Phone tapping: why the investigation should continue – from a South Devon MP who was on the Select Committee

By Adrian Sanders, on Thursday, September 9, 2010

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders was on the Select Committee which investigated the News of the World’s aquisition of information. Here he explains the importance of the issues, and why the investigation needs to continue…

Two people working for the most powerful media corporation on the planet are jailed for the illegal hacking of phones belonging to members of the Royal Family, but suspicions remain that more people were involved in illegal information gathering and that hundreds of celebrities, sports people, politicians and trade unionists were victims; that people who knew about this were paid off to keep quiet; that the Metropolitan Police were either complacent, incompetent or complicit, and one of the key players who may know the secrets unearthed by the hackers, now works alongside the Prime Minister enjoying his protection. Meanwhile a small group of MPs, some of whom have been subjected to defamatory remarks while pursuing the truth, continue to ask questions, but can they persuade the one person who could instigate a proper enquiry to do so, in order to draw a line under the issue?

Sounds like the synopsis for a novel, but the story is real and is being played out as we speak.

If you have seen the numerous articles and reports about the Prime Minister’s press advisor, Andy Coulson, who was the Editor of the News of the World during part of the time when illegal information gathering exercises were taking place, then you will recognise the story.

My concern is that the Labour Party’s ‘political’ attacks on him are diverting attention from potential abuses of power by the Metropolitan Police and persons within News International, of whom Mr Coulson may, or may not, be just one.

One of the reasons I am a Liberal is because of the Party’s historic mission to hold to account those who exercise power and influence over our lives. The ‘phone hacking scandal’ is an example of the misuse of power by News International that the convictions of two people should have brought to an end, but questions remain about the involvement of others within the company and the use, or non use, of power by the Metropolitan Police, the Press Complaints Commission and possibly the Prime Minister’s office.

The Culture Media and Sport Select Committee of which I am a member as I was in the last Parliament took evidence last year from the Metropolitan Police, News International staff, both past and present, and others, as part of our investigation into press standards, privacy and libel. The allegations of illegal information gathering by the News of the World became a major part of our enquiry. I would recommend the report to anyone interested in how one part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire has obtained stories that enabled the News of World to continue its claim to be the World’s Biggest Selling Sunday. The report was a consequence of the longest and most detailed enquiry I have known in 13 years membership of the House, and I would particularly draw attention to this conclusion by the Committee:

In seeking to discover precisely who knew what among the staff of the News of the World we have questioned a number of present and former executives of News International.

Throughout we have repeatedly encountered an unwillingness to provide the detailed information that we sought, claims of ignorance or lack of recall, and deliberate obfuscation.

We strongly condemn this behaviour which reinforces the widely held impression that the press generally regard themselves as unaccountable and that News International in particular has sought to conceal the truth about what really occurred.

If that isn’t enough to suggest this matter needs further investigation then there are the people whose lives have been directly affected.

The involvement of the Metropolitan Police in this affair has also left many questions unanswered. My Lib Dem colleague, Brian Paddick, who stood as our London Mayoral Candidate, has felt the need to call for a Judicial Review of the Mets handling of the allegation that his phone had been hacked by newspapers when he was a serving Metropolitan police officer.

In committee we saw and heard evidence suggesting hundreds of people had information illegally taken from them which the police refuse to confirm, or to share what was taken with those named in documents seized during their investigations.

Imagine if personal information had been illegally taken from you. You would want to know what it was and who has it. You would worry about how it could be misinterpreted and how you could be misrepresented were it to be published at a later date.

It has taken an overseas newspaper, the New York Times, to bring this issue back into the spotlight with the publication of further allegations against News International employees and crucially, that key evidence was withheld from the Crown Prosecution Service.

As a committee, we failed to get to the truth, but then select committees do not have the powers of judicial bodies. It is my belief that only a Judicial Enquiry conducted under oath and in public will uncover the extent of the wrong-doing, identify those responsible, and obtain justice for those who fear, possibly unnecessarily, that details about their lives have been gathered and could be used to misrepresent them at a future date.

(image: tapped phone by Some rights reserved by RJL20)