http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/world/europe/british-judge-investigates-journalistic-practices.html

November 14, 2011

New Inquiry Shows Wider Phone Hacking

By ALAN COWELL

LONDON -- Records of illicit intercepts of phone messages presented to a judge's inquiry on Monday appear to show that the practice was widespread at other newspapers besides The News of the World, the tabloid that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire shut down in July over the scandal.

The inquiry's stated purpose is to investigate the way journalists operate and the elusive balance between press freedom and individual rights to privacy. But within hours of the investigation's opening, Robert Jay, a lawyer for the inquiry, presented extensive written records of phone hacking not just at The News of the World but also at another Murdoch-owned tabloid, The Sun, and at a rival paper, The Daily Mirror, owned by Trinity Mirror.

Mr. Jay said that notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator jailed in 2007 for hacking into voice mail accounts of members of the royal family, showed that such tactics were used at The News of the World on a much wider scale than previously known.

Quoting from 11,000 pages of notes kept by Mr. Mulcaire, Mr. Jay said that Mr. Mulcaire appeared to have been asked on 2,266 occasions to tap into voice mail accounts, involving a total of 5,975 targets, according to the Press Association, a British news agency.

Though 28 employees of News International, the Murdoch empire's British newspaper arm, appeared to have made requests to Mr. Mulcaire for intercepts, Mr. Jay said, the bulk of the requests came from five people; just one of them appeared to account for more than 1,400 of the requests.

"We only have the first name in each of the cases, but they happen to tie up with the first names of employees of News International," Mr. Jay was quoted as saying.

For years, News International argued that the hacking was restricted to a single "rogue" reporter, Clive Goodman, the former royal correspondent for The News of the World; he was jailed along with Mr. Mulcaire. The records disclosed on Monday seemed to contradict that assertion in a sweeping way.

The inquiry, led by Lord Justice Leveson, is one of three that have been started since an avalanche of disclosures and arrests related to the illicit interception of voice mail messages and other alleged transgressions by journalists from The News of the World.

The two other inquiries are being conducted by the police and by a parliamentary committee. The committee interviewed James Murdoch, Mr. Murdoch's son and the deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation, for the second time last week, raising a number of questions about his testimony there in July. James Murdoch told the panel that he had never been informed of the extent of the hacking at The News of the World.

The inquiries have inspired public debate about the relationship between privacy and the press and about the extent to which Britain's self-regulating news media should be subject to oversight.

The central issue, Justice Leveson said, could be "one simple question: who guards the guardians?"

In a brief address, the judge praised freedom of expression and freedom of the press as "fundamental to our democracy and fundamental to our way of life." But, he said, press freedom needed to be balanced against individual rights.

Justice Leveson warned that his inquiry would be looking for any hint that newspapers were spying on or retaliating against any of the 50 witnesses who are to appear before the panel.

"Concern has specifically been expressed that those who speak out might be targeted adversely by the press as a result," he said. "I have absolutely no wish to stifle freedom of speech and expression, but I anticipate that monitoring will take place of press coverage over the months to come." The judge said that if signs emerge that the press is abusing people's rights, that "would provide evidence of culture, practice and ethics which could be relevant to my ultimate recommendations."

Among the likely witnesses are several well-known people who have complained about unwarranted intrusions, including the actor Hugh Grant and the author J. K. Rowling.

The inquiry was ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron after it became clear that phone hacking was being used not only on public figures like celebrities and politicians, but also on ordinary citizens like Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old schoolgirl whose voice mail was hacked after she was abducted in 2002. She was later found murdered.

Widespread public disgust and growing political pressure from the opposition Labour Party prompted Mr. Cameron to drop his initial resistance to the idea in July and set up the inquiry.

One issue the judge will consider is the coziness of ties between politicians and the news media -- particularly between lawmakers and editors and executives at News International.

His panel of inquiry, which includes former journalists, a civil rights campaigner and a retired law enforcement official, has been given broad power to force newspaper owners, reporters, politicians and the police to give evidence under oath at public hearings.

First, the panel is scheduled to review the culture, practices and ethics of the media in general; to avoid prejudicing criminal inquiries, the panel is to hold off examining specific unlawful activities until the police investigations and prosecutions have been completed.

The police are pursuing two categories of allegations -- illegal phone hacking and illegal payoffs by newspapers to police officers.

So far, 16 people have been arrested in connection with the phone hacking scandal, including Andy Coulson, the former editor of The News of the World and the former chief spokesman for Mr. Cameron; and Rebekah Brooks, who also worked as the editor of The News of the World and is a former chief executive of News International. Six people have been arrested in connection with the inquiry into illegal payoffs to the police.

Sarah Lyall contributed reporting.