Leveson Phone-Hacking Inquiry: JK Rowling Among 'Core Participants'

Judge names figures who will be able to give evidence to investigation into phone hacking and media ethics and practices.












Leveson phone-hacking inquiry: JK Rowling is among the 46 initial 'core participants'.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who famously guards her privacy, is one of a number of prominent public figures expected to give evidence to Lord Justice Leveson's judicial inquiry into phone hacking and media ethics and practices.

Rowling is one of 46 celebrities, politicians, sportsmen, other public figures, and members of the public who believe they have been the victims of media intrusion granted "core participant" status in the inquiry by Leveson on Wednesday.

This will mean Rowling and other core participants can give evidence personally, or via a lawyer, on her experience of alleged media intrusion to the inquiry, which begins in October at London's Royal Courts of Justice.

The Harry Potter author has previously expressed her displeasure with the press. In May 2008, she won a legal battle to secure the privacy of her children after photographs were published in the Sunday Express of her young son as he was wheeled down an Edinburgh street in a push-chair.

Others on the list including Anne Diamond's former husband, Mike Hollingsworth; former nurse turned model and TV presenter Abi Titmuss; Sheryl Gascoigne; and Mark Oaten, the former MP who had to pull out of the Liberal Democrat leadership race after tabloid revelations about his sex life.

The parents of murder victim Diane Watson also in Leveson's initial core participants list, along with the parents and sister of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler, and the parents of Madeleine McCann. The son of mass murderer Harold Shipman is also on the list.

Christopher Jefferies, arrested on suspicion of murdering Joanna Yeates in December but released without charge, has also been granted core participant status. He subsequently sued several newspapers successfully for libel.

Several celebrities who have allegedly had their phones hacked, including Hugh Grant, Sienna Miller and Calum Best, are among the 46 named on Leveson's list of core participants.

MPs Chris Bryant, Tessa Jowell, Denis MacShane, Simon Hughes, and former Labour deputy leader Lord Prescott also feature, along with a smattering of sports stars including jockey Kieron Fallon and former Premiership footballer Garry Flitcroft.

Rebekah Brooks, former News International chief executive and editor of the News of the World and the Sun, has been denied her application to become a core participant as she no longer works for the Murdoch company, but she will be able to give evidence as a witness. She has appointed a lawyer to act on her behalf who will under the rules of the inquiry will be allowed to apply to ask questions.

Jonathan Rees, a private investigator who was at one stage employed by the News of the World, also applied to be a core participant, arguing that there "might be significant criticism of him".

However, Rees was also denied the status of core participant on the grounds that he was not of significant enough interest to the first module of the inquiry. This will focus on the relationship between the press and the public and extends not merely to the allegations of phone hacking but also to other potentially illegal or unethical behaviour.

News International, owner of the paper at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, the now defunct News of the World, the Sunday Times, the Times and the Sun, has been given core participant status as expected, as has Guardian News & Media, the owner of the Guardian, which has published a series of revelations on phone hacking over the past two years.

Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers and Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell, owner of the Daily Express, the Sunday Express and the Daily Star, will also be core participants.

English PEN, a writers' freedom association, and Index on Censorship were also denied core participant status.

Barrister David Sherborne, who is representing a group of victims suing the News of the World alleged phone hacking, including Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan, had applied to represent 14 people who either believe their voicemail was intercepted or claimed to have their privacy invaded by the press.

However, Leveson said he was not prepared to give core participant status to those who could not be named.

Leveson has also decided the Metropolitan police can be a core participant.

Hacking MPs Recall News International's James Murdoch

James Murdoch is to face more questions from MPs investigating the News of the World (NoW) phone-hacking scandal.









James Murdoch was questioned by MPs for nearly three hours in July.

The Commons culture committee has recalled News International's chairman to give evidence. The company said Mr Murdoch would be "happy to appear".

It comes after MPs heard conflicting evidence over how much Mr Murdoch knew about the practice at the NoW.

Separately, it has emerged the mother of a 7/7 bombing victim is to pursue a civil case against News International.

The case of Sheila Henry, whose son, Christian Small, was killed in the 2005 Russell Square explosion, will be one of six test cases for civil damages claims against News Group Newspapers over phone-hacking claims.

'Happy to appear'

It is not known when Mr Murdoch will appear before the culture committee.

John Whittingdale, its chairman, said the committee wanted to first hear evidence from other witnesses, including former senior News Corporation executive Les Hinton and Mark Lewis, the lawyer representing alleged phone-hacking victims.

A spokesman for News Corp, the parent company of News International, said: "James Murdoch is happy to appear in front of the committee again to answer any further questions members might have."

Earlier this month, former NoW legal manager Tom Crone told MPs he was "certain" he told Mr Murdoch about an email which indicated phone hacking at the paper went beyond one rogue reporter.

Mr Crone said "it was the reason that we had to settle" a case. Former editor Colin Myler also told the committee the email was discussed.

Mr Murdoch, however, has insisted he was not told about the email.

In July, he and his father - Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp - faced nearly three hours in front of the parliamentary committee, answering questions about what they had done to unravel the scandal at the News of the World.

At the High Court, Mr Justice Vos has been considering applications from a number of alleged phone-hacking victims to decide whose will be heard as test cases in the new year.

Earlier, he added that of Sheila Henry to a list including actor Jude Law, MP Chris Bryant, interior designer Kelly Hoppen, sports agent Sky Andrew and ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne.

Other developments to emerge from the High Court hearing include:

* The family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was allegedly hacked, have not issued proceedings.

* Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes issued proceedings against the NoW.

* Mr Justice Vos, himself, was told the Daily Star had linked him to hacking, but he said he had not been provided with any evidence. "I rarely leave or receive voicemail messages in any case," he told the court.

* New and significant information has been found at News International.

Scotland Yard is currently investigating claims that reporters hacked into the messages of celebrities and public figures between 2005 and 2006.

Osborne 'Not Distracted' By Claims Over Private Life

No 10 has said Chancellor George Osborne is "100% focused" on the economy amid allegations about his private life before he became an MP.









The claims, dating back nearly 20 years, were made in Australia by ex-escort agency boss Natalie Rowe, who had a child with a friend of the MP.

Ms Rowe also claimed her phone may have been hacked by the News of the World.

A spokesman for Mr Osborne has said there is "nothing new" in her claims, which have been repeatedly denied.

The News of the World published a photo of Mr Osborne and Ms Rowe on its front page in 2005, when the Conservatives were in opposition and Mr Osborne was running David Cameron's Conservative leadership campaign.

At the time, Mr Osborne said he had met Ms Rowe when he was 22 and she was the partner of a close friend of his who developed a serious drug problem.

But he strenuously denied any improper conduct himself.

In an interview with Australian broadcaster ABC, Ms Rowe repeated allegations first made in 2005 and also claimed police had told her that her name was on a list of phone numbers seized from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, jailed for illegally intercepting voicemail messages in 2007.

The Metropolitan Police have not said whether her name had featured in their investigation into phone hacking allegations.

Asked about the allegations, a No 10 spokesman said it was "very clear to me that the chancellor is 100% focused on the UK economy".

A spokesman for Mr Osborne commented: "These are old allegations that were widely reported and denied years ago. There is nothing new in them."

The Front - British Cabinet Minister In New Hacker Scandal

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer is the latest figure to become entangled in the telephone hacking scandal involving News International, the British news division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.














The London Independent reported today (Monday) that the chancellor, George Osborne, was among those targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective working for NI's News of the World , the Sunday tabloid that was shut down in the wake of the scandal.

Also targeted, said the Independent , was former prostitute Natalie Rowe, who was photographed with Osborne at a party in 2005 with what appeared to be a sheet of paper with a line of cocaine in front of them.

The photograph was featured on the front of two "red-top" newspapers, the newspaper said, referring to the red ink used on the mastheads of scandal sheets like News of the World. Rowe, the Independent said, is due to be interviewed sometime this week on Australian television and may shed some light on the question of why Osborne subsequently recommended that Andy Coulson, the News of the World editor at the time the scandalous photo appeared, be appointed Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief.

One broadcasting source was quoted by the Independent as remarking "Why put someone forward for a job, as Osborne did, when you know what a disservice they have done you?"

Profile: Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the newly-appointed Metropolitan Police Commissioner, fits the bill for the "single-minded crime fighter" sought by the home secretary.



Theresa May had made the call after his predecessor Sir Paul Stephenson, and his assistant John Yates, quit amid criticism of the Met's role in the phone-hacking scandal.

And the former Merseyside Police chief was well-placed to take on the job of the UK's top police officer, having been called on to act as the Met's deputy commissioner in the wake of the resignations.

During five years on Merseyside to 2009, Mr Hogan-Howe developed a high profile via regular web chats and broadcasts, appearances on local radio phone-ins and horseback rides through the city centre.

And he earned admirers for his tough approach to anti-social behaviour and stance on gun crime in the wake of the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Rhys Jones.

Born in Sheffield, the football enthusiast's rise through the ranks began with South Yorkshire Police in 1979.

'Tough stance'

He worked as a traffic officer, detective and district commander, gaining an MA in law from Oxford University and a diploma in applied criminology from Cambridge University along the way.

In 1997 he moved to Merseyside police and four years later joined the Met as an assistant commissioner, before returning to Liverpool in 2004.

During that time, crime dropped by a third, and the force claims anti-social behaviour rates were cut in half through a zero-tolerance approach.

Bernard Hogan-Howe's career

1979: South Yorkshire Police

1997: Assistant Chief Constable, Merseyside

2001: Assistant Commissioner, Metropolitan Police

2004: Chief Constable of Merseyside

2009: HM Inspectorate of Constabulary

He hit the headlines in 2006 for sprinting after a suspected drink-driver after spotting him from his chauffeur-driven car.

Mr Hogan-Howe was the man in charge in 2007, when 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead as he walked home from football practice.

The killing horrified the nation and there were grumblings from some in the media when there was no immediate arrest.

But Mr Hogan-Howe got his man in December 2008 when Sean Mercer, 18, was jailed for life and several members of his gang were also locked up.

'Clear philosophy'

That year, he accused some judges of being lenient on gun crime by overlooking mandatory five-year sentences for possession of a firearm.

He also called for those shielding gun criminals from police to be evicted from homes.

Mr Hogan-Howe set up the specialist Matrix team to tackle gun crime - the first of its kind outside London.









The home secretary and London mayor were "of one mind" in appointing Mr Hogan-Howe.

The unit's former head, Det Supt Geoff Sloane, said: "When he came he had a clear philosophy. It was to tackle organised crime, gang-related crime but also to make sure victims were properly supported, which was backed up by strong neighbourhood policing."

Before leaving Merseyside, he applied to succeed Sir Hugh Orde as chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

However, he withdrew from the application process to take up a role with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies.

He was called back to the Met in July to support Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin - later a rival for the top job - in bringing stability to the force after Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation.

The home secretary and London Mayor Boris Johnson said they were "of one mind" in their decision to appoint Mr Hogan-Howe.

Mrs May cited his "excellent track-record" in reducing crime had proven the deciding factor.

Phone Hacking: 35-Year-Old Man Arrested By olice

A 35-year-old man has been arrested by officers from Operation Weeting investigating phone hacking at the News of the World, Scotland Yard says.









A total of 16 people have now been arrested as part of the investigation into phone hacking.

The BBC understand he is Raoul Simons, who was appointed deputy football editor of the Times in 2009.

He is being questioned by police in north London on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages.

Meanwhile, Guardian reporter Amelia Hill has been questioned over alleged police leaks, the newspaper said.

Ms Hill is believed to have been questioned under caution but not arrested in relation to the arrest of a Met Police detective constable last month who worked in the Operation Weeting team.

Scotland Yard says the "investigation continues" and they are not giving a "running commentary" on events.

Mr Simons moved to the Times from the London Evening Standard. News International, which publishes the Times, would not comment on whether he remained its deputy football editor.

A total of 16 people have now been arrested on suspicion of phone hacking - 15 of whom are still under investigation - since Operation Weeting was launched in January.

Scotland Yard's fresh investigation was set up to examine the illegal interception of voicemails.

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson are among those who have already been arrested as part of the inquiry.

The scandal has led Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and Assistant Commissioner John Yates to resign, and the News of the World to close down after 168 years.

James Murdoch 'Was Told Of Phone-Hacking Email'

News of the World's former legal manager, Tom Crone, contradicts News Corp executive's evidence to select committee.












Phone hacking: the News of the World's former legal manager has claimed he told James Murdoch about an email suggesting hacking extended beyond one rogue reporter.

James Murdoch knew about an explosive email that would have proved that phone hacking at the News of the World was not confined to "one rogue reporter", MPs have been told.

The former legal manager at the now-defunct tabloid, Tom Crone, openly contradicted evidence given by Murdoch to a parliamentary committee in July by telling the same committee today that he was "certain" he told the News International chief of the existence of this email during a meeting in 2008.

According to Crone, the meeting lasted 15 minutes and was also attended by the then News of the World editor, Colin Myler, who concurred with the former legal affairs manager's versions of events.

Murdoch immediately dismissed Crone's claims in a robust statement.

He said he stood by his original testimony to the select committee and had not been aware that phone hacking extended beyond the former royal editor Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, both of whom had been convicted and jailed in relation to phone-hacking charges more than a year earlier.

"Neither Mr Myler nor Mr Crone told me that wrongdoing extended beyond Mr Goodman or Mr Mulcaire," said Murdoch.

He added: "As I said in my testimony, there was nothing discussed in the meeting that led me to believe that a further investigation was necessary."

The continuing war of words between Murdoch and his two former executives almost certainly means he will be recalled to appear before the committee for a more forensic scrutiny of his original evidence.

The culture, media and sport committee was today taking evidence from Crone and Myler and two other former News International executives as part of its investigation into allegations of "cover-up" of the scale of phone hacking at the Sunday paper.

Crone said it was made clear to Murdoch during the 15-minute meeting what the email "was about" and "what it meant".

He said the email was documentary evidence that at least one other reporter was aware of phone hacking and that this was why they needed to settle out of court with the former Professional Footballers' Association boss Gordon Taylor, who had taken civil action against the publisher in relation to the alleged interception of his voicemails by the paper.

The email only emerged during the process of discovery by Taylor's lawyers. "Up to then there was no evidence that News of the World were implicated. The first I saw of that was that was the 'for Neville' email which reached us in spring 2008. We went to see Mr Murdoch and it was explained to him what this document was and what it meant," said Crone.

It was at that meeting that Murdoch authorised Crone to reach a settlement with Taylor, who was eventually paid £425,000, the committee heard.

Crone also insisted that there was no "cover-up" by the company, as the email had been provided to them by the Metropolitan police after it was seized from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed with Goodman in 2007 for hacking into the phone messages of members of the royal household.

A confidentiality clause included in the settlement was insisted upon by Taylor's lawyers to avoid sensitive information about his personal life becoming public, said Crone.

He said the size of the payout to Taylor was "good legal management" designed to avert further litigation from other public figures who had been named in Glenn Mulcaire's court case and was not about buying his silence.

In a bruising clash with committee member Tom Watson – the Labour MP who has led the charge over phone hacking – Crone denied that Murdoch demanded a confidentiality clause and authorised the large financial settlement in order to prevent the exposure of "widespread criminality" at the News of the World.

The former legal manager said his priority was to avoid cases being launched by four other individuals whose phones Mulcaire had admitted hacking.

"The imperative or the priority at the time was to settle this case, get rid of it, contain the situation as far as four other litigants were concerned and get on with our business," said Crone.

Crone also said that the former editor of the paper, Andy Coulson, was keen to keep Goodman employed even if he was convicted and jailed for phone-hacking offences.

And MPs were told that Goodman received a payout of about £240,000 despite being found guilty and being jailed for the offences in 2007 because of a "sense of family" towards staffat News International.

The former head of legal affairs at News International, Jon Chapman, said the former chief executive of the company, Les Hinton, had "wanted to do it on compassionate grounds because of the Goodman family".

Chapman separately admitted that Rupert Murdoch had got it wrong when he said legal firm Harbottle & Lewis had made a "major mistake" when it did not report any evidence of illegal activities at the News of the World. However, he defended his former paymaster by saying he had not been properly briefed on Harbottle & Lewis's review of internal emails.

David Cameron's Holiday Boost

Pity the poor Cameron family. The received wisdom suggests that August should be a quiet month in British politics. Not so for David Cameron this year. Twice in the space of a few weeks, the prime minister was summoned away from wife and children to take charge back in Downing Street.













First, the worst rioting in decades brought him home from Tuscany; then the assault on Tripoli meant quitting the beaches of England's southwest. That's tough on a leader badly in need of a break after a pasting from the press over his suspiciously close ties to the Murdoch media empire revealed by the phone-hacking scandal.

But the broken holiday has useful consolations. Cameron's approval ratings now stand at around 40 percent; much the same as before the summer's traumas. Better still, the Conservatives are slowly regaining some of the ground lost to Labour in recent months. The latest YouGov polls suggest that the party is trailing by just five points at 37 percent.

Some explanations are easy enough. The riots allowed Cameron to show off the kind of calm and competence that the public expects of a leader at a moment of crisis. And the approach of total victory in Libya has converted many of the skeptics, with support for Britain's involvement in the campaign–now 43 percent–rising with every advance.

No less important, the summer's troubles have provided useful political distraction from other pressing national woes. The latest growth figures show a British economy that's more or less flat-lining. Unemployment and inflation are both rising while manufacturing output–seen as crucial to recovery–fell sharply last month.

That's bad for the Conservatives, with the polls indicating that they are still seen as the party of the rich out of sympathy with the poor or the squeezed middle classes. Voters accept the need for austerity measures if Britain is to escape the fate of other European nations, but the mood is grim. “You need another story if you want to keep them happy,” says Neil O'Brien of the Conservative think tank Policy Exchange.

The riots provide just such a story. Cameron, long accused of lacking a distinctive cause, now has a clear purpose and goal: repairing what he has called “Broken Britain.”

And he can't be accused of any sudden conversion. For Cameron, the issue of how to tackle the problems of Britain's poor and alienated youth is familiar ground. His concern for “Broken Britain” was a recurring theme in his attempts to give the Conservative Party a more caring image in the run-up to last year's elections.

Politically, it's an issue that demands all Cameron's PR deftness. On the one hand, he knows that the public takes a tougher line than both main parties when it comes to questions of law and order. He knows too that plenty of right-wing Tory MPs–their numbers strengthened at the election–are still suspicious of their leader's attempts to edge the party onto the center ground of politics.

On the other, he can't disown the talk of compassionate conservatism that he's deployed in the past, and Labour yearns for a slip-up that will allow him to be portrayed as an old-style Conservative more interested in punishment than seeking to understand the causes behind the riots.

Language is crucial. Whatever their reaction to the riots, the public doesn't like the harsh rhetoric of retribution. “Much of it is tonal,” says Neil O'Brien. “If you get it wrong, it sounds like you're off the golf course.”

So far, Cameron has managed to sidestep the pitfalls, moderating his language to match the voters' cooling temper. The initial talk of the looters' “sheer criminality” and his apparent endorsement of harsh sentences have given way to a more nuanced stance. In a BBC interview Friday, he was advocating “tough love” as well as tough justice.

Not that Cameron can risk complacency. Next month he must address his party's annual conference in Manchester, always a testing experience for a Conservative leader, and he'll need policies to match his words. One recent survey showed a clear majority believed that neither party was capable of mending “Broken Britain.”

And if Cameron's ratings have yet to slump, nor have they markedly improved since he took power. Voters may be awaiting results before they come to a firm conclusion on his premiership, says Rick Nye of pollsters Populus. “You have seen the hacking, the riots, and Libya, but they are not really game-changers when it comes to their fundamental assessment.”

Even if the streets of London and Tripoli stay calm, for Cameron the coming months will be no holiday.

Brian Paddick Picked By Liberal Democrats For London Mayoral Race

2012 race will be rematch between Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone and former Met deputy assistant commissioner.












Brian Paddick is once again the Liberal Democrat candidate for mayor of London, pitted against Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone.

London's mayoral election next year will be a rematch between Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick, after the former Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner was selected as the Liberal Democrats' candidate for the second time.

Paddick, who came third in the 2008 mayoral election when Johnson ousted Livingstone after two terms, was declared the winner after a four-horse race in which the former MP Lembit Opik was eliminated in the first round.

Opik lost the safe Lib Dem seat of Montgomeryshire in the 2010 general election. On Friday, in an election run on the single transferrable vote, he secured just 252 votes, coming fourth behind London councillor Brian Haley, with 316.

Paddick narrowly won on second preference votes (1,567), with Mike Tuffrey, a member of the London assembly, close behind on 1,476. About 6,000 London party members were eligible to vote.

Paddick, who had said he was undecided about standing when he put in his nomination papers in June, has pledged to fight for a "fair deal" for Londoners, to protect local community policing and to hold down bus fares.

He thanked Liberal Democrat members "who placed their trust and confidence in me to be their candidate for mayor of London – I won't let you down".

Opik, who had previously claimed that "forces within the party" were trying to prevent him standing, conceded defeat before the final result was announced. He told the Evening Standard: "I stood because I felt the Lib Dems desperately need to reach out beyond their traditional voters. Boris and Ken are celebrity politicians. I fear the party doesn't grasp the implication of this." He was not quitting. "I'll be back," he said.

Some in the party are resigned to next year's election being a Johnson-Livingstone rematch, and see the mayoral election as a way of boosting the party's profile for the London assembly elections taking place at the same time. Currently it holds just three seats out of 25.

Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister, said Paddick provided Londoners with a "real, credible alternative" to Johnson and Livingstone.

"Brian's experience is exactly what London needs right now. Whether dealing with the aftermath of the riots or phone hacking and corruption in the Metropolitan police, Brian has shown in recent weeks that he has the authority and leadership London needs."The phone hacking scandal that rocked News International, the Metropolitan police and the political establishment is likely to surface in the 2012 contest. Paddick, whose phone was hacked by the now defunct News of the World, is among a group of public figures who have sought permission for a judicial review of the Met's handling of the phone hacking scandal.

Johnson, the incumbent mayor who declared his intention to seek a second term a year ago, came under fire over the summer for having dismissed reports that News of the World's use of phone hacking was more widespread than first thought as "codswallop" – a claim that turned out to be wide of the mark.

Livingstone, who was the first to declare his intention to stand again, was mayor when the original police investigation was conducted in 2006.

Paddick, who retired from the police in 2007 after 30 years of service, told the Evening Standard on Friday that reformed gang members should go into school to warn children of the dangers of getting involved in violent crime, after the recent riots in the capital raised fears about violent young people.

Phone Hacking: Judge To Question Rupert And James Murdoch Under Oath

Rupert Murdoch and his son, James, are to be questioned about the phone hacking scandal under oath in the High Court.












Rupert Murdoch and his son, James, are to be questioned about the phone hacking scandal under oath in the High Court.

Lord Justice Leveson, the man who prosecuted Rose West, will hold his inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice.

David Cameron and other senior politicians are also likely to be questioned over their links to News International, the parent company of the News of the World.

The proceedings will be held in the same court as the official inquiry into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Lord Justice Leveson is thought to be keen for the proceedings to be broadcast live to ensure they are seen to be transparent.

The prospect of courtroom evidence will increase the impression that the Leveson inquiry is an unofficial “trial” of key players in the phone hacking scandal.

Over the summer, a handful of officials from the Cabinet Office and Treasury Solicitor’s Office have been planning how the inquiry will be run.

The team will set up a full-time office in the Royal Courts of Justice before the formal start of proceedings in October. The focus of the inquiry is “the culture, practices and ethics of the press in the context of the latter’s relationship with the public, police and politicians”.

It was ordered by Mr Cameron in the wake of the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World and held out the possibility of tougher press regulation in future.

Lord Justice Leveson has powers firstly to invite witnesses to give evidence, and then to compel them under the Inquiries Act 2005.

Sources close to the inquiry said Lord Justice Leveson would not be constrained in who he asked to testify, adding that the judge “will go where the evidence takes him”.

Dozens of letters have been sent to potential witnesses asking if they will help the inquiry. The deadline for submissions to the inquiry is tomorrow.

The Murdochs, as well as Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, both former editors of the News of the World, are likely to be called.

Mr Cameron, who subsequently hired Mr Coulson to work for the Conservative Party and then in 10 Downing Street, could also be asked to give evidence. A source close to Downing Street said the Prime Minister would be happy to give evidence if asked.

The inquiry will begin with a series of seminars at the end of next month, attended by senior journalists and other interested parties. They will examine topics including the law, ethics of journalism and the “practice and pressures of investigative journalism”.

They will also look at how press regulation will protect the integrity, freedom and independence of the press, while ensuring the highest standards.

The hacking inquiry might not be complete by next summer after Mr Cameron expanded it to include broadcasters and bloggers.

Opening the inquiry, Lord Justice Leveson said he would “strive” to complete his inquiry after 12 months but said this would not happen “at all cost”.

The inquiry team, which includes George Jones, the former political editor of The Daily Telegraph, and Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the civil liberties group Liberty, would have to “exercise very considerable discipline and, where appropriate, restraint” to deliver the report on time.

Labour Seeks Law Change To Stop News Corp Renewing BSkyB Bid

Fears that Rupert Murdoch could reopen bid prompts 'public interest test' motion by shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis.












Labour's proposals would prevent Rupert Murdoch renewing his BSkyB bid until the outcome of the Leveson inquiry.

Labour is trying to secure cross-party support for an emergency change in the law to prevent News Corporation from renewing its bid to take full ownership of BSkyB.

In a move designed to capitalise on the embarrassment the phone-hacking scandal has heaped on the government, Labour said there was still a possibility that Rupert Murdoch could reopen his bid and the law should be changed to allow ministers to block it. Ivan Lewis, the shadow culture secretary, will introduce a negative motion when parliament returns next week, which – if approved by all parties – could go ahead without a vote.

He has written to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and the Lib Dem culture spokesman, Don Foster, with his proposals. The aim would be to introduce a new public interest test applicable to media barons to rule people out based on their conduct.

Under Labour's proposed amendments to Section 58 of the Enterprise Act 2002, ministers would be given the necessary powers to ask regulators to apply a wide-ranging public interest test. Ministers would be also be able to intervene at any stage in the process if new information came to light.

Lewis said: "These measures are necessary to ensure that while we wait for the outcome of the Leveson inquiry, no changes in media ownership can occur which are not in the public interest.

"It is essential we learn lessons from the BSkyB fiasco so that media integrity is the top priority when considering future ownership and merger changes.

"Ultimately, there is a strong case for removing politicians from media ownership and merger decisions. But, in the meantime, we must act to address the legal ambiguities which allowed Jeremy Hunt to disregard growing public concern and damaged public trust in the credibility of the decision making process."

In his letter to Hunt, Lewis argued that ministers should be removed from the approval process in the long term, but that while the existing legislation was in place emergency moves were urgently needed to close the loophole that could allow Murdoch to simply bid again for control of BSkyB. The negative motion will be laid in both houses of parliament when they return on 5 September.

Phone Hacking: Met Police detective Arrested

Policeman suspected of leaking details of hacking investigation as force also confirms arrest of 35-year-old man.












Phone hacking: the man has not been charged but he has been suspended by the Metropolitan police.

A police detective has been arrested on suspicion of leaking details about Scotland Yard's phone-hacking investigation.

The man has not been charged but he has been suspended by the Metropolitan police.

The Met also on Friday arrested a 35-year-old man, who Sky News named as former News of the World reporter Dan Evans, on suspicion of phone hacking. He has been released on police bail.

Evans was suspended by the paper more than a year ago after being named in a civil case against the now defunct tabloid's publisher, News International subsidiary News Group Newspapers, brought by interior designer Kelly Hoppen.

Sue Akers, the force's deputy assistant commissioner, who is leading the investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World, said: "I made very clear when I took on this investigation the need for operational and information security. It is hugely disappointing that this may not have been adhered to."

Akers added: "The MPS [Met] takes the unauthorised disclosure of information extremely seriously and has acted swiftly in making these arrests."

A spokesperson for Guardian News & Media, which publishes the Guardian, declined to comment on reports that the leaks had been to the Guardian, and said: "We note the arrest of a Scotland Yard detective on suspicion of misconduct in a public office relating to unauthorised disclosure of information.

"On the broader point raised by the arrest, journalists would no doubt be concerned if conversations between off-the-record sources and reporters came routinely to be regarded as criminal activity. In common with all news organisations we have no comment to make on the sources of our journalism."

Expenses, 'Phone Hacking, Riots ''All The Same Problem''

The Labour leader Ed Miliband has said the underlying causes of the recent riots are the same ones that saw MPs fiddling their expenses, bankers sending the UK's finances into freefall while pocketing huge bonuses, and newspapers hacking mobile 'phone voice mails of murder victims and others.










Essentially, he said, all the perpetrators deliberately turned a blind eye to what was right and what was wrong and chose to think only of their own needs. And this 'me first' approach was a major flaw in the thinking of too many people that really needed to be sorted out.

"There is an issue which went to all our souls," Miliband said on BBC radio, "this is an issue not just about the responsibility and irresponsibility we saw on the streets of Tottenham. It's about irresponsibility, wherever we find it in our society.

"We've seen in the past few years MPs' expenses, what happened in the banks, what happened with 'phone hacking."

He went on: "It's right the courts are handing down exemplary sentences because there needs to be a signal sent that we won't tolerate these things in our society, that it's not okay to do these things.

"We have got to ask why do we have people in our society who feel that the way they can get on and the right thing to do is go and nick the telly, engage in the kind of looting we saw. We have got to avoid simplistic answers. There's a debate some people are starting: is it culture, is it poverty and lack of opportunity? It's probably both."

When it was pointed out that the children rioting were 'Blair's children' in that they all grew up under a Labour administration that was in power for 13 years, Miliband said: "I deeply regret that inequality wasn't reduced under the last Labour government. But we did great things to tackle inequality in our society."

Pointedly, he added: "We did better at rebuilding the fabric of our country than the ethic of our country."

Miliband also repeated his request for a public inquiry into the riots which did not include "a bunch of academics in Whitehall ... but the good, decent people of Tottenham".

"I really hope the Prime Minister in the next couple of days, before everything dissipates and the dust settles, agrees to that public inquiry," he said.

Murdoch: This Scandal Has Exposed The Scale Of Elite Corruption

Cameron wants to bury the collusion uncovered in the hacking revelations but it's part of a growing crisis of official Britain













The Tory operation to bury the phone-hacking scandal in spin and official inquiries is now in full flow. On his way back from Africa, David Cameron declared it was essential to get the whole business into perspective, echoing Rupert Murdoch's insistence that his competitors had got up "this hysteria". Today, the prime minister chided Ed Miliband for "chasing conspiracy theories" and claimed it was really Gordon Brown who had been in the pocket of the global media billionaire.

Meanwhile, News International pundits and others with their own reasons to stem the flood of revelations have been loudly insisting that the political clout of Murdoch's corporate colossus has been exaggerated. The hyper-regulated BBC is the real media monopoly, they say, and in any case the current fixation with phone hacking has meant no one is discussing bankers' bonuses and the threat of another financial meltdown. This is a "frenzy that has grown out of control", the Daily Mail complained.

But the real frenzy isn't the exposure of the scandal – it's the scale of corruption, collusion and cover-up between News International, politicians and police that the scandal has revealed. As the cast of hacking victims, blaggers and blackmailers has lengthened, and the details of the incestuous payments and job-swapping between News International, government and Scotland Yard become more complex, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture that is now emerging.

If it were not for the uncovering of this cesspit, the Cameron government would be preparing to nod through the outright takeover of BSkyB by News International, taking its dominance of Britain's media and political world into Silvio Berlusconi territory. But what has been exposed now goes well beyond the hacking of murder victims and dead soldiers' families – or even the media itself. The scandal has lifted the lid on how power is really exercised in 21st-century Britain – in which the unreformed City and its bankers play a central part.

Murdoch's overweening political influence has long been recognised, from well before Tony Blair flew to Australia in 1995 to pay public homage at his corporate court. What has been less well understood is how close-up and personal the pressure exerted by his organisation has been throughout public life. The fear that those who crossed him would be given the full tabloid treatment over their personal misdemeanours, real or imagined, has proved to be a powerful Mafia-like racket.

It was the warning that News International would target their personal lives that cowed members of the Commons culture and media committee over pressing their investigation into phone hacking too vigorously before the last election. Barely a fortnight ago, Ed Miliband was warned that Murdoch's papers would "make it personal" after he broke with the political-class omerta towards the company. The same vow of silence meant that when Rebekah Brooks told MPs in 2003 her organisation had "paid the police for information", the bribery admission sank like a stone.

The Sopranos style is deeply embedded in the Murdoch dynasty. When the New Labour culture secretary Tessa Jowell broke up with her husband in 2006 as he faced Berlusconi-linked corruption charges (he was later cleared), Brooks took her out, letting her cry on her shoulder – just as News International was hacking into the couple's phone. Jowell has now called in her lawyers, but that didn't stop her attending Elisabeth Murdoch's lavish Chipping Norton party earlier this month, along with David Miliband and other Blairite luminaries. The family demands respect – even from those it has punished.

Of course, the British press has a long history of megalomaniacal, reactionary and criminal proprietors. Some, such as Conrad Black, ended up in prison – or, in the case of Robert Maxwell, would have done if he hadn't died. Others, such as the migrant-and-Muslim-baiting pornographer Richard Desmond, merely emphasise how narrow and dysfunctional media ownership is in Britain.

But Murdoch is a case apart, not only because of his commanding position in both print and satellite TV, but because of the crucial part he played in cementing Margaret Thatcher's political power and then shaping a whole era of New Labour/Tory neoliberal consensus that delivered enfeebled unions, privatisation and the Iraq war. His role in breaking the print unions at Wapping in the 1980s by sacking 5,000 mostly low-paid workers is still hailed in parts of the media as a brave blow for quality journalism.

It was nothing of the kind. The golden age of new titles never materialised, and it's certainly no coincidence that journalists were prevailed upon to resort to systematic illegality in a company that has refused to recognise independent trade unions ever since. Over those years, News International has used its grip on the political class to rewrite media regulation in its own image. As we now know, it has also suborned politicians and the police and operated as a freelance security service – not to expose the abuse of power, but to carry it out.

These revelations should ram home the reality that Britain has become a far more corrupt country than many realise. Much of that has been driven by the privatisation-fuelled revolving door culture that gives former ministers and civil servants plum jobs in the companies they were previously regulating.

But the scandal has also created a powerful opportunity to weaken the unaccountable corporate power that has dominated the British press and create the space for a freer, more diverse media. The Labour leader has naturally been attacked by News International journalists for his call to break up the Murdoch empire and limit media concentration as though he were unaware of the decline of print and the rise of the web. In fact, that shift makes public action more urgent and necessary – and if the Liberal Democrats recognise their own interests, even politically possible.

But several of these opportunities have come and gone. First the official deception of the Iraq war, then the collapse of a deregulated banking system, then the exposure of systematic sleaze in parliament revealed a growing crisis in the way the country is run. Now that crisis has been shown to have spread to the media and police. Official Britain isn't working. Sooner or later, pressure for change will become unstoppable.