Phone-hacking Trial - Remaining Verdicts

The Jury are due in court at 11:00 a.m. to continue their deliberations on the remaining verdicts:

Andy Coulson leaving court last night after being found guilty of conspiracy to intercept voicemails - image from Robin Brant, BBC News

You can find details of the verdicts already handed down HERE.

Links to yesterday's reaction to the events in court, articles and information, can be found HERE.

Latest links to articles and information:

• Why Was Rebekah Brooks Found Not Guilty? - James Doleman - The Drum
• Scotland Yard 'Shattered' By Rebekah Brooks Not Guilty Verdict in Hacking Trial - Sidney Morning Herald
• Piers Morgan and Louise Mensch Declare Support for Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks Following Verdict - Independent 
• 7 Amazing Things We Learned During the Hacking Trial - Martin Hickman for CNN
• Hackgate's Digital Warrior Reveals Media Evolution - ABC's The Drum
• Was Hacking Verdict a 'Victory for Redtops'? - Listen to Wallis and Prescott - BBC Radio Today
• Rebekah Brooks: 'She's Always Been Able to Get What She Wants From People' - Guardian
• Why Charlie Brooks Drank a Bottle of Fairy Liquid and Other Things We've Learned About Him - Guardian 
• Guilty Andy Coulson and Freed Rebekah Brooks Divide Headlines as Phone-hacking Trial Ends - The Drum
• ASA Rules That IPSO Cannot Claim to Deliver 'All the Key Elements Leveson Called For in His Report - Media Standards Trust (ASA is the Advertising Standards Authority)
• David Cameron to be Grilled on Andy Coulson Vetting - Telegraph 
• Judge Rebukes David Cameron For Coulson Statement - The Drum
• Transcript of Peter Jukes' Interview with Australian ABC News
• Judge Rebukes Cameron for Comments on Coulson Conviction - BBC News
• Andy Coulson Trial: Jurors Fail to Reach Verdicts on Remaining Charges - Guardian
• Prosecutors to Announce Whether Coulson Will Face Retrial - Hacked Off
• Operation Weeting Trial - Metropolitan Police Statement 
• End of the World: What Really Happened Behind Wapping Walls - Channel 4 News

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Hacked Off Holds Press Conference:

ITV report found HERE

Gemma Dowler - a Message - Youtube - link via Hugh Grant

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Latest news from court:

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Mr. Kavanagh's bovvered...again!

 
The Sun today carries the latest in a series of grenades lobbed by its political columnist Trevor Kavanagh.

Kavanagh begins by explaining the apology given by someone on Twitter who had accused the Sun of falsifying a photo taken at the funeral of Margaret Thatcher. Kavanagh then writes:

It reflects an incessantly watchful Twitter world of grievance-seeking vigilantes eager to take offence. But there are signs that it is now seeping into mainstream British culture, especially those with something to hide.

There then follows a short list of examples Mr. Kavanagh uses to illustrate his point, interspersed with such comments as:

At other times these incidents might be shrugged off as amusing examples of human error. But they point to an increasingly suspicious and judgmental atmosphere (#nb - my emphasis) in which people with no axe to grind are encouraged to take offence on other people’s behalf.

The public? 'Suspicious and judgemental'? Surely not! That's the Sun's and Mr. Kavanagh's job! 
Then:

You might think this information was in the public interest. No, they risk prison for misconduct in a public office in two cases and “perverting the course of justice” in one.
This is the Leveson Effect. It has begun to suffocate the crucial flow of information that distinguishes a free country from a police state.

Which came first, Mr. Kavanagh, the questioning, arrest and sometimes charging of News International journalists for 'perverting the course of justice', 'causing misconduct in a public office' or the incidents you itemise? If the police are ultra-strict now about officers' contacts with journalists, who must bear the blame for that?

Britain set an example to the world by establishing a force which polices by consent. By definition, a wall of secrecy removes that consent.

There now follows a petulant Mr. Kavanagh's railing at the fact that the police no longer tip off his journalists when an arrest is made:

It is now common for suspects — innocent and guilty — to be held in absolute secrecy while their personal lives and careers are in limbo indefinitely.
Dozens of decent journalists who have been left to swing in the wind, uncharged for more than a year, know exactly how this feels.

How frustrating that must be! Trial by tabloid denied an unarrested, presumed innocent suspect! Dreadful....

Chief constables have shut down normal channels and begun reacting with hostility to legitimate inquiries.
The ugly assumption is that journalists with impeccable sources must have obtained information by skulduggery. It is the perfect cop-out.

But completely understandable? 

The Press deserves criticism and has taken it by the bucketload. But this sinister new culture of suspicion benefits those with something to hide — not those with the right to know.

Just as, for many years, the silence of editors, journalists and newspaper owners over the phone-hacking scandal benefitted those with something to hide, Mr. Kavanagh?

Lord Justice Leveson barely concealed his contempt for journalists but naively swallowed Hacked Off’s half-truths and exaggerations and accepted evidence from left-wing mischief-maker Full Fact as gospel.

Lord Justice Leveson showed no contempt for most journalists, just coolness towards those few who had been proven to have lied, cheated and shown contempt towards the Inquiry.

Lord Justice Leveson barely concealed his contempt for journalists but naively swallowed Hacked Off’s half-truths and exaggerations and accepted evidence from left-wing mischief-maker Full Fact as gospel.

His adviser throughout was Sir David Bell, intimately linked with the Media Standards Trust which spawned Hacked Off — and the discredited Bureau of Investigative Journalism which smeared Alistair McAlpine.

These oft-repeated accusatory comments against Full Fact, Media Standards Trust and Hacked Off really are wearing thin indeed and need to be left at the bottom of your ammo box, Mr. Kavanagh!

What a shabby basis for new Press laws, stitched up at 2am in a Hacked Off ambush, which is snuffing out Press freedom and the right of the British public to hold authorities to account.
Even an inventive tabloid hack could not make this one up. (#nb - My emphasis)

Oh, I'm sure any of your 'inventive tabloid hacks' could make this one up, Mr Kavanagh.....

Along similar lines is this article from Melanie Phillips in Mail Online:

The Leveson Lovers and a Compromised Inquiry That's Begun a Chilling Assault on Free Speech - Melanie Phillips - Mail Online

Tweaking the tails of Mail and Sun has consequences...

Yesterday David Cameron put an abrupt end to cross-party talks to resolve differences over the form press regulation should take after the Leveson Inquiry Report. The decision will now be determined by votes on amendments made in a Parliamentary debate on Monday next, 18th March.

Clegg, Cameron and Milband - image from Daily Express

Cameron's decision has come as a surprise to many who thought that an agreement was close :-

(The Guardian's account of Cameron's press conference very soon after he informed Clegg and Miliband of his decision to abandon the talks can be found HERE)

Over the past few months, since the Leveson Report was published and attention turned to David Cameron who would make the ultimate decision about whether to adopt the recommendations or not, there has been a cacophony of dire warnings about the consequences of bringing in new draconian measures to curb the 'free press'.

The most stentorian, hyperbolic voices raised have been from the right-wing press - both 'quality' and tabloid. Countless articles written, opinions solicited and heard on TV screens - most with dire warnings of what would happen to investigative journalism in particular should Parliament plump for 'state regulation' of the press. ('State regulation' of the press is not on the cards, in any case!)

David Cameron himself has become a target for the more mischievous, some would say unprincipled, journalists who write increasingly dark pieces about 'stalking-horses' and 'leadership bids'. Designed no doubt to rattle the PM and show him in no uncertain way that their support for him and his leadership is dependent on the decision he makes about press regulation!
Boris Johnson Fails to Rule Out Future Leadership Bid - Telegraph
Cameron Dismisses Talk of Theresa May's Leadership Challenge as 'All Rubbish - Mail Online
David Cameron In Peril as Discontent in Tory Ranks Rises - Telegraph
Theresa May Unveils Her Manifesto For Party's Future - The Sun

These 'rumours' and cleverly targeted insinuations have not escaped the notice of the PM himself - from HuffPo:-

Then, following yesterday's sudden withdrawal from talks by Cameron, came this:-

(Full article HERE.)

Today, the Daily Mail has reset its sights and Ed Miliband and Hacked Off are now in its crosshairs:

(Full article HERE.)

A reply from Hacked Off is reproduced HERE by the Inforrm Blog.


Earlier this week, this knocking-copy appeared in the Sun:-

(Full article HERE.)

Past examples of the way newspapers can deliberately smear opponents in an attempt to sway public opinion or influence policy are given here:
News International Have Issued EIGHT Corrections to Stories About Gordon Brown in Just Six Months - Labourlist

It will be fascinating to watch the headlines this weekend - especially in the Sundays!