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U.K. Lawmakers Vote for Inquiry Into Phone-Tapping By Murdoch Newspaper
U.K. House of Commons lawmakers voted to hold an inquiry into phone-tapping by reporters at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper when Andy Coulson, Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications chief, was editor.
The probe, which will be carried out by the Standards and Privileges Committee, will center on the hacking of lawmakers’ mobile phones. It will be the fourth by a Commons panel. Coulson, who resigned from the newspaper after a reporter and a private investigator were jailed for phone-tapping in 2007, says he did not know the practice was taking place.
During today’s debate in London, one opposition Labour Party lawmaker, Tom Watson, said Murdoch and his senior executives should be summoned to give evidence. A Labour colleague, Chris Bryant, urged his colleagues to use the full range of Parliament’s powers to compel witnesses to appear and admonish them for any malpractice.
“We should become as a house far more carnivorous,” said Bryant. “I suspect that so far we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.” He said he believed his own phone messages had been accessed.
Watson accused News of the World lawyer Tom Crone of having twice misled a previous Parliamentary probe into the matter. “Mr. Crone is a key player in this affair,” he said.
Premier’s View
Steve Field, Cameron’s spokesman, told reporters today that the prime minister believes Coulson’s denial. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said earlier in the day the police should investigate the allegations “as quickly and thoroughly as possible.”
The Guardian newspaper this morning quoted by name a second journalist as saying law-breaking was routine at the News Of The World while Coulson worked there and that he would have been aware of it.
The News of the World replied in an e-mailed statement that the issue “has become intensely partisan” and involved “a swirl of untethered allegations.”
“There should be no doubt that the News of the World will investigate any allegation of wrongdoing when presented with evidence,” the newspaper said. “As we have always made clear, we have a zero-tolerance approach to wrongdoing and will take swift and decisive action if we have proof.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net; Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net.
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