the News International phone hacking scandal, and was imprisoned for six months in 2007 for his role in phone hacking and given a six-month suspended sentence at the hacking trial of 2013–14.
Ian Edmondson is a British tabloid journalist. He was the news editor at the News of the World. Edmondson was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in April 2011 during the Operation Weeting phone-hacking investigation.
Operation Weeting was a British police investigation that commenced on 26 January 2011, under the Specialist Crime Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service into allegations of phone hacking in the News of the World phone hacking affair. The operation was conducted alongside Operation Elveden, an investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to the police by those involved with phone hacking, and Operation Tuleta, an investigation into alleged computer hacking for the News of the World. All three operations are led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, Head of Organised Crime & Criminal Networks within the Specialist Crime Directorate.
The News of the World royal phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 to 2007 around the interception of voice mail relating to the British royal family by a private investigator working for a News of the World journalist. It formed a prelude to the wider News International phone hacking scandal which developed in 2009 and exploded in 2011, when it became clear that the phone hacking had taken place on a much wider scale. Early indications of this in the police investigation were not followed through, and the failures of the police investigation would go on to form part of the wider scandal in 2011.
The News Corporation scandal involves phone, voicemail, and computer hacking that were allegedly committed over a number of years. The scandal began in the United Kingdom, where the News International phone hacking scandal has to date resulted in the closure of the News of the World newspaper and the resignation of a number of senior members of the Metropolitan Police force.
The News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations followed the revelations in 2005 of voicemail interception on behalf of News of the World. Despite wider evidence of wrongdoing, the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal appeared resolved with the 2007 conviction of the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, and the resignation of editor Andy Coulson. However, a series of civil legal cases and investigations by newspapers, parliament and the police ultimately saw evidence of "industrial scale" phone hacking, leading to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011. However, the affair did not end there, developing into the News Corporation ethics scandal as wrongdoing beyond the News of the World and beyond phone hacking came to light.
The Leveson Inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011. A series of public hearings were held throughout 2011 and 2012. The Inquiry published the Leveson Report in November 2012, which reviewed the general culture and ethics of the British media, and made recommendations for a new, independent, body to replace the existing Press Complaints Commission, which would have to be recognised by the state through new laws. Prime Minister David Cameron, under whose direction the inquiry had been established, said that he welcomed many of the findings, but declined to enact the requisite legislation. Part 2 of the inquiry was to be delayed until after criminal prosecutions regarding events at the News of the World, but the Conservative Party's 2017 manifesto stated that the second part of the inquiry would be dropped entirely, and this was confirmed by Culture Secretary Matt Hancock in a statement to the House of Commons on 1 March 2018.
The news media phone hacking scandal is a controversy over illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media organizations that reportedly occurred in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia between 1995 and 2011. This article includes reference lists for various topics relating to that scandal.
This article provides a narrative beginning in 1999 of investigations by the Metropolitan Police Service (Met) of Greater London into the illegal acquisition of confidential information by agents in collaboration with the news media that is commonly referred to as the phone hacking scandal. The article discusses seven phases of investigations by the Met and several investigations of the Met itself, including critiques and responses regarding the Met's performance. Separate articles provide an overview of the scandal and a comprehensive set of reference lists with detailed background information.
By 2002, the practice of publications using private investigators to acquire confidential information was widespread in the United Kingdom, with some individuals using illegal methods. Information was allegedly acquired by accessing private voicemail accounts, hacking into computers, making false statements to officials to obtain confidential information, entrapment, blackmail, burglaries, theft of mobile phones and making payments to officials in exchange for confidential information. The kind of information acquired illegally included private communication, physical location of individuals, bank account records, medical records, phone bills, tax files, and organisational strategies.
This is a chronological list of key newspaper articles that made significant new public disclosures about the illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media companies.
R v Coulson, Brooks and others was a trial at the Old Bailey in London, England, arising from the News International phone hacking scandal.
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