Andy Coulson, former aide to Britain's leader, detained by police

LONDON -- Prime Minister David Cameron's former press aide was taken into custody by Scottish police Wednesday on suspicion of perjury during a 2010 trial related to Britain's phone hacking scandal.

Scottish police gave no details on the arrest beyond the customary statement that officers had "detained a 44-year-old male in London this morning ... on suspicion of committing perjury before the High Court in Glasgow.” However, he was widely identified by British media as Andy Coulson, Cameron's former aide.

The detention was related to testimony Coulson gave in the trial of Tommy Sheridan, a former Scottish member of the European Parliament who was convicted of lying during a legal hearing.

Coulson was editor from 2003 to 2007 of the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, which was closed down last year by media owner Rupert Murdoch amid revelations that the newspaper had been involved in phone hacking.

In a 2006 civil case, Sheridan had successfully sued the News of the World for libel over stories of his  adulterous conduct in swinging clubs. Although awarded about $300,000, Sheridan was later convicted of perjury and sentenced to three years in jail.

During his time as Cameron’s press officer, Coulson took the witness stand in Sheridan’s perjury trial in which Sheridan claimed he had been targeted by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, known to have carried out phone interceptions for the News of the World. Coulson denied knowledge of phone hacking during his term as editor.

On Wednesday, Coulson was taken by Scottish police from his London home for questioning in Glasgow, Scotland.  Unlike in England, Scottish law decrees that suspects are not arrested but detained when under suspicion.

Coulson had previously been arrested but released on bail on suspicion of illegal phone hacking and illegal payments to police officers in the London-based investigations into the widespread phone hacking and surveillance carried out over the last decade by News International and other papers in search of scoops. He is one of more than 40 people to have been arrested in the scandal by British police.

The revelations that the News of the World had hacked into the phone of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler last summer triggered public outrage and led to the paper’s closure, several civil and police inquiries and compensation payments by the Murdoch empire amounting so far to millions of dollars.

 RELATED:

Rupert Murdoch sorry about phone hacking but is also defiant

 Rebekah Brooks, five others to be charged in phone-hacking case

 

News Corp. revelations rock U.K. gov't: Special advisor to media minister ankles

-- Janet Stobart

Photo: Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson leaves the High Court in central London where he gave evidence at an inquiry into press ethics on May 10. Credit: Miguel Medina / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images.

Tony Blair faces inquiry into role of press during his premiership

LONDON -- Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his relationship with media owner Rupert Murdoch during questioning Monday before a panel looking into the practices and ethics of the press and its dealings with politicians and public figures.

During the morning session, an antiwar protester burst into the courtroom, rushing to the bench of the judge leading the panel and shouting, “This man is a war criminal,” accusing Blair of profiting from the Iraq war.

Media reports identified the protester as David Lawley Waklin from a group that had opposed the Iraq war. He was detained.

PHOTOS: British phone-hacking scandal

Seemingly unfazed by the intrusion, Blair insisted that he was not unduly influenced during his decade in office that began in 1997 by his relationship with Murdoch or the media owner's News International, which publishes the Sun and the London Times.

Blair defended the need of a prime minister to work with the media but rejected suggestions he ever conceded favors to them. The power that media groups exercised on public opinion and political life had not forced him to calibrate his policies to reflect their views, he testified.

Blair admitted he flew to Australia before his rise to power 1995 to meet with Murdoch and ask for his support, but denied he made a deal on rules governing cross-media ownership in favor of the media baron.

Rebekah Brooks, five others to be charged in phone-hacking case

LONDON -- Rebekah Brooks, the former chief of News International and confidante of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is to be charged with obstructing justice in the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked Britain.

Prosecutors announced Tuesday that Brooks would be charged with three counts of "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice," all of them stemming from alleged attempts to conceal or remove evidence relating to the police probe into phone hacking and corruption at the News of the World and the Sun tabloids.

The charges are the most serious to be filed so far as a result of the investigation, and they represent a stunning reversal of fortune for Brooks, once one of Britain's most influential women, who oversaw all of Murdoch's newspapers in this country.

In addition, Brooks' husband, Charlie, is to be charged with two counts of obstructing justice.

Last July, in the days after the phone-hacking scandal broke wide open, a guard at the London apartment building where the Brooks maintain a flat discovered a laptop computer and various documents stuffed into a garbage bag and tossed into a trash can. The guard handed the items over to the police, from whom Charlie Brooks tried unsuccessfully to reclaim them, saying he had thrown them out by mistake in a mix-up with a colleague.

The couple issued a statement calling the decision to charge them "weak and unjust," according to Britain's Press Assn. They accused prosecutors of "unprecedented posturing."

Besides Rebekah and Charlie Brooks, prosecutors have also decided to press charges of obstructing justice against four other people, including Rebekah Brooks' former personal assistant and her chauffeur.

The charges against all six suspects relate to their actions during the first two weeks after the hacking scandal exploded last summer amid allegations that the News of the World had illegally tapped into the voicemails of a kidnapped teenager who was later found slain.

In one of the charges, Brooks and her assistant, Cheryl Carter, are alleged to have tried to remove seven boxes of material from the archive of News International, the British subsidiary of Murdoch's giant News Corp.

"There is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction," prosecutor Alison Levitt said of the charges.

She added that no charges would be filed against an unnamed seventh person who had also been under investigation.

ALSO:

Greece's political deadlock continues as coalition talks fail

Palestinian prisoners to end hunger strike after deal with Israel

Police in Rome exhume gangster's body in 29-year-old cold case

-- Henry Chu

Photo: Former chief executive of News International Rebekah Brooks, right, and her husband Charlie Brooks leave the High Court in central London. Credit: Leon Neal /AFP/Getty Images

Ex-Murdoch executive Rebekah Brooks testifies in British media probe

LONDON -- It was a lesson in text-speak for Britain's most powerful man from one of its most powerful women.

"LOL" didn’t mean what Prime Minister David Cameron thought it did, said former newspaper executive Rebekah Brooks, who regularly received text messages from him.

"He would sign them off 'DC' in the main," Brooks said, referring to Cameron's initials. "Occasionally he would sign them off 'LOL' -- 'lots of love' -- until I told him it meant 'laugh out loud,' and then he didn't sign them off [that way] anymore."

It was certainly an LOL moment during Brooks' testimony in a London courtroom Friday as part of a judicial inquiry into media ethics. But the disclosure also underscored the warm personal ties between the prime minister and Brooks, the former head of media baron Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers who was forced to resign in disgrace last summer.

Once one of the country's most influential women, Brooks stepped down because of the public outrage over phone hacking at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid. The ongoing scandal also sparked the judge-led inquiry into the way the media operate, leading to Brooks' much-anticipated appearance on the witness stand.

The inquiry is currently examining the close relationship between politicians and the media. Brooks' testimony Friday showed how blurry the lines could be in that relationship, where professional, journalistic interests intersected with personal ones.

As the head of a stable of newspapers including the serious-minded Times of London as well as the bestselling, salacious tabloid the Sun, Brooks enjoyed access to Britain's highest-ranking decision-makers, who courted her partly in hopes of favorable media coverage for their political agendas and careers.

But in an illumination of the way class and power are inextricably linked in this country, Brooks also socialized with some of them, running into them at birthday parties or riding horses in their company. Both Brooks and Cameron, for example, own weekend country estates close to each other in affluent Oxfordshire.

Under oath Friday, Brooks said the professional lines remained clear.

"Some friendships were made, but I don't think I ever forgot I was a journalist, and I don't think they ever forgot they were a politician," she said.

She scoffed at recent newspaper reports that Cameron, a childhood friend of her husband's, sometimes texted her as many as a dozen times a day.

"It's preposterous. One would hope the leader of the opposition or the prime minister would have better things to do," said Brooks, adding that the real number was more like once or twice a week "on average."

Her meteoric rise within the Murdoch media empire came to a crashing halt last summer after revelations that the News of the World had tapped into the voicemail messages of a kidnapped teenager who was later found killed. Brooks was editor of the tabloid at the time.

It was a difficult moment, but one presumably made easier by the outpouring of support and commiseration that she said came her way from Cameron, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and other high-profile personages.

"I received some indirect messages from No. 10 [Downing St.], No. 11, Home Office, Foreign Office," Brooks said, matter-of-factly rattling off the work addresses of the prime minister, the chancellor of the exchequer, the home secretary and the foreign secretary, who together are the most powerful people in all of Britain.

ALSO:

Greek Socialist leader says coalition talks making headway

Eurozone without Greece increasingly imaginable -- outside Athens

Afghan kills Western soldier, the latest in a string of similar attacks

-- Henry Chu

Photo: Former news executive Rebekah Brooks testifying Friday at a judicial inquiry into media ethics in Britain. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

News Corp. executives may be in contempt of Parliament. So what?

This post has been corrected. See the note below for details.

LONDON -- Three senior News Corp. executives could be found in contempt of Parliament after British lawmakers accused the trio of lying to them about the phone-hacking scandal.

But embarrassing as that would be, would they actually face any punishment? Prison time in the Tower of London, perhaps, as one British news anchor asked facetiously?

The answer is that no one seems to know, because the last time anybody was found in contempt of the British Parliament -- an ancient offense going back centuries -- was more than 50 years ago.

PHOTOS: British phone-hacking scandal

A damning report released Tuesday by Parliament’s media committee found that Les Hinton, Colin Myler and Tom Crone all deliberately misled lawmakers when, as executives of Rupert Murdoch’s giant News Corp., they appeared before the panel to answer questions on phone hacking at the now-defunct News of the World.

The three men sought to portray the practice as the work of a "rogue reporter," although there was evidence that the tabloid tapped into the cellphones of movie stars, athletes and politicians on an almost industrial scale. Police say there were potentially thousands of victims of illegal phone hacking by the paper.

Deeming Rupert Murdoch not 'fit' opens a partisan divide

LONDON -- It’s the most explosive line in the report, and the line that some lawmakers said they could not cross.

The finding that Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to head a major international company led the news here in Britain following the release of a report Tuesday by a parliamentary committee looking into the phone-hacking scandal at Murdoch’s giant News Corp.

But that one line, an extraordinary personal criticism of the Australia-born media magnate, turned the report into something of a political football, dividing the committee along party lines and preventing the panel’s full endorsement of the lengthy report.

The committee unanimously agreed that three of News Corp.'s senior executives essentially lied to lawmakers about the extent of hacking at the News of the World tabloid. Instead of being the work of a lone reporter, intercepting private voicemails now seems to have been practiced on an almost industrial scale at the newspaper, which Murdoch closed down last summer.

Rupert Murdoch apologizes for phone-hacking scandal, rues cover-up

LONDON -- Rupert Murdoch apologized Thursday for the phone-hacking scandal that has tarnished his global media empire, declaring: “The buck stops with me.”

But he also blamed underlings at News Corp. for keeping him in the dark and trying to keep a lid on evidence of widespread hacking at the News of the World tabloid, which he shut down last July when the scandal broke wide open.

On his second day testifying before a British judicial inquiry on media ethics, the Australian-born tycoon said he has spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” on the legal fallout of the hacking allegations and on cleaning up his newspapers to make sure such lapses didn’t happen again.

“I failed. And I’m very sorry about that,” Murdoch, 81, told the court, adding: “It’s going to be a blot on my reputation for the rest of my life.”

Three separate criminal investigations have been launched as a result of the hacking scandal, and dozens of journalists at two of Murdoch’s papers -- the News of the World and the Sun -- have been arrested, although none has yet been charged.

But in sometimes combative testimony, the chairman of News Corp. defended the two papers, scoffing at descriptions of them as purveyors of titillation and gossip. Both titles are well-known for their sensational, often intrusive stories about celebrities, politicians and other high-profile figures, but Murdoch sought to characterize them as nobler publications dedicated to promoting the public good.

When the examining lawyer prefaced a pointed question with the comment “some people might say,” a peevish Murdoch snapped back: “People like you.” He quickly said he wished to withdraw the remark.

Murdoch acknowledged that the hacking scandal and the public opprobrium directed at News Corp. forced him to abandon his cherished bid to take over broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting last summer.

He expressed dismay that News International, the British arm of his company, had been obstructive during the investigation into phone hacking and other alleged wrongdoing at News of the World. He blamed misguided employees within the organization.

“There’s no question in my mind that maybe even the editor, but certainly beyond that -- someone took charge of a cover-up -- which we were victim to and I regret,” Murdoch said.

And he apologized to News of the World employees who now find themselves out of work.

“I’m guilty of not having paid enough attention to the News of the World," he said. "It was an omission by me, and all I can do is apologize to a lot of people, including all the innocent people in the News of the World who lost their jobs.”

Murdoch wrapped up his testimony early Thursday afternoon.

RELATED:

British police arrest 6 in phone hacking scandal

Murdoch son tells of contacts with British officials on BSkyB bid

Rupert Murdoch tells British court his political clout is overstated

-- Henry Chu

Photo: Rupert Murdoch, left, looks to his wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, as they are driven from The Royal Courts of Justice after he gave evidence to The Leveson Inquiry on Thursday in London. Credit: Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images

Rupert Murdoch dishes on senior British politicians

 
LONDON -- Gordon Brown seems unbalanced. David Cameron is a “good family man.” Alex Salmond is amusing.

Those are media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s judgments of three of Britain’s most senior politicians -- a former prime minister, the current one and Scotland’s top leader, respectively -- delivered Wednesday during testimony before a British judicial investigation into media ethics.

Murdoch spent about four hours being quizzed on his role as one of Britain’s biggest newspaper proprietors and the power that comes with the job. Despite hobnobbing with prime ministers who crave endorsement from newspapers like the mass-market Sun, Murdoch stated with no apparent irony that he had never wielded any supposed influence in any way to benefit himself or his commercial interests.

“That is a complete myth, that I used the influence of the Sun or supposed political power to get favorable treatment,” he testified, dismissing plenty of indications and reams of criticism to the contrary.

The head of media giant News Corp. did, however, acknowledge that he has met with virtually every British premier of the last 30 years. He professed to be an admirer of Margaret Thatcher (who approved his bid to buy the Times of London) and to have spoken on many occasions with Tony Blair (whose participation in the invasion of Iraq he heartily supported).

Blair flew halfway around the world to try to win Murdoch’s backing for his Labor Party before elections in 1997 -- successfully, it turned out. Cameron, too, flew out to meet Murdoch and ingratiate himself.

Murdoch said he once met Cameron at a social gathering, where he noticed approvingly that Cameron took good care of his young son. About Cameron’s predecessor, Brown, he was less flattering, describing the former prime minister as an ill-tempered, unbalanced man who pledged “to make war” on News Corp. when Murdoch said his papers would call for a change of government at the next election.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry about that, Gordon, thank you for calling.’ End of subject,” Murdoch told the court.

Murdoch is to take the stand again Thursday. The examining lawyer is expected ask him about the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked his media empire and that sparked the judicial inquiry now underway.

Murdoch is also expected to face questions about News Corp.’s controversial bid to take over British Sky Broadcasting. Evidence that emerged at the inquiry Tuesday has caused a political furor over possibly improper conduct by the government minister in charge of deciding whether the bid was permissible under anti-monopoly rules. The minister, Jeremy Hunt, was supposed to be impartial but is now accused of secretly siding with Murdoch.

RELATED:

British police arrest 6 in phone hacking scandal

Murdoch son tells of contacts with British officials on BSkyB bid

James Murdoch steps down as chairman of British Sky Broadcasting

-- Henry Chu

Rupert Murdoch testifies, says phone hacking is 'lazy' journalism

LONDON -- Media baron Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday scoffed at suggestions that he wields undue political influence in Britain, called critics of tabloids "elitist" and dismissed phone hacking as "a lazy way" for reporters to do their jobs.

In a London courtroom, the 81-year-old tycoon insisted that he tried "very hard to set an example of ethical behavior," despite the fact that dozens of journalists at his British newspapers have been arrested in wide-ranging investigations into illegal news-gathering practices, including bribing police.

Murdoch spoke under oath at a judicial inquiry into media ethics that was set up because of the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed his giant News Corp. and shaken the British political establishment.

Even as he sat in the witness box, testimony from his son James on Tuesday was causing a political ruckus. A special advisor to the government minister in charge of the arts and media resigned because of revelations that he had passed sensitive information to James Murdoch's lobbyist on News Corp.'s controversial bid to take over British Sky Broadcasting.

The minister, Jeremy Hunt, is under heavy pressure to explain the lapse in his office. He is also under fire for appearing to be secretly working to help News Corp.'s bid, even though he was appointed as the officially impartial judge of whether the takeover bid could proceed under Britain's anti-monopoly rules.

Rupert Murdoch is likely to be questioned later Wednesday about the bid and about the hacking scandal.

During the morning session in court, he said he did not condone phone hacking or the hiring of private investigators to ferret out information, two tactics used on an almost industrial scale at the News of the World, the tabloid at the center of the scandal.

"It's a lazy way of reporters not doing their job properly," said Murdoch, who summarily shut down the weekly paper last July, when the hacking scandal broke wide open.

He also downplayed what critics call the excessive and baleful influence he holds on public life in Britain through his media holdings. British prime ministers have eagerly courted Murdoch over the last 30 years, a situation he said he never used to his direct advantage.

"I've never asked a prime minister for anything," he testified.

He also denied trying to advance his commercial interests through his newspapers, which in Britain include the Times of London and the bestselling Sun tabloid.

Murdoch summed up his journalistic mission this way: "Always to tell the truth, certainly to interest the public, to get their attention, but always to tell the truth ... I have great respect for the British public, and I try to carry that through."

RELATED:

British police arrest 6 in phone hacking scandal

Murdoch son tells of contacts with British officials on BSkyB bid

James Murdoch steps down as chairman of British Sky Broadcasting

-- Henry Chu

Photo: Media titan Rupert Murdoch testifies Wednesday at a British judicial inquiry into media ethics. Credit: Associated Press

James Murdoch testifies about contact with British politicians

LONDON -- The media empire of Rupert Murdoch had extensive and possibly inappropriate contacts with leading British politicians at a time when his giant News Corp. was mounting a takeover bid of broadcaster BSkyB, according to evidence placed before a judge Tuesday.

News Corp. executives, including Murdoch's son James, were in regular communication with the office of Jeremy Hunt, the government minister in charge of deciding whether the bid to buy BSkyB was permissible under anti-monopoly rules. According to evidence presented by the lead lawyer in a judge-led inquiry into media ethics, Hunt's office passed on tidbits and comments by Hunt to News Corp., which critics say could be improper inside information. 

The revelations came during a full day of testimony by James Murdoch before the inquiry, which was launched in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked News Corp. and shaken Britain’s political establishment. 

The younger Murdoch began his testimony Tuesday by insisting he had no idea how widespread the practice of intercepting private voicemails was at the News of the World, the sensation-seeking tabloid that tapped into the cellphone of a kidnapped teenager who was later found slain. Police say that potentially hundreds of people had their phones illegally hacked into by the News of the World.

Murdoch also testified that he met Prime Minister David Cameron on a dozen occasions, some of them social ones. Murdoch sought to downplay those contacts, which occurred before and after Cameron became prime minister.

"I haven't actually spent that much time with politicians personally," said Murdoch, whose father has been a regular guest of British prime ministers going back a quarter of a century.

During at least one of the meetings with Cameron, Murdoch acknowledged, he and the prime minister had a "tiny side conversation" about News Corp.'s bid for BSkyB. But, Murdoch said, it did not amount to an actual discussion of the issue.

More extensive was Murdoch's contact with Hunt's office, which briefed an advisor to Murdoch about Hunt's favorable stand on aspects of News Corp.'s BSkyB bid. Hunt is the government's media and culture secretary, and was eventually chosen to rule impartially on the BSkyB bid. Murdoch rejected the suggestion that the communications were "covert" or improper, and insisted that Hunt had acted within strict legal parameters every step of the way regarding the bid.

News Corp. withdrew the bid last summer at the height of the phone-hacking scandal, putting on ice Rupert Murdoch's long-held ambition to own the broadcaster.

James Murdoch said his company engaged in aboveboard lobbying of politicians. Though mostly composed throughout his testimony, he grew visibly angry at suggestions that News Corp.'s British newspapers, such as the widely read tabloid the Sun, supported particular British politicians in exchange for their support for the BSkyB takeover bid.

"The question of support of an individual newspaper for politicians one way or another is not something that I would ever link to a commercial transaction like this," Murdoch said. "Nor would I expect ... political support one way or another ever to translate into a minister behaving in an inappropriate way -– ever. I simply wouldn’t do business that way."

RELATED:

James Murdoch resigns as BSkyB chairman

Lawyer says British phone-hacking scandal could spread to the U.S.

James Murdoch insists he was unaware of widespread phone hacking

-- Henry Chu

Photo: James Murdoch is sworn in to testify at a judge-led hearing on media standards in London on Tuesday. Credit: Agence France-Presse