In the light of recent scandals such as the News of the World phone- hacking scandal, is the PCC a toothless tiger? By Andy Pirie, Craig Punfield, Chris Pitt and Tim Prescott

News of the World Published in the UK between At one time it was the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world. Sales averaged 2,606,397 copies per week in April Final print was produced on 10 th July.

The Victims Some of the high profile victims include: Ryan Giggs Jude Law Tony Blair Prince William Kate Middleton Wayne Rooney Boris Johnson

News International phone hacking scandal

Guardian’s Story On July 9 th 2009 The Guardian restarted the phone-hacking campaign. Also revealed News Int. paid to settle cases that threated to reveal practise. After exonerating the News of the World in 2006, the PCC came in for criticism.

What is the News International phone hacking scandal? The News International phone-hacking scandal is an on-going controversy involving mainly the News of the World but also other British tabloid newspapers published by News International.

What happened? Employees of the newspaper were accused of phone hacking, police bribery, and improper influence in the pursuit of publishing stories. Originally uncovered in 2005 but it was thought only celebrities, politicians and members of the royal family so didn’t have much of an impact with the public.

However in 2011the scandal re-appeared as it emerged that the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler had been hacked. The NOTW hacked into her phone and deleted voic messages after she had been abducted which gave her family hope that she had done this and she was still alive which wasn’t the case.

This along with the news that victims of the 7/7 London bombings and relatives of deceased soldiers phones had also been hacked led to an outcry of public anger.

Results of the Scandal July – November 2011 – 16 people Arrested including NOTW editors Andy Coulson, Rebekah Brooks and private detective Glenn Mulcaire. 6 th July 2011 – Leveson Inquiry looking into culture, practices and ethics of the British press set up. 7 th July 2011 – News of The World was closed down after 168 years

Results Continued 17th July, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and Britain's most senior police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson,resigned. He had faced criticism for hiring former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis as an advisor. 18 th July, Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates also resigned.

What happened? Employees of the newspaper were accused of phone hacking, police bribery, and improper influence in the pursuit of publishing stories. Originally uncovered in 2005 but it was thought only celebrities, politicians and members of the royal family so didn’t have much of an impact

PCC Statement In January 2011 the PCC released a statement. ‘Cannot comment on matters that are being properly investigated by police’ ‘Consider the new information that becomes available, and make recommendations to the Commission’

Leveson Inquiry

Background to the Leveson Inquiry The Prime Minister announced a two-part inquiry investigating the role of the press and police in the phone-hacking scandal, on 13 July Lord Justice Leveson was appointed as Chairman of the Inquiry. – The first part will examine the culture, practices and ethics of the media. In particular, Lord Justice Leveson will examine the relationship of the press with the public, police and politicians. – The Inquiry has been established under the Inquiries Act 2005 and has the power to summon witnesses. – It is expected that a range of witnesses, including newspaper reporters, management, proprietors, policemen and politicians of all parties will give evidence under oath and in public. It will make recommendations on the future of press regulation and governance consistent with maintaining freedom of the press and ensuring the highest ethical and professional standards.

Leveson Inquiry The Leveson Inquiry is an ongoing public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following the News of the World phone hacking scandal. All public hearings will be streamed live to websites as they happen. This will allow the public to have a first hand look at witnesses giving their evidence. Members of the public are welcome to attend these hearings.

Lord Justice Leveson’s Quotes Lord Justice Leveson opened the hearings on Monday 14 November 2011, saying: "The press provides an essential check on all aspects of public life. That is why any failure within the media affects all of us. At the heart of this Inquiry, therefore, may be one simple question: who guards the guardians?“ "In the first instance the inquiry will focus primarily on the relationship between the press and the public and the related issue of press regulation."

Quotes continued "The focus of the inquiry is the culture, practices and ethics of the press in the context of the latter's relationship with the public, the police and politicians." "At some stage there needs to be a discussion of what amounts to the public good, to what extent the public interest should be taken into account and by whom."

What could the PCC do? The PCC can enforce a range of sanctions, summarised below: negotiation of an agreed remedy (apology, published correction, amendment of records, removal of article); publication of a critical adjudication, which may be followed by public criticism of a title by the Chairman of the PCC; a letter of admonishment from the Chairman to the editor; follow-up from the PCC to ensure that changes are made to avoid repeat errors and to establish what steps (which may include disciplinary action, where appropriate) have been taken against those responsible for serious breaches of the Code; formal referral of an editor to their publisher for action.

Interesting Facts As of December 7 th, Glenn Mulcaire was the 18 th arrest following the latest wave of the scandal. Reported money received by Rebekah Brooks as a severance package - £3.5 million 11,000 pages regarding scandal were sitting in a Scotland Yard evidence room. Number of phone numbers listed in documents – 5000 landlines and 4000 mobiles Reported amount of money News International has paid to settle lawsuits – £2 million. 10 of the 45 press team at Scotland Yard used to work at News International.

Conclusion Acts of the PCC were weak. Despite the Guardian getting there first, the PCC took 6 years to set up a working group to investigate matters.

References hacking?INTCMP=SRCH&INTCMP=SRCH hacking/ /Phone-hacking-timeline-of-a-scandal.html html affair theworld-milly-dowler

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