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.

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

Barthsnotes | Peter Jukes Describes His Experiences with TabloidTroll

“So I’m now going to blog about @peterjukes & his family,” wrote Dennis Rice…

TabloidTroll wrote: “If @PeterJukes writes any shit on me in his book the gloves will really come off. Newsnight ex wife, business failures.” The fact the mother of my two children had been made a target was pretty disturbing.

UPDATE (January 2015): Peter Jukes’ book was originally published as a PDF in August 2014; it was subsequently revised and expanded for the print edition, which appeared in September. This blog entry has been updated to include extra material contained in the revised version, and to provide details of Rice’s complaint to IPSO.
Sections
Introduction
Dennis Rice as hacking victim
Dennis Rice turns on Peter Jukes
Peter Jukes “investigated”
Appendix 1: The anonymous texts
Appendix 2: Press Gazette and IPSO
Appendix 3: Is Rice TabloidTroll?
Appendix 4: Rice calls in the Police

What you Won’t Read in the Papers: James Doleman’s Smart Summation of three Sun trials so Far.

View image | gettyimages.com

After reporting from the Old Bailey for over 15 months now, covering various hacking and misconduct trials, James Doleman provides an insight which you might not see in mainstream media coverage

If you only read Britain’s best selling tabloid newspaper you would think that the last 6 months of Sun journalists appearing in the criminal courts have led to a total vindication for the paper and its version of journalistic ethics.

It is true that since August 2014 three separate  trials at London’s Old Bailey have found Sun reporters not guilty on various charges. Each acquittal was greeted with banner headlines in the paper proclaiming that the ordinary people on the jury had chosen to defend free speech against the police and the courts unjustly trying to silence the press. Yet a closer look at how each reporter defended themselves in court suggests there may have been other reasons for those jurys making their decisions.

Contrast the treatment of Mazher Mahmood to that of Tulisa Constavlos: via Press Gang

THE GOVERNMENT has declined to answer questions about a legal bid to stop the BBC Panorama exposé of Sun reporter Mazher Mahmood.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright tried to persuade the Corporation not to broadcast the investigation.

Wright is a political appointee and attends Cabinet.

No. 10 said it didn’t “comment on legal advice provided by law officers.”

The BBC ignored the pressure and transmitted the “Fake Sheik: Exposed” programme on November 12.

Another public body, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is refusing to answer an allegation that it gave out false information about the case.

Sources claim CPS officials said at the end of October that a charging decision on Mahmood was due within two weeks.

Today, two months later, no decision has been announced …

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police have been treating Mahmood himself with kid gloves.

Press Gang has learnt detectives from Operation Silverhawk — the investigation into Mahmood’s false testimony in the Tulisa Contostavlos trial last July — decided not to arrest him.

Instead, officers arranged an appointment with him and his lawyer.

He was interviewed under caution.

No warrant was sought to search his home in West London.

Mahmood’s “kid glove” treatment is in stark contrast to the “iron fist” used for Contostavlos.

She was arrested just two days after he published an article accusing her of conspiracy to supply drugs.

Her arrest — based solely on Mahmood’s evidence — took place by appointment at a police station.

Police also obtained a warrant and searched her home.

via NUMBER 10 SILENT ON “FAKE SHEIK” INTERVENTION | PRESS GANG.

WITHERING HEIGHTS | PRESS GANG

LAST NIGHT Press Gang finally clarified the exact nature of the police investigation into Mazher Mahmood.

In a statement the Met told us its inquiry into Mahmood — known as Operation Silverhawk — was concerned only with the Tulisa Contostavlos trial.

The investigation, by the Special Enquiry Team of the Specialist Crime and Operations division, is not looking at any other cases:

” … at this stage the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] has not been asked to investigate any further matters.”

Asked if Mahmood had been questioned, the spokesperson added:

“We do not discuss the identity of people interviewed under caution.”

Yesterday the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed that three planned criminal trials with Mahmood as a key witness had been abandoned.

The CPS also identified a further historical 25 cases where criminal convictions secured as a result of evidence provided by Mahmood were open to challenge.

However, the Met statement makes it clear that Mahmood’s role is not being investigated in any of these cases.

In November 2012 we wrote to the Met to ask them to investigate our allegation of serial perjury by Mahmood in many of the criminal cases he gave evidence in.

The Met acknowledged the letter but never responded.

The Press Gang investigation into Mazher Mahmood continues …

via WITHERING HEIGHTS | PRESS GANG.

Did Coulson’s News of the World Incite Others to Crime and cause Unsafe Convictions?

More on the Fake Sheikh, the Police, and News of the World by occasional blogger @jpublik. Cross posted at Bellingcat. 

Andy Coulson‘s News of the World sent a man to jail after luring him to sell them drugs he was terrified of carrying by promising him a job. He was sentenced to four years in prison before his conviction – after he’d already served his time.

In a case which has hardly received any publicity, according to high court documents, Albanian Besnik Qema was asked to supply News of the World cocaine and a passport on a promise of job as security for a wealthy Arab family.

The High Court documents detail how in January 2005, Mazher Mahmood had asked Florim Gashi, a contact of his who he had used in previous “set-up” stings to find someone who could be implicated in a story he or the News of the World wanted to run about false passports, drugs and guns. Gashi then adopted the identity of a female called Aurora and through an internet chat room used by expatriate Albanians established contact with Qema.

The Fake Sheikh and Leveson – for reference

Another guest post to compliment the two by Joe Public, this time by occasional contributor and Leveson-expert Mr Ceebs – crossposted at Bellingcat

Several places have commented on things that Mazher Mahmood said in front of the Leveson Inquiry, but he was mentioned quite a bit more than that. In light of the collapse of the Tulisa Contostavlos trial it’s time we ran across all the other mentions in the evidence, some positive, some not so positive. Most of these are slightly large, and have to be to provide a level of context. The numbers at the beginning of paragraphs are the line numbers where individual questions or responses start, other line numbers have been deleted for space and readability reasons. I haven’t included his own evidence, as that is easy enough to find on the website. Here and here

In this week’s New Statesman | The end of the red-top era

THE NS PROFILE: REBEKAH BROOKS

The TV drama screenwriter, author and freelance journalist Peter Jukes, who live-tweeted all 138 days of the phone-hacking trial, considers the rise and fall of Rebekah Brooks and what her career tells us about power. For eight months, Jukes looked on as Brooks maintained extraordinary composure in the witness box. By the end of the trial, he notes, “it felt as if the whole courtroom had become her friend”.

Did Nobody Really Know Phone Hacking was Illegal? | Chris Brace

Another guest post by Chris Brace, AKA Mr Ceebs

In this week’s Mitigation statement by Mr Langdale on behalf of Andy Coulson, a long held point of evidence has come out that nobody realised that phone hacking was illegal. The implication has been that the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and the Computer Misuse act were some trifling little pieces of law, that nobody realised would actually apply to Journalists.

Here’s the relevant quote from Peter Jukes’ recording of the trial, found here 

“There are some features of this sorry affair which should be mentioned” says Langdale in terms of mitigation for Coulson.

“No one in the newspaper industry seems to have realised… interception of voicemail messages was illegal” says Langdale of 2000-2005

“It is a great pity it was not appreciated at the time” says Langdale of hacking “that it did not entail the commission of criminal offence”

“Mr Coulson took a cautious approach… and frequently sought and relied on legal advice” says Langdale. He also cites Surrey Police

But is that argument really tenable? Was RIPA something that had managed to avoid the finest Legal minds that Fleet Street possessed?