Right here’s a have a look at the telephone hacking scandal in the UK. Journalists at British newspapers are accused of constructing funds to police and hacking into the telephones of celebrities, legislation makers, royalty, homicide victims and different figures within the information. Most circumstances contain Information Corp.’s Information of the World, however the Solar in addition to Mirror Group publications have additionally settled circumstances.
Timeline
November 2005 – British tabloid Information of the World (NoW) prints a narrative about Prince William injuring his knee, prompting royal officers to complain to the police of possible voicemail hacking.
August 2006 – NoW editor Clive Goodman and personal investigator Glenn Mulcaire are arrested for unlawful telephone hacking.
January 26, 2007 – Goodman and Mulcaire are convicted of conspiracy to hack into telephone voicemails of royals and are jailed. Andy Coulson, editor of NoW, claims to be unaware of hacking however nonetheless resigns.
Might 15, 2007 – The Press Complaints Fee says it discovered no proof of telephone hacking at NoW.
July 2007 – Goodman and Mulcaire sue NoW for wrongful dismissal. Goodman receives £80,000 and Mulcaire receives an undisclosed quantity.
Coulson is employed as director of communications for Conservative celebration chief David Cameron, who turns into UK prime minister in Might 2010.
June 2008 – Information Group Newspapers pays £700,000 to Gordon Taylor, chief government of the Skilled Footballers Affiliation, whose telephone was hacked by Mulcaire.
November 2009 – The Press Complaints Fee releases a report concluding that there is no such thing as a proof of continued telephone hacking.
March 2010 – Celeb public relations agent Max Clifford agrees to drop his lawsuit towards NoW for a fee of greater than £1 million.
September 2010 – Former NoW journalist Sean Hoare alleges that telephone hacking was a standard apply at NoW and inspired by Coulson.
January 21, 2011 – Coulson resigns as British Prime Minister Cameron’s spokesman resulting from protection of the telephone hacking scandal.
January 26, 2011 – British Metropolitan Police launch a brand new investigation into voicemail hacking allegations at NoW.
February 25, 2011 – The Excessive Court docket orders Mulcaire to disclose who requested him to hack telephones.
April 10, 2011 – NoW formally apologizes for hacking into voicemails from 2004 to 2006, establishing a compensation system for unnamed victims.
July 4, 2011 – It’s revealed that NoW journalists probably hacked into lacking teenager Milly Dowler’s voicemail in 2002 and deleted messages to free house, inflicting her dad and mom to consider she was nonetheless alive.
July 6, 2011 – Rupert Murdoch, proprietor of NoW, guarantees full cooperation with the investigation and calls the accusations towards NoW “deplorable and unacceptable.”
July 7, 2011 – Information Worldwide publicizes that the July 10 Sunday version of NoW would be the paper’s final.
July 8, 2011 – Coulson is arrested on claims regarding telephone hacking and corruption. Goodman, the paper’s former royal correspondent who served a four-month jail time period in 2007, can also be arrested on corruption allegations.
July 10, 2011 – The tabloid shuts down, issuing a full-page apology for the hacking scandal on web page three. The quilt says, “Thank You & Goodbye.”
July 13, 2011 – Information Corp. withdraws its bid to take over British satellite tv for pc broadcaster BSkyB, as Prime Minister Cameron publicizes a wide-ranging public inquiry into the British media.
July 14, 2011 – The FBI launches an investigation into the allegations that Information Corp. staff or associates hacked into telephones of 9/11 victims.
July 15, 2011 – Rebekah Brooks, Chief Govt Officer of Information Worldwide, resigns. Les Hinton, former Chairman Information Worldwide, resigns as head of the Dow Jones division of the Information Group Corp. and writer of the Wall Avenue Journal. He was Brooks’ predecessor at Information Worldwide.
July 16, 2011 – Murdoch points an apology for telephone hacking by way of full web page advertisements in seven nationwide newspapers.
July 17, 2011 – Brooks is arrested by London police on fees of suspicion of corruption and conspiring to intercept communications. She is launched on bail after 12 hours. Sir Paul Stephenson, Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the UK’s highes-ranking policeman, resigns amid the rising controversy and hypothesis that London police have been concerned within the telephone hacking scandal. This comes after revelations that former NoW government editor Neil Wallis later turned a communications guide for the police.
July 18, 2011 – Assistant Police Commissioner John Yates publicizes his resignation. Yates had dominated in 2009 to not reopen an investigation of telephone hacking by journalists. Home Secretary Theresa May publicizes that London’s police division will likely be investigated for corruption by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
July 19, 2011 – Murdoch, his son James Murdoch, and former NoW editor Brooks testify earlier than Parliament’s Tradition, Media and Sport Committee.
July 20, 2011 – Prime Minister Cameron addresses an emergency assembly to the Home of Commons regarding the telephone hacking scandal at Information Group Worldwide and his former communications director, Coulson.
July 21, 2011 – Colin Myler and Tom Crone, former prime executives of NoW, accuse James Murdoch of giving “mistaken” proof to a parliamentary committee a few settlement to Taylor.
August 20, 2011 – Mulcaire is ordered by the court docket to call who employed him to hack the telephones of Clifford, Taylor, Elle Macpherson, Simon Hughes, Sky Andrew and Jo Armstrong.
September 14, 2011 – Dozens of celebrities, together with Hugh Grant and J.K. Rowling, are given permission to take part in a top-level inquiry into telephone hacking by British journalists.
September 16, 2011 – Police in London have utilized for a court docket order below the Official Secrets and techniques Act to attempt to power the Guardian newspaper to disclose confidential sources who’ve supplied info on the phone-hacking scandal.
October 21, 2011 – Information Worldwide, writer of the previous NoW newspaper, agrees to pay £2 million — about US $3.2 million — to the household of Dowler. Additionally, Murdoch pays £1 million — about US $1.6 million — to charities chosen by the Dowler household.
October 25, 2011 – In a Information Corp. shareholders vote Murdoch retains his seat, nevertheless 14% of the vote is towards him. Murdoch’s sons, James Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch, lose their Board of Director seats.
November 14, 2011 – The Leveson Inquiry into journalistic tradition, practices and ethics opens in London. It is revealed that more than two dozen News International employees used the services of convicted phone hacker Mulcaire.
November 21, 2011 – The Leveson Inquiry begins hearing from witnesses, together with Grant and the mom of Dowler, within the hacking scandal and in different questionable practices.
November 23, 2011 – Gerry McCann and Kate McCann, the dad and mom of lacking toddler Madeleine McCann, testify earlier than the Leveson Inquiry.
November 24, 2011 – Celebrities Rowling, Sienna Miller and Max Mosley testify earlier than the Leveson Inquiry.
December 14, 2011 – Crone, a former NoW lawyer, testifies earlier than Parliament that James Murdoch was made conscious in June 2008 of the scope of the telephone hacking state of affairs.
December 20, 2011 – CNN host Piers Morgan, former editor of each NoW and the Every day Mirror, testifies concerning his precise data of the telephone hacking scandal involving Paul McCartney and Heather Mills.
February 8, 2012 – NoW’s writer pays out tens of 1000’s of kilos to settle lawsuits, together with £40,000 ($63,000) and authorized prices to actor Steve Coogan, £45,000 ($71,000) plus prices to Hughes, and £75,000 ($119,000) plus prices to sports activities agent Andrew. Former lawmaker George Galloway will get £25,000 ($40,000) plus prices. Alastair Campbell, who was communications director to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, will likely be paid prices and damages.
February 29, 2012 – James Murdoch offers up his title of government chairman of Information Corp’s UK publishing unit. He’ll maintain his company title as deputy chief working officer. The corporate says he’ll now deal with its pay tv companies and worldwide operations.
March 13, 2012 – UK police arrest six folks, together with former NoW editor Brooks. All six are arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice opposite to the Felony Regulation Act 1977.
April 3, 2012 – James Murdoch steps down as chairman of UK satellite tv for pc broadcaster BSkyB.
April 5, 2012 – John Ryley, the top of Sky Information, admits to authorizing journalists to hack into emails of personal residents. Sky Information is owned by Information Corp.
April 24, 2012 – James Murdoch testifies earlier than the Leveson Inquiry. He insists that he knew little concerning the scale of telephone hacking by folks working for NoW and he had no purpose to look into unlawful eavesdropping by his staff when he took over the corporate’s British newspaper subsidiary in December 2007.
April 26, 2012 – Rupert Murdoch admits on the Leveson Inquiry to the cover-up of telephone hacking at NoW and apologizes for not paying extra consideration to the scandal.
Might 1, 2012 – British lawmakers investigating telephone hacking at NoW declare that Murdoch isn’t a “match particular person to train the stewardship of a serious worldwide firm.”
Might 15, 2012 – Brooks and her husband, Charlie Brooks, are charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Might 28, 2012 – Blair seems earlier than the Leveson Inquiry and denies any query of an alleged deal between Murdoch and his workplace whereas prime minister.
June 14, 2012 – Prime Minister Cameron seems earlier than the Leveson Inquiry. He’s questioned about an October 7, 2009, textual content message from Brooks, despatched after the newspaper switched help to the Conservatives, and about his relationship with Brooks.
July 21, 2012 – A Information Worldwide spokesman says that Murdoch stepped down final week from various firm boards of administrators, each within the UK and the US.
July 24, 2012 – The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service says that eight folks will face a complete of 19 fees regarding telephone hacking: former NoW workers Coulson, Brooks, Greg Miskiw, Stuart Kuttner, Neville Thurlbeck, Ian Edmondson and James Weatherup are accused of conspiring to intercept communications, whereas personal investigator Mulcaire faces different fees. The accused deny the costs.
September 4, 2012 – The variety of probably victims jumps to greater than 1,000 folks, in accordance with the highest police officer engaged on the case.
November 20, 2012 – Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service publicizes that Brooks will likely be charged with conspiracy over alleged unlawful funds to a Ministry of Defence worker. In a separate case, Coulson will face fees of conspiring to make unlawful funds to officers for info regarding the royal household.
November 29, 2012 – Decide Brian Leveson recommends that the UK information business create its personal regulatory physique. He states that Parliament won’t create a physique to “regulate the press”.
February 8, 2013 – Information Worldwide settles 144 lawsuits associated to telephone hacking. Seven circumstances weren’t settled and are reportedly scheduled to go to trial in June.
March 18, 2013 – Siobhain McDonagh, Labour Half MP, accepts “very substantial damages” and an apology from the Solar for accessing textual content messages from her stolen cellular phone.
June 18, 2013 – Eunice Huthart, Angelina Jolie’s stunt double, sues Information Corp. for doable telephone hacking. That is the primary US lawsuit towards Information Corp.
October 28, 2013 – The trial of Brooks and Coulson begins.
October 30, 2013 – It’s revealed that former NoW staff Thurlbeck, Weatherup and Miskiw have pleaded responsible to telephone hacking.
January 31, 2014 – Miller testifies concerning an alleged affair with Daniel Craig, which is uncovered by a tabloid journalist who hacked Craig’s voice mail.
February 20, 2014 – The day Brooks is to take the stand for the primary time, the choose formally clears Brooks of one charge of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, in affiliation with {a photograph} of Prince William wearing a bikini at a fancy dress celebration that was acquired by the Solar newspaper. The 4 different counts towards Brooks nonetheless stand.
June 24, 2014 – Coulson is found guilty of conspiring to hack telephones between 2000 and 2006. Brooks, her husband Charlie Brooks and Kuttner are cleared of all fees towards them.
July 4, 2014 – After being discovered responsible of conspiracy, Coulson is sentenced to 18 months in jail. He’s launched in lower than 5 months.
April 17, 2015 – British prosecutors drop fees towards 9 defendants, together with Coulson, awaiting trial on fees they paid officers for info. This marks the top of prosecutions towards Coulson.
December 11, 2015 – The Crown Prosecution Service publicizes no additional motion will likely be taken of their investigation of the telephone hacking.
April 28, 2016 – A Excessive Court docket Decide guidelines that new telephone hackings claims towards the Solar newspaper can proceed.
January 2018 – Information Group settles 4 claims of telephone hacking stemming from the 2016 court docket ruling for undisclosed sums. The claimants are Jimmi Harkishin, Chris Herbert, Vic Reeves and Kate Thornton.
February 5, 2018 – Actor Hugh Grant settles a phone hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers, which owns the Every day Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday Individuals. The corporate had admitted all three newspapers had hacked into his voice mails.
September 27, 2018 – Information Group settles 16 claims. Claimants embody former boxer Frank Bruno and 6 stars of the present Coronation Avenue.
February 1, 2019 – Attorneys for Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Heather Mills and Fiona Mills launch an announcement that they’ve settled phone-hacking claims towards NoW.
Might 20, 2020 – Attorneys for actor Kris Marshall report that they’ve settled his phone-hacking declare towards NoW for an undisclosed quantity.
February 25, 2021 – Mirror Group Newspapers settles damages over telephone hacking claims from various celebrities together with actors Martin Clunes and David Walliams, issuing an apology and unspecified financial compensation.
March 4, 2021 – Information Group settles 13 claims. Claimants embody Nice British Bake Off star Noel Fielding and Coronation Avenue and Shameless actor Chris Bisson.
Main Gamers
Rupert Murdoch – Australian-born founder and CEO of Information Company Ltd., the father or mother firm of Information Worldwide. Information Worldwide owns the Solar, the Occasions and the Sunday Occasions within the UK. Murdoch’s holdings additionally embody Fox Information, the Wall Avenue Journal, the New York Submit and Harper Collins.
Rebekah Brooks – Former Chief Govt of Information Worldwide, editor of the NoW on the time that the alleged hackings occurred. Brooks resigned on July 15, 2011.
Andy Coulson – Most not too long ago Cameron’s communications chief and former editor of NoW, resigned after the 2007 conviction of Goodman and Mulcaire however claimed to not learn about hacking.
Clive Goodman – Former NoW’s royal editor, jailed for 4 months after being convicted of conspiracy to intercept telephone messages.
Glenn Mulcaire – Personal investigator jailed for six months after being convicted of conspiracy to intercept telephone messages.
Hugh Grant – Actor and hacking sufferer, requires complete inquiry into tabloid journalism in Britain.
Claims Paid (chosen)
Chris Bisson, actor – undisclosed quantity
Frank Bruno, boxer – undisclosed quantity
Charlotte Church, singer – £600,000
Martin Clunes, actor – undisclosed quantity
Household of Milly Dowler, murdered teenager – £2 million
Christopher Eccleston, actor – undisclosed quantity
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York – undisclosed quantity
Noel Fielding, actor – undisclosed quantity
Sadie Frost, ex-wife of Jude Regulation – £50,000
David Furnish, filmmaker – undisclosed quantity
Uri Geller, psychic – undisclosed quantity
Hugh Grant, actor – undisclosed quantity
Jimmi Harkishin, actor – undisclosed quantity
Gavin Henson, rugby participant – £40,000
Chris Herbert, supervisor – undisclosed quantity
Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat MP – £45,000
Elizabeth Hurley, actress – undisclosed quantity
Elton John, singer – undisclosed quantity
Jude Regulation, actor – £130,000
Kris Marshall, actor – undisclosed quantity
Sienna Miller, actress – £100,000
Heather Mills, ex-wife of Paul McCarthy – undisclosed quantity
Fiona Mills, sister of Heather Mills – undisclosed quantity
John Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister – £40,000
Vic Reeves, comic – undisclosed quantity
Kate Thornton, journalist – undisclosed quantity
David Walliams, actor – undisclosed quantity
