17 Aug 2011

Allegations media executives knew hacking widespread

8:30 pm on 17 August 2011

Fresh accusations have emerged in Britain that senior editors and managers at News International were fully aware that phone hacking was widespread at the News of the World newspaper.

The evidence is in a letter from Clive Goodman, the paper's former royal correspondent, dated 2 March, 2007.

He said illegal phone hacking was widely discussed at editorial conferences.

Goodman was appealing against his dismissal in February. He said he had been promised his job back if he did not implicate the paper in court.

The BBC reports Goodman is the only journalist so far to have been convicted of intercepting voice mail messages. He was jailed for four months in January 2007 after pleading guilty to hacking phones.

News International said at the time that Goodman had acted alone and no other journalists were involved in hacking. News International is the UK arm of News Corporation.

The News of the World was published for the last time on 10 July this year.

Recall possible

In a separate move, the Commons culture committee may recall News International executive James Murdoch.

Chairman John Whittingdale said that the committee might recall Mr Murdoch to give further evidence because it needed to ask more questions on what he knew about hacking.

One of the MP's on the committee, Therese Coffey, says the new evidence from Mr Goodman opens up a new line of inquiry.