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The return of the phone hacking scandal

17/03/2013

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While the the attention of the media and the political world is on David Cameron and his manoeuvring over press self-regulation, sensational new twists in the story that got the whole controversy started are being overshadowed.

Phone hacking is back, with a vengeance.

Once upon a time there was supposedly a single rogue reporter at the News of the World. Then the alleged Glenn Mulcaire conspiracy at the same paper was revealed, with its 1,000 or more victims and dozens of arrests. Now the police are investigating not one but two more alleged conspiracies, and by the looks of it they are big.

One of the new investigations concerns the features desk of the News of the World (as opposed to the newsdesk, which had previously been implicated). According to the Guardian this new operation may lead to ‘some hundreds of new legal actions’ against Rupert Murdoch’s News International. That is equivalent in scale to the litigation associated with the Mulcaire investigation.

The other new police operation involves alleged mobile phone hacking at papers in the Mirror group, and it has so far led to the arrests of two former editors, one serving editor, a deputy editor and a former deputy editor.

More information about these new alleged conspiracies is likely to emerge tomorrow morning in a hearing before Mr Justice Geoffrey Vos, the High Court judge who has presided over civil cases in relation to hacking for three years.

And on Monday evening MPs and peers will vote on whether to implement Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations on press self-regulation.

The current press regulation system is what allowed atrocities like phone hacking to occur. With Cameron's Charter their system could be preserved. Please write to your MP asking them to vote against Cameron's Royal Charter in tomorrow's vote.

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