Phone
Griffiths, who acknowledged the story was true, is suing the tabloid owned by Rupert Murdochs News Corp., for obtaining the photos in an “extremely underhand way,” his lawyer David Price said. “My client had a sexual liaison in his office in Parliament, which he photographed, and which was on his computer, and somehow got into the News of the World.”
Politicians and celebrities may join Griffith in taking legal action, saying U.K. tabloids go too far with news- gathering methods in their push to get exclusives and increase circulation. Potential claims might get a boost after the U.K.s Information Commission, which oversees the media, on July 9 said 31 journalists at Murdochs tabloids, News of the World and Sun, acquired information through “blagging,” or underhand means.
The commission said it provided the information for a 2008 lawsuit, showing the practice was more widespread than thought in 2007, when News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and a private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for intercepting phone messages left for members of Prince Charles staff.
The commissions statement followed a July 8 report in The Guardian alleging that News of the World, the U.K.s best- selling Sunday newspaper, systematically used private detectives to hack into cell phones of public figures to obtain personal information. It said News Corp. paid more than 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) to settle lawsuits that claimed journalists got private investigators to illegally bug mobile phones.
No Evidence
News Corp. in an e-mailed statement July 10 denied allegations that News of the World journalists systematically accessed voicemails or employed private investigators to do so.
It said it settled in 2008 a complaint brought by Gordon Taylor, head of the Professional Footballers Association, after reporters on its News of the World newspaper gained information from voicemails. Aside from the Taylor settlement and 2006 Goodman-Mulcaire case, it said theres no evidence other reporters hacked into phones or told private detectives to do so.
News Corp. spokeswoman Alice Macandrew said since February 2007, the company has worked with journalists to ensure full compliance with the relevant legislation and code of conduct.
“At the same time, we will not shirk from vigorously defending our right and proper role to expose wrongdoing in the public interest,” she said.
London police said July 9 they wont reopen their probe following the Guardian report because “no additional evidence has come to light” since its investigation three years ago.
Merciless Fight
The hearings may touch on the role of Andy Coulson, formerly deputy editor and then editor of the News of the World and now the press chief of David Cameron, leader of the U.K.s opposition Conservative Party. He has denied any wrongdoing.
For Adrian Monck, head of the journalism department at City University in London, the attempt by tabloid journalists to obtain personal information illegally is no surprise.
“The intense competition between quite a few publications in a rather small market obviously increases the pressure to produce exclusive, newspaper-selling stories,” Monck said in a phone interview. “Theres a merciless fight for scoops and journalists sometimes overstep the boundaries.”
The U.K.s eight national tabloids need scoops as they face sliding circulation amid free papers and online information.
Higher Circulation
“Big exclusive stories about well-known people have an enormous commercial value as they guarantee tabloids higher circulation,” said Max Clifford, a top U.K. publicist who has represented clients such as O.J. Simpson, David Beckham and Simon Cowell.
Murdoch journalists werent the only ones to use illegal means for obtaining scoops.