Les Hinton: I was right to say phone hacking was not rife

Former News International executive stands by his statement to parliament in 2009 despite having seen Clive Goodman letter Les Hinton, one of Rupert Murdoch’s key executives when phone hacking was taking place at the News of the World, has defended his decision to tell MPs two years ago there was no evidence the practice was rife. Appearing before the culture, media and sport select committee via satellite from the US, the former chairman of the News of the World’s UK parent News International said he had been right to tell parliament in 2009 that hacking was restricted to a single reporter. It has subsequently emerged that when Hinton gave that evidence, he had seen a letter sent in 2007 by the paper’s former royal editor Clive Goodman, which alleged hacking was widely discussed at the title during news meetings. “I don’t think I’d regard Mr Goodman’s letter as evidence of anything,” Hinton told MPs on Monday. “They were accusations and allegations.” Hinton insisted that the company “reacted very responsibly” to Goodman’s letter, which resulted in an enquiry by Harbottle & Lewis that found no evidence to support the reporter’s claims. Challenged about why he had told the same committee in September 2009 that NI had found nothing that indicated a “suspicion” of hacking – a phrasing that Paul Farrelly, the MP questioning Hinton, said should have encompassed the Goodman letter. In response, Hinton insisted his statement of two years ago had been “valid”. Hinton, who was executive chairman of NI until 2007, appeared to suggest he had not overseen two separate external investigations into the hacking allegations, by law firms Burton Copeland and Harbottle & Lewis, but had delegated them. He also repeatedly said he struggled to recollect events which happened up to four years ago. That prompted Labour MP Paul Farrelly to jokingly compare Hinton to a mushroom. “You seem to have been kept in the dark by a lot of people,” Farrelly said. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Les Hinton Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers James Robinson guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 24, 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.