Milly Dowler phone hacking: Cameron condemns News of the World

PM calls phone-hacking revelation ‘shocking’ and ‘a truly dreadful act’ as police reportedly meet News of the World chiefs Pressure is growing on News International after the prime minister joined in condemnation of the News of the World over the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone . David Cameron said it was a “truly dreadful act” and urged police to “pursue this in the most vigorous way”. Police are due to meet with senior executives from News International on Tuesday morning, according to reports, with the role of Rebekah Brooks, editor of the News of the World at the time of the hacking, coming under increasing scrutiny. The current News International chief executive has insisted she will not resign. Speaking at a press conference in Afghanistan, Cameron said of the Guardian’s reports that the News of the World illegally targeted Milly Dowler and her family: “If they are true this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation. “What I’ve read in the papers is quite shocking, that someone could do this knowing that the police were trying to find this person and find out what happened. “There is a police investigation into hacking allegations … they should investigate this without any fear, without any favour, without any worry about where the evidence should lead them. “They should pursue this in the most vigorous way that they can in order to get to the truth of what happened. “That is the absolute priority as a police investigation.” The BBC reported that police are to meet News of the World executives at 9.30am to discuss the phone hacking, although the Metropolitan police would not confirm the meeting. The BBC’s business editor, Robert Peston, wrote on his blog that Brooks “is not planning to resign”. Brooks was editor of the News of the World when the hacking took place, with Andy Coulson as her deputy. Coulson resigned as the prime minister’s media adviser in January. Peston quoted a News International executive as saying Rupert Murdoch “is backing [Brooks] 100%”. Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott said on Twitter that he would write to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, demanding he block News Corp’s bid to take full control of pay-TV company BSkyB following the revelations about Dowler. However, John Whittingdale, the chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that phone hacking at the News of the World should not taint the rest of Rupert Murdoch’s empire. “You cannot necessarily condemn the entire of News Corp just because of the actions of some individuals in another part of the organisation,” he said. “News International is a part of News Corp but it’s a different part. News Corp is a global enterprise and I don’t think one should condemn the entire organisation because something very clearly was going wrong in the News of the World.” When Today presenter Evan Davies pointed out to the Conservative MP that News International had denied wrongdoings at the News of the World despite having evidence that could suggest hacking was ongoing, Whittingdale responded: “Well, they denied it to my committee.” He added: “We were told that a thorough investigation had been carried out which had produced no evidence. Now, even at that time we expressed considerable doubts as to whether or not that investigation was thorough. “I think now we can almost certainly conclude that it wasn’t, and those are questions which still need to be addressed.” Labour has already called for an independent inquiry into journalistic practices at the newspaper. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the newspaper’s actions were “despicable” and called for a wide-ranging inquiry. “Everyone across the country will be deeply disturbed and horrified at this shocking news,” Cooper said. “The idea that private investigators working for a newspaper would hack into the phone of a missing 13-year-old girl is truly despicable.” Labour MP Tom Watson called on Monday for the prime minister to act over the phone hacking, but also laid some of the blame on his own party leader. “Surely now we should hear from David Cameron and Ed Miliband,” Watson said. “It’s utterly disgraceful that they’ve let this scandal run on for as long as it has. No more cowardice – we want action.” Miliband later said he was “shocked by the news of the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone”. He added: “It beggars belief that anyone would undertake such a cruel and immoral act. “The police inquiry must get to the bottom of who was responsible for this and who was complicit in it.” Detectives from Scotland Yard’s new inquiry into phone hacking, Operation Weeting, are believed to have found evidence of the targeting of the Dowlers in a collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for phone hacking on behalf of the News of the World. In the last four weeks Met officers have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those involved in the original inquiry, who were concerned about how News of the World journalists intercepted – and deleted – the voicemail messages of Milly Dowler. The messages were deleted by journalists in the first few days after Milly’s disappearance to free up space for more messages. As a result friends and relatives of Milly concluded wrongly she might still be alive. Police also feared evidence may have been destroyed. Milly Dowler Phone hacking Crime News Corporation Media business News International Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News of the World Rebekah Brooks Andy Coulson David Cameron John Prescott Privacy Privacy & the media Adam Gabbatt Nick Davies Amelia Hill guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.