Astonishing mea culpa, but leading industry figures say ‘it’s not enough’

CEO Rebekah Brooks…in the lurch?

The Slog looks at some of the major ramifications

 

In a move that can only have been sanctioned by Rupert Murdoch himself, News International issued a press release this afternoon that announced,  ‘Following an extensive internal investigation and disclosures through civil legal cases, News International has decided to approach some civil litigants with an unreserved apology and an admission of liability in cases meeting specific criteria. We have also asked our lawyers to establish a compensation scheme with a view to dealing with justifiable claims fairly and efficiently. This will begin the process of bringing these cases to a fair resolution with damages appropriate to the extent of the intrusion….’

The admission – by setting a compensation fund believed to be £20 million and an average award of £100,000 – is thus admitting guilt on some 200 cases. Lord Prescott reacted immediately to say that the BSkyB takeover should now be stopped, and Andrew Neil – once a major player in Newscorp – gave this particularly harsh reaction:

“They are trying to close it down with their cheque book but I don’t think it will succeed,” said the former Sunday Times editor, “The whole speculation was – how far up did this go, how many people were involved, who knew and when did they know, how far into the senior management did it go? All that remains unresolved, and will come out in the police investigation, so it’s an attempt to close down part of it, it’s an expensive attempt, but this is not by any means yet the end of this story.”

The Slog has been posting for over a week to the effect that the Murdoch family wanted a moat behind which to retreat, and this is clearly meant to be it. But for everyone involved in the scandal, the consequences of this admission are enormous:

*What will happen now to Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks? Admission at this level of hacking effectively seals their fate. It means that Newscorp accepts the rediscovered emails are damning, and that so many named journalists illegally intruding over such a long period makes any defence of the two former editors impossible. It may well indeed be that many of the emails incriminate the couple directly.

*Where does this leave anti-terrorist cop Andy Hayman? Hayman was reliably reported today to have gone to ground, and be reading “every word written about him by everyone” with a view to potential litigation. This suggests a bullish attitude on the part of the former Met chief, but also a degree of confidence that it will still be hard to tie him to any conspiratorial wrongdoing in the affair. It may also signify that Mr Hayman feels ‘bombproof’ on the basis of some more broadly toxic facts about the investigation – but that must remain speculation.

*How many other Newscorp journalists will be charged? The Slog posted this morning to suggest a widespread mood of doom in the Newscorp press rooms at Wapping, but much of this depends on whether Sue Akers’ Operation Weeting flogs its way meticulously through every last email – there are thought to be nearly 750,000 in the haul – or now simply looks to gain confessions under interview.

*How many other newspapers will now be investigated? The Slog’s research into the Stephen Whittamore invoices proved that the practice was taking place across the piece of Newscorp titles, but we have maintained for months that the practice had been widespread across the industry for some years. Particular suspicion surrounds the use of Mulcaire-style ‘detectives’ in the 2004-7 period at the Daily Mail, and many of those involved left son afterwards to join the Daily Telegraph. As yet, The Slog has no information at all suggesting that the Telegraph Group or Associated Newspapers will now fall under suspicion.

*How should the Government proceed now on the BSkyB takeover approval? It should at least delay the approval until more details are available, and the seriousness of any charges becomes clear. But the deal surely cannot go ahead with senior Newscorp management facing charges. Rebekah Brooks may well find herself dismissed, or charged, or both – in which case, to allow the BSkyB takeover when its (former) CEO faces a potential prison sentence would cause outrage both at Westminster and across the country at large.

*What will the reaction of MPs be, and how widely will the scandal now spread? Early soundings taken by The Slog since the announcement suggest that several Labour figures now scent blood, but the senior ranks of the Party remain, as ever, curiously diffident. The position of Ed Miliband communications boss Tom Baldwin (having issued an edict to MPs to ‘lay off Murdoch’) is, one would assume, an extremely difficult one from here onwards. But one senior LibDem figure told The Slog that the Opposition Leadership “is terrified at the thought of what might come out about the use of phone hacking during the Blair years”. I didn’t have time to pursue precisely what the source meant by that.  

*Has David Cameron been sucked in personally? Yes, without question. He has a personal relationship with almost every one of the senior players, and must now accept that, at the very least, his judgment looks seriously flawed. He should never have hired Andy Coulson in the first place, he should’ve fired his aide much earlier than he did, he foolishly defended him on television immediately after his Downing Street departure, he remained dangerously close to both Brooks and James Murdoch over the Christmas period, and he obviously oversaw the approval of the Newscorp/BSkyB takeover personally.  The only way Cameron can now emerge from this with some credibility left is if Labour too has a great deal to hide. But then, those investigating this case have succeeded thus far without any help at all from the Opposition – with the notable exception of Chris Bryant. At the baseline, David Cameron stands accused of ‘doing anything for the money’ – but he won’t be the first or last politician to face such a charge.