New media covering old: crowd-funding the trial of Neil Wallis – Martin Hickman

Probably the most important trial, along side that of Andy Coulson, which begins on Wednesday June 3. Support Independent veteran Martin Hickman on Byline to cover this key trial about News of the World.

Inforrm's Blog

One of the most interesting court cases for followers of the phone hacking scandal is about to begin. Neil Wallis, one of the biggest figures in tabloid journalism, goes on trial at the Old Bailey next week (3 June 2015) accused of conspiring to intercept the phone messages of newsworthy individuals.

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Crowd Funding: Reporting the Coulson Perjury Trial – James Doleman

Half way there in just a day: do chip in to send James Doleman to court tomorrow. He deserves it.

Inforrm's Blog

A year before the News of the World phone-hacking scandal exploded in 2011 with the news that the paper’s employees had intercepted the messages of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, the paper’s former editor Andy Coulson was called as a witness at Glasgow High Court at the trial of Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan.

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URGENT: support independent Andy Coulson Phone Hacking Trial Coverage

What more can I say? Please support this crowdfunded initiate to provide accurate coverage of a trial that could be just as sensational at the Hacking Trial.

Accurate, comprehensive reporting of the perjury trial of the PM’s former Director of Communications

A year before the News of the World phone-hacking scandal exploded in 2011 with the news that the paper’s employees had intercepted the messages of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, the paper’s former editor Andy Coulson was called as a witness at Glasgow High Court at the trial of Scottish politicial Tommy Sheridan. During his testimony Coulson, who was then working for Prime Minister David Cameron, denied any knowlege of phone-hacking while he was editing the now-defunct tabloid. However after new information emerged Coulson was arrested by Scottish police and now faces charges of lying to a jury, which could lead to a prison sentence.

The trial will not be simply a re-run of the marathon London case – new evidence and new witnesses are expected to shine further light on one of the biggest scandals in British newspaper history. While the case will be covered by the press, we intend to provide the most detailed and accurate reporting possible with twice-daily summaries of evidence and live reporting of key developments from court. If you are interested in newspapers, politics or just the drama of a high profile court case, Byline will be the place to find it.

James Doleman is seeking £500 pounds per week to provide full coverage of the trial. The trial should take between 4-6 weeks, so it will cost a minimum of £2000. He will be filing two detailed reports per day and live-Tweeting as well, so backers will really be getting their money’s worth.

via Andy Coulson Phone Hacking Trial Coverage.

#Milfandom or how the press found out if a 17 year old scares easily

Philosophical Politics

“The News of the World” scandal explodes at UK press. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the UK General Election campaign of 2015, a 17 year old learned about the UK media’s unpleasant behavior as guardian of the public domain. The 17 year old helped to start the Twitter trend called #Milfandom, to counter the negative stories about Ed Miliband. She did what many fans do for their favorite celebrities and sports stars, except this time it was for a politician. As this challenged the tabloid’s stories directly, they become interested. They quickly identified her and sought an interview. [1] Even though some people were surprised at how quickly the press identified her, it is not surprising.[2] The media are trained in tools and techniques to find people on social media.[3]

What price do we pay to be a citizen?

What this episode teaches us is that there is a…

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Late News

Hello to Jason Isaacs...

Brilliant discussion with Annie this lunchtime about the role of the media. Lots for me to take in and regurgitate for you guys. All good. Expect a post or two tomorrow… however, for now, you might want to cast your eyes over this excellent little article on Politico.eu: The Press Has Lost It. If you wanted to make the link between Murdoch and the politics of The Sun, you’d be hard pressed to find a better quotation to explain the reason than this one:

Miliband was the first to call for the resignation of Murdoch’s British CEO, Rebekah Brooks, and for News Corp’s billion dollar bid for the remaining shares in BSkyB to be withdrawn.

This knowledge goes a long way to explain why the English edition has supported the Tories:

…while the Scottish edition has supported the SNP:

In essence, neither supports Labour… can you — having…

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Why the Mirror Group can’t cover the Daniel Morgan Murder: more connections to the ‘criminal media nexus’ – Press Gang

The Press Gang have another exclusive on the Mirror Group’s involvement in the dark arts, which has recently been exposed in ongoing civil cases into phone hacking.

But as I’ve discovered over the past few years, phone hacking is only the more benign tip of a much larger murkier iceberg of illegal story gathering, surveillance, burglary and police bribes, which ultimately leads back to the Murder of Daniel Morgan.

Not so long ago, at a press event with Alastair Morgan, a senior Mirror journalist said they could never cover Daniel’s murder and the police cover-up for “political reasons.”

There’s a political reason a major newspaper group can’t cover the most investigated unsolved murder in British criminal history? 

Below is just a snippet from the full article. But read the rest of it here to understand why