God, those NoW journos were utter scum weren't they?

[headfairy]

apparently by deleting Milly's messages her family still had some hope that she might still be alive

Terrible Triplets, instructions here

about time that paper was banned,i can kind of understand, although dont agree with them hacking in the phone and listening to messages, but to have the gall to deleted the messages, well beyond words really

and bloody page three in 2011 yuk

anyone want to sign the petition protesting Murdoch takeover of the rest of BSkyB here

I read The Times, I will stop.

(thanks Slug!)

i don't often swear on MN but
what utter fucking bastards

just horrendous

but isn't there some responsibility on the part of the readers here?

The hacking of Milly Dowler's phone is despicable, that is not in question. But the reality is that this phone hacking scandal has been ongoing for years, and you have to question why there is a need for journalists to go to such lengths to gain a story, and the answer is very clear - because people are prepared to pay money to read about the findings.

People are outraged over this particular story, but there hasn't been much outrage before this has there? And the reason for that is that people who read these types of papers are generally indifferent to where the information comes from - where it comes from is irelevant to them just as long as they get to see it.

If there wasn't a market for this kind of writing in the first place then the papers (and I don't believe for a second that the NOTW is alone in this) wouldn't feel the need to go to such lengths to obtain the information.

Rebekah has said that she is shocked. I do not believe her. Why did she not testify before the HoC committee? Why were members of the HoC committee warned that if they subpoened her, they would have their private lives, and those of their families raked over?

So, that was why. I remember it being in the news at the time that they thought Milly might still be alive, because voicemails had been deleted!

Bs!

I am horrified by this and I hope they will be charged with tampering with the evidence in a murder enquiry. How has this got to a stage where the police and the politicians are all in the pocket of Murdoch?

Rebekah is being protected.

If anyone's contemplating getting rid of Sky but wondering about reception problems with analogue/digital, we ended going with what used to be Tiscali as you get tv through your phoneline (so no need for Virgin cable etc.). It's not a particularly brilliant service (I think probably inferior to Sky) but if you're a Murdoch-boycotter it's an option, I suppose.

The Tories are so far into this that nothing will ever be done.

Andy Coulson became Cameron's advisor and that was after the whole phone hacking scandal. Have you ever wondered how all these MP 'leaks' come about? The leak of Christopher Shale's report?

Rupert Murdoch is one of the Conservative party's biggest donater. Links between him and the Tories have already been criticised, especially after he had a private meeting with the Culture Secretary just after they announced their BSkyB offer.

If you want to take this all the way to the top then start looking at Cameron and his cronies. It is common knowledge what the NoW were up to, which is why Coulson got such a perky job after he resigned from the NoW in the wake of the scandal.

Nothing will be done about it.

I have boycotted Murdoch and his corrupt empire for years. I hate the fact that he even owns the Times Edd Supp ( I am in education).

The Sun won the Kinnock/Major election and since then Murdoch has been in bed with every single PM. When he switched his allegiance from New Labour to Conservatives in about 2009 everyone knew it was over for labour.

Then Cameron appoints Andy Coulson as his head of comms.

Do we have any moral compass left? are these people any better than the lawyers who ripped Milly Dowler's parents to pieces in court ? are they? or are they worse?

But as this unfolds it will get a lot worse. There will be corrupt police officers involved who sell info for cash. News International is swimming in money. So, so many people want a piece. They will fuck anyone over for it - including a murdered child and her destroyed parents. For filthy lucre.

People who say they would boycott the NOTW and The Sun, if only they read them in the first place, really should boycott the whole News International package. This includes The Times, The Sunday Times and Sky.

Together, The Times, Sunday Times, Sky TV, The Sun and News of The World are a big incestuous family. Journalists start out in the tabloid papers, then graduate onto the broadsheets, or step left into Sky TV. They are governed by the same people, and owned by the same one man, Murdoch.

I know because I used to work for the News International tabloids. I think everyoe complaining about this should put their money where their mouth is and boycott The Sunday Times, Britain's best-selling Sunday newspaper.

To show the influence of Murdoch press, here are the ABC UK newspaper daily circulation figures for May (most recent available, source www.pressgazette.co.uk/section.asp?navcode=161). I've rounded up the figures

These figures only show how many newspapers are sold every day. For the tabloids and Sunday papers, and possibly daily broadsheets, they estimate that each copy is read by around 4 or 5 people in a family or at a place of work. So daily readership for The Sun would be around 10 million. Not counting online readers - currently around 5 million per day.

The Sun - 2.8 million copies sold.
The Mail - 2 million
The Mirror - 1.1 million
The Times - 446,000
The Guardian - 262,000
The Telegraph - 635,000

The News of the World - 2.6 million
Mail on Sunday - 1.9 million
Sunday Mirror - 1.8 million
The Sunday Times - 1 million
Sunday Telegraph - 480,000
The Observer - 293,000

Those in bold are Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, equalling a total of over 3 million papers sold (and over 10 million read) Monday to Saturday, and 3.6 million papers sold every Sunday with approx 14 million people reading them every Sunday. Plus millions more reading the websites, and many many millions more watching his Sky TV. And that's just in the UK.

There is a big problem here with the total lack of ethics from NOTW, and also with those at BT, in our police force and other organisations who have given NOTW confidential information in exchange for cash.

But I believe that the biggest problem is that one man has more influence over British citizens (and therefore the British government) than any other alive today.

does this mean an end to Mumsnet taking money from Sky as well? There's the product testing, advertising and competitions in partnership with them at present.

I really think the bSkyB takeover should be put on hold or quashed alltogether whilst this sorry mess is going on.

There was also a reference last night on Newsnight to hacking on the phones of family members of the victims of the Soham killings. It just gets worse.

Maybe MNHQ could start a campaign or a petition against the NOW.
I'm sure many mnetters would sign.

@NormanTebbit: why is Rebekah protected? Why should she not be subpoenaed? Why should MPs on the committee be intimidated by threats that their families will be exposed?

Completely fucking disgusting. Especially that they did this for no good reason whatsoever, apart from to get a grubbly little 'exlusive' to give some moronic NOTW readers something to wee themselves about in a greasy spoon one morning.

Those poor parents. I cannot imagine.

Was deleting those messages a perversion of the course of justice? I don't understand why they deleted them anyway, even to get their 'scoop'.

Rossetti - 'one big incestuous family' is right. Many people do not even realise the extent of the reach and influence of news international. I do not touch Sky, the Times, Sun etc. It isn't hard. And has anyone on this thread ever actually watched one minute of Fox News? no wonder the Tea Party is alive and kicking in the US. It is so dumbed down and partisan it is just unbelievable. This is exactly how a rampant nutjob like Donald Trump is actually taken seriously by lots of Americans as a Republican contender.

Murdoch hates the BBC with a vengeance and is out to bring it down. Are people asking why?

None of this is new, anyway. But at least it is becoming more public. Unless people vote with their feet , though, and refuse to give their money to news international it will continue. Wannabe is right on that score, people who buy these papers are complicit here.

Nick Davies' Flat Earth News covers a lot of the earlier revelations in the chapter "The Dark Arts" - and explains why some of the prosecutions weren't followed through.

He's the Guardian journo who gave evidence to the Commons committee, and the book is an excellent read generally - and bit of a revelation.

If Rebekah and Murdoch were hauled up to account for their paper's actions then it will be revealed just how many MPs also knew of this and even sanctioned it. And don't for one minute think that MPs have never requested that rival politicians phones be hacked. There is more corruption going on in Westminster than we can ever imagine.

Which is why this will never come to court. There's far too much at stake within the Tory party.

But they needn't fear as they own half the Justice system too.

TerribleTriplets, they deleted messages because her voicemail and inbox were full so they wanted to make room for more messages.

They were listening to heartfelt pleas from her parents begging her to get in touch, and then deleting them to make way for more.

The police saw the activity on the phone and told her parents, which led them all to believe that she was still alive and hiding out somewhere. Which is just what the NoW wanted as it meant that more people would leave messages begging her to return home. The police investigation then refocused, thinking that Milly had merely run away.

Rhubarb - I agree there are likely a lot of Tory bigwigs involved, specifically civil servants (at the top) but I don't think it will be confined to just the tories. There will be a lot of bent coppers involved and people in the legal system.

Every time I think of how they could actually do this I start to cry. Who woul dbe willing to fuck over a murdered child? do these people have children? if I ever found out that my dad or mum had done this I would disown them then and there.

I would rather live in penury and filth that do that for cash. The term 'media whore' has never been more appropriate.