Peter Wright (born 13 August 1953) [1] is a British newspaper editor.
Wright attended Clare College, Cambridge, [2] then took a graduate trainee position with Thomson Regional Newspapers, working as a reporter on the Hemel Hempstead Evening Post-Echo . In 1979, he moved to the Daily Mail , working on various desks before becoming Femail Editor, then Features Editor and Deputy Editor.
In 1998, he became editor of the Mail on Sunday . [3] While at the Mail on Sunday, Wright initiated the giveaway of promotional CDs and DVDs, including the global first release of Prince's Planet Earth album. [3] He also served on the Press Complaints Commission. [4] In March 2012, Wright moved to become Editor Emeritus for all Associated Newspapers titles. [5] In that role he was one of the group of four newspaper industry representatives who negotiated with the Government over Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin's proposal for regulation of the British press to be overseen by a Royal Charter, and was the author of the industry's rival Royal Charter proposal . He became a member of the Complaints Committee of the new independent press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation, when it was launched in September 2014 . He was also a member of the Committee which in 2015 reviewed the working of the Defence Advisory Notice system, under which British journalists are warned about possible defence and security issues, and recommended it be replaced with the current Defence and Security Media Advisory system . In 2017 he became a member of the nominations committee for the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company .
In August 2014, Roy Greenslade, a supporter of Hacked Off , a group which campaigns to place Britain's press under state-approved regulation, alleged in the Guardian newspaper that Wright withheld important evidence from the Press Complaints Commission when it held its 2009 inquiry into the News International phone hacking scandal. Specifically, he claimed Wright had withheld from the PCC information that The Mail on Sunday had been told by police four of their journalists had had their voicemail messages intercepted by the News of the World, and this would have provided the PCC with evidence that phone-hacking at the News of the World extended beyond 'rogue reporter' Clive Goodman.
Wright refuted this claim in a letter to the Guardian in which he said when the police contacted The Mail on Sunday, a month before Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire's 2006 trial, they gave no indication that anyone else at the News of The World was involved. He said: 'Had it occurred to me, when the PCC was discussing the fresh allegations made by the Guardian in July 2009, that the hacking of our journalists’ phones was anything other than a minor part of the series of offences for which Goodman and Mulcaire had already been convicted, I would happily have shared it with other commissioners. I have never made any secret of it, nor had any reason to – after all, our journalists were victims of these crimes just as much as anyone else.'
The News of the World was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one of the highest English-language circulations. It was originally established as a broadsheet by John Browne Bell, who identified crime, sensation and vice as the themes that would sell most copies. The Bells sold to Henry Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969 it was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch's media firm News Limited. Reorganised into News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, the newspaper was transformed into a tabloid in 1984 and became the Sunday sister paper of The Sun.
The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) was a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC closed on Monday 8 September 2014, and was replaced by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), chaired by Sir Alan Moses. Unlike the UK's only 'Approved Regulator' IMPRESS who are fully compliant with the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry, IPSO has refused to seek approval to the Press Recognition Panel (PRP).
Rebekah Mary Brooks is a British media executive and former journalist and newspaper editor serving as chief executive officer of News UK since 2015, and previously as CEO of News International from 2009 to 2011. She previously served as the youngest editor of a British national newspaper at News of the World, from 2000 to 2003, and the first female editor of The Sun, from 2003 to 2009. Brooks married actor Ross Kemp in 2002. They divorced in 2009 and she married former racehorse trainer and author Charlie Brooks.
Sir Christopher John Rome Meyer, is a British former diplomat who served as the Ambassador to the United States (1997–2003), Ambassador to Germany (1997) and the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (2003–2009).
Andrew EdwardCoulson is an English journalist and political strategist.
The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the Daily Mail, was first published in 1896.
Paul Michael Dacre is an English journalist and the former long-serving editor of the British right-wing tabloid the Daily Mail. He is editor-in-chief of DMG Media, which publishes the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, the free daily tabloid Metro, the Mailonline website, and other titles.
Tina Weaver is a British journalist and former National Newspaper editor]].
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.
Operation Weeting is 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 is being 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.
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Preceded by Jonathan Holborow | Editor of the Mail on Sunday 1998-2012 | Succeeded by Geordie Greig |