The zenith of Rupert Murdoch's extraordinary international power is now behind him, forever, along with his personal influence over the governments of sovereign nations. This was a man who threw millions of dollars at a campaign to see a reduction in penalties under the US's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an anti-bribery law which allows for the imposition of fines and imprisonment on any US corporation and responsible individuals within it found to have paid bribes to officials in a foreign country. Now payments made by News International to Metropolitan Police officers could leave News Corp - and James Murdoch, possibly even Rupert Murdoch - facing the possibility of prosecution in the US. And the claim by actor Jude Law that his voicemail was intercepted after he arrived at JFK airport on a trip to the States opens the way for News International to be prosecuted in America because his phone was operating on a US network. James Murdoch could also be prosecuted in Britain under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which outlaws the interception of communications. Rupert Murdoch also threw his weight behind the heavy and effective lobbying of the UK government over Clause 77 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. This increased penalties for offences against the 1998 Data Protection Act from a maximum fine of £5,000 in a magistrates court to a maximum of two years' imprisonment - a far greater deterrent to criminally minded journalists. Gordon Brown, then prime minister, whom the Sun newspaper still maintained they supported, caved in quickly and the clause, while not entirely removed from the bill, was suspended and relegated to the status of a mere order-making power, which simply allows the Justice Secretary the power to ask Parliament (and other interested parties) at some later date if they want it activated, for which they have to vote all over again. It's clear now that Rupert Murdoch will never again be as potent as he was just 15 days ago, before it was revealed that one of his papers had ordered the cynical hacking of a missing girl's phone - a missing girl who, it subsequently emerged, had already been murdered. He was prompted to fly from New York to London to sort out the mess, only to oversee the catastrophic meltdown of an empire he took almost 60 years to build. The chain of events that has led to a firestorm at the heart of the world's most influential media empire is extraordinary in the banality and almost total insignificance of its origins. On November 6, 2005, a small item appeared in the News of the World at the top of 'Royal Editor' Clive Goodman's column. It wasn't a big piece - not really news at all - but a snippet of personal, private tittle-tattle that may have pleased those readers who were ready to gobble up every trivial morsel about the intimate lives of the British royal family. Prince William, they learned, had pulled a tendon in his knee. He had seen Prince Charles's personal doctor and was now having physiotherapy at Cirencester hospital. The story was innocuous enough; but it should not, under any circumstances, have been there. The staff at Prince Charles's office in Clarence House had a very good idea of how it had got there. The police were informed, messages and articles monitored, until on August 6 2006, Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were arrested. This was by no means the first instance of the News of the World using illegal means of gathering 'news' - far from it - but it was the first to attract a police investigation, and the subsequent jailing of the two most junior individuals involved. This investigation would almost certainly not have been triggered had it not been for the Royal victims. We know now, for example that Gordon Taylor - a not very famous individual - had had his voicemail listened to by Mulcaire earlier in 2005 and that Mulcaire was given a contract to receive a bonus of £7,500 if his efforts delivered a story. But Taylor, president of the Professional Footballers' Association, discovered someone had been listening to messages left on his voicemail, and those of two assistants. He immediately instructed his Manchester solicitors to start proceedings against the paper for invasion of privacy, seeking appropriate damages. News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, legal boss Tom Crone, news editor Greg Miskiw, reporter Neville Thurlbeck and editor Andy Coulson all knew that a civil action presented a very real threat of nasty repercussions. Miskiw, closest to Mulcaire, was sent packing to Manchester to set up his own agency. (He is now being sought by police in Florida). Taylor was paid off with an alleged £700,000 and a gagging clause, eventually revealed in July 2009 by Nick Davies in the Guardian. The police knew all about this after raiding Mulcaire's office in 2006, and chose to put Taylor's name on Mulcaire's charge sheet as one of six additional sample victims, beyond the Clarence House staff (incidentally making the News International claim that Goodman was "a single, rogue reporter" look complete nonsense from the start). After several deliberately obfuscating inquiries by the Met and the paper itself, deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers's Operation Weeting has now unleashed a deluge of incriminating material that had been sat on by News International and the police since 11,000 documents were taken from Mulcaire's office. The sheer scale and extent of the paper's alleged criminal activity is only now coming to light, prompting the sensational arrest of Rebekah Brooks yesterday, and the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson, which must surely close the door permanently on any effective exit strategies planned by News Corp and its maverick, swashbuckling, octogenarian proprietor. • Peter Burden is the author of News of the world? Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings. He is due to appear tonight in BBC TV's Panorama programnme about the phone-hacking scandal. Murdoch empire: 60 years to build, 15 days to ruin
The departures of Brooks and Stephenson suggest there are no exit strategies left for Rupert Murdoch
Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/81796,news-comment,news-politics,rupert-murdoch-empire-60-years-to-build-15-days-to-ruin,2#ixzz1STcIUcZJ
Monday, 18 July 2011
LAST UPDATED 7:57 AM, JULY 18, 2011
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