Missing Milly Dowler's voicemail "hacked by News of the World"

[cybertect]

Sky News are broadcasting tomorrow's committee hearings live online

 

[weltweit]

thanks ....

 

[editor]

Sky News are broadcasting tomorrow's committee hearings live online

I'd feel dirty watching it on Sky.

 

[editor]

'Louise'

 

[cybertect]

'Louise'

We both posted that on different threads at the exact same moment, didn't we

 

[editor]

We both posted that on different threads at the exact same moment, didn't we

Yep! You posted it on the right thread, but I fancy mine was the most topical seeing as the previous post was about Sky News!

 

[gavman]

It's not a joking matter, smokedout. Maddie's parents could be tortured right now with untold fears, such as 'whether any attempts to hold her hostage/ransom her were deleted by a hack', as could a whole host of other victims' families who are unwillingly subjected to this dark scandal.

maddie's parents aren't whiter than white though, as far as much of the public are concerned they are potential suspects and deserve to be investigated

 

[gavman]

Which they would doubtlessly tell to any reputable newspaper for a nominal donation to the Maddie finding fund (NEXT YEAR IN THE SEYCHELLES!)

you see?

 

[Divisive Cotton]

so who's going to resign today then?

 

[shagnasty]

It's important enough for abc in australia to be presenting it live from westminster

 

[gavman]

I like the phrase 'reputational damage' - who are they kidding?

it shows she is existing in a parallel universe, insulated from reality. much like most of the leads in this story. yates' statement was also a fucking disgrace, resplendent in the standard issue police uniform of self righteousness. cunt

 

[miniGMgoit]

It's important enough for abc in australia to be presenting it live from westminster

Ah thanks. I was wondering how I was going to watch this. 11:30 tonight though late night for me then.

 

[Badgers]

Go to bed early and miss more stuff.

 

[miniGMgoit]

Oooh.
Lots of talk about RM's replacement. Looks like he's going to get the boot soonish.

 

[miniGMgoit]

Go to bed early and miss more stuff.

 

[Badgers]

Oooh.
Lots of talk about RM's replacement. Looks like he's going to get the boot soonish.

Shareholders talking?

 

[miniGMgoit]

Shareholders talking?

You'd think so.
However while the ABC on TV were reporting this, they have a story on their website stating that "the board" haven't had any such talks .

ABC now said rumors that he will be asked to leave if he doesn't preform well this afternoon.

 

[miniGMgoit]

More Gilbert & Sullivan lols

 

[Badgers]

You'd think so.
However while the ABC on TV were reporting this, they have a story on their website stating that "the board" haven't had any such talks .

ABC now said rumors that he will be asked to leave if he doesn't preform well this afternoon.

Curious eh? I do wonder how they will fair today. Seems that the committee should pick holes in them but you still don't know what else is going to be said. I hope I can watch it or at least some of it today at work.

 

[miniGMgoit]

I'm guessing that due to the fact they don't "have" to say anything today, they won't. However the old hag, knitting in hand, that exists within me has to watch just on the off chance he looses his rag after being put under pressure.
I'm also waiting to see what if any, repercussions this might have down here. He's got a rather ridiculous strangle hold on media down here. There was talk last week in parliament as to whether Australia needed it's own inquiry put the PM said no, which is surprising considering how badly she is being fisted by the media over the carbon tax debate currently going on.

 

[Badgers]

It is really hard to call...

The bag found near Brooks flat is an odd one. Possibly a non-story but equally could be a big thing. Sounds so suspect how a bag containing a laptop was found in a bin? Planted by someone or just an unusual chain of events?

 

[Bernie Gunther]

The Guardian have an interesting piece today on a guy whose name has been coming up a lot, the Met's chief spin-doctor Dick Fedorcio

One source recalls him sitting in with the July Review Group dealing with the aftermath of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, and effectively chairing a meeting, even though he had no operational standing.

Those who have worked closely with Fedorcio all agree he is particularly close to Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of the News of the World and then of the Sun; and to Lucy Panton, the News of the World's crime correspondent. They say Fedorcio sometimes has caused friction with his press officers by providing the News of the World with information in preference to other newspapers.

MPs will want to know whether Fedorcio's close working link with Brooks influenced the Yard's decision to take no action when they discovered that a News of the World executive, Alex Marunchak, had apparently used the paper's resources to mount surveillance on a senior officer, DCS Dave Cook, acting on behalf of two men who were suspects in a murder investigation being led by Cook.

Fedorcio was present at a meeting when DCS Cook and his commander, Andre Baker, confronted Brooks with details of the surveillance, which could have been regarded as an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

 

[pk]

well yeah. still a bit funny though.

where's pk? he should be here making some bullshit pronouncements about spotty hackers bringing down the berlin wall by now...

Oh I'm still here, enjoying every minute.

The Lulzsec thing is funny but I'm sure the Murdoch mafia's emails in the US will make interesting reading even to the most irrelevant anarchist... funny how kids today don't want to be Marxists anymore innit...

 

[Badgers]

It would be the ultimate anarchic statement to dress as Ewoks and dance outside the Commons media committee.

That would show them

 

[teqniq]

Breakfast laughs from Steve Bell:

 

[Badgers]

From the BBC and probably not far wrong:

Lawyer David Corker, who advised the sons of the late Daily Mirror owner Robert Maxwell's when they appeared before a parliamentary committee in 1992, after being issued with a summons, tells the BBC that the Murdochs will be told by their legal team to say very little.

 

[claphamboy]

This whole issue, the over-powerful influence of News International goes back to Thatcher. She was the one who by granting Murdoch the Sky channel licence, gave Murdoch control over a massive portion of the media. She did it with the knowledge and in the intention of getting the Murdoch Empire in line with the Tory party. This mutual back scratching served both the Murdochs and the Tories until Blair did his own brown nosing up to Murdoch. Brown lost it again leading back to the Tories cuddling up once more up to Murdoch under in the Reign of Cameron. How much longer will he rein though? Cameron has no leadership qualities that I can see.

Slight point of order here, Thatcher never granted any licence to Murdoch for Sky, in fact the Independent Broadcasting Authority refused Murdoch permission to bid for the official UK satellite TV licence and awarded it to 'British Satellite Broadcasting' in 1986. For all the faults of the IBA it was a fuck sake better than OFCOM has ever been.

A single 'Sky Channel' had already been transmitting since Jan '84, after Murdoch took over SATV that had itself been transmitting since 1979, Murdoch expanded this into a multi-channel offering over a year before BSB was able to launch, using the Luxembourg owned & operated Astra satellite system - Sky was widely considered to be a pirate broadcaster.

In theory when the merger happened between Sky & BSB in November 1990, the month Thatcher resigned, Murdoch had a 50% stake in the UK satellite TV licence granted by the IBA, but as the new BSkyB focused on the Astra system, which was not subject to the IBA licence, and the original BSB's Marcopolo satellites were withdrawn and eventually sold, there was fuck all the IBA could do about it.

It was suggested that action against Sky could have been taken under the Marine (etc) Broadcasting Offences Act 1967 (the 'etc' included transmissions from 'aircraft'), which was brought in to scupper the offshore pirate stations of the 60s. However, it was a bit more complex as in theory Sky was at that time a pan-European service and operated from a satellite licenced by Luxembourg, although it was transmitting on frequencies cleared internationally for telecommunications not TV.

Basically, it was a right mess, Murdoch pulled off a blinder, things moved very quickly, BSB only lasted a few months* before the merger, and the government and regulators were caught with their trousers down.

ETA

* Although BSB was granted the licence in 1986, it had to commission its own satellites and therefore didn't launch until March 1990, merging with Sky in November 1990.

* Sky's programmes were regulated by the 'Cable Authority', as it was carried by cable networks, but not licenced by the CA, as they only licenced the cable networks not the channels they chose to offer their customers, which gave Sky some respectability and caused further confusion over Sky's legal status.

 

[butchersapron]

On the committee stuff, despite how it's been sold recently in the media they do have the power to compel people to answer questions - they won't though. Anyone saying sub judice is offering a red herring too. Unless the witness has been charged or summonsed it means nothing in the commons or bodies with its powers.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting, last line is most odd

In the latest bizarre twist in the phone hacking story it emerged that Alex Marunchak, an executive editor on the Sunday tabloid, worked for the force between 1980 and 2000 translating for Ukrainian suspects.

The revelations will do nothing to dampen suggestions that the newspaper enjoyed a cosy relationship with the Yard.

Mr Marunchak worked at the News of the World between 1981 and 2006. For almost the entire period he was also working for Scotland Yard as a freelance interpreter, the force confirmed last night.

A spokesman said: “Between 1980 and 2000 Alex Marunchak was on the Metropolitan Police list of interpreters who provide interpretation and translation services for victims,witnesses and suspects of crime who do not speak English.

“Since the records system became electronic in 1996 we know that he undertook work as a Ukrainian language interpreter on one occasion in 1997 and six in 1999 as well as two translation assignments, totalling around 27 hours of work. It is likely he undertook work prior to 1996 as well.

“We recognise that this may cause concern and that some professions may be incompatible with the role of an interpreter.”

The Metropolitan Police said that Mr Marunchak had been vetted and had signed the Official Secrets Act.

Mr Marunchak told the Daily Telegraph that he would be paid about £40 per shift, gaining work for the Met via the charity the Association of Ukranians in Great Britain.

But he denied that the roles created a conflict of interests.

He said: “There was nothing I ever did that would be of any interest to a national newspaper. I was called out at all hours of the night to deal with the real dregs of society.

Mr Marunchak said he quit as an interpreter in 2000 after being called out at 1am to deal with a man who had scratched a car with his bicycle in Acton, west London.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/8646307/News-of-the-World-executive-worked-as-police-translator.html

 

[pk]

Claphamboy is spot on. Another twist is the relatively recent dirty business involving ITV Digital, the old OnDigital terrestrial set top boxes being hacked with simple EPROM card configurations after a piece of software allowing cards to be reprogrammed to give unlimited movies & porn emerged.

Allegedly the system was cracked in a laboratory in Haifa, Israel belonging to one R. Murdoch.

ITV Digital service died on it's arse as a result of nobody paying for premium services on account of everyone having dodgy set-top cards...