Wednesday, September 7, 2011

#Hackgate #Leveson asks editors to answer 20 key questions.

Senior figures at Rupert Murdoch's media empire have been asked to provide witness statements by the judge in charge of the phone-hacking inquiry.

Dominic Mohan, editor of The Sun, and its showbusiness editor Gordon Smart, who are both employed by News International, have been sent a detailed list of about 20 questions by solicitors acting for Lord Justice Leveson.

Other former News of the World journalists who recently lost their jobs over the phone-hacking scandal have also been asked to submit evidence to the judicial inquiry including ex-showbusiness editor Dan Wootton.

Executives across other national newspaper titles have also been asked to provide information.

The news came as it emerged Lord Leveson will hold his first hearing tomorrow at the Royal Courts of Justice where media groups and individuals linked to phone-hacking will argue whether or not they are "core participants".

It coincides with fresh questioning of four former News International executives, including the former NoW editor Colin Myler, and two former legal affairs managers, by MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee.

Today, current and former journalists at News International were formulating their responses.

Questions include how news-papers operate, which editorial executives would be consulted over the sources of stories and "how high up the ladder would information be passed".

They have also been asked about corporate governance at News International which has been seen as an attempt to discover how much senior figures like former NI chief executive Rebekah Brooks and James and Rupert Murdoch would have known.

One former News of the World journalist told the Evening Standard: "I can tell you categorically that none of us had anything to do with phone-hacking and, once again, we are suffering for stuff that happened under previous regimes."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23983992-phone-hacking-judge-asks-editors-to-answer-list-of-20-key-questions.do