News Limited finds no wrongdoing after phone-hacking review
A review of News Limited’s editorial expenses has found no evidence of phone tapping or bribing public officials, according to a statement from the company.
The findings should help put some distance between News Limited and its sibling UK operations five months after The News of the World was closed after the tabloid caught illegally tapping phones.
The review examined editorial expenses – all cash transactions over $100 and all transactions over $10,000 – at News Limited’s major metropolitan papers, which account for around 70% of the company’s expenses. The inquiry also scrutinised the use of private investigators.
The inquiry was instigated by News Limited boss John Hartigan, who stepped down last week. Hartigan told his staff in July that the activities of sister title News of the World “in no way reflect” how the company operates in Australia.
Does anyone else find the timeframe of Hartigan’s audit a little curious?
The period of Hartigan’s review of News Ltd accounts and use of private investigators starts July 1, 2006. The phone hacking scandal first came to light in early 2006, with the first arrest made in August. News would have known investigations were en train well before then.
Yet Hartigan’s review period started in mid 2006, when the coming storm would have made any sensible editor in the worldwide News stable who might have been using phone hacking tactics to quickly cease the practice. So of course Hartigan’s review says it found nothing and everything here is hunky-dory.
I’d like to see a review of local News Ltd accounts and use of PIs go back to at least 2002, because that’s when the practice seems to have become rife in the UK.
Get an independent investigator to do that and I (might) believe the company’s claims of innocence.
“The conduct of News Ltd employees was outside the scope of the review.” How can they say they a not guilty of any wrong doing when they haven’t even asked the likely perpetrators if they have done anything wrong?
Two phones and a little knowledge and the the target phones message bank can often be accessed for leads to stories. Are we being asked to accept no News Limited employees were doing that, so they were left outside the review. It is so much like the government dont call for an inquiry unless you know the answers. Edward James
Don’t know why this post wasn’t highlighted on the Mumbrella site yesterday. I only found it through a Google search.