Phone Hacking - Words That Matter

Amidst all the fallout from the latest exchanges in the great European talking shop (and the dawning realisation that, once again, nothing meaningful has actually happened), it has been an extraordinary few days in the phone hacking scandal.

Last week, Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed four years ago for hacking the phones of celebrities as well as royal aides, was arrested on separate, similar charges. He maintains that he merely acted on the instructions of his employers at the News of the World.

Then on Monday came the bombshell that threatens to undermine the extraordinary public interest that led to the closure of a major newspaper and the setting up of a lengthy public inquiry. Police now believe it “most likely” that the voicemail messages that disappeared from Milly Dowler’s phone during the time that she was missing were deleted automatically.

This does not rule out the possibility that outsiders listened to the messages, causing them to lapse, but there is no denying that it was the accusation of a cynical act of hunger for new journalistic evidence that caused the explosion of outrage and soul-searching in the summer.

The two sides of this particular case are now ranged against each other, engaged in a war of words as each insists on the integrity of their case, disputing the significance of the revelation.

The row plumbed new depths last night when the Dowlers’ solicitor received a phonecall in which a Daily Mail journalist allegedly asked whether the family would be repaying a slice of the compensation they received from News International.

The accusation is disputed but has been aired under oath.

Meanwhile, the Dowlers themselves previously claimed a “clear recollection” of being told by police that the News of the World was responsible for the deletion of the messages. The Guardian’s initial publication of the claim may be under scrutiny, but it seems they weren’t the only ones sticking their neck on the line – the Met continues to come out of this badly.

Then the boss of News International was once again thrust onto centre stage. Yesterday, it emerged that James Murdoch admits to having received and read an email predominantly relating to the case brought against the News of the World by PFA chief Gordon Taylor.

However, he pleads ignorance of the attached chain of emails that includes evidence of the broader extent of phone hacking at the paper – beyond a ‘single, rogue reporter’.

The email was sent by the paper’s then-editor, Colin Myler, and the damning sections were written by its lawyer, Tom Crone; both insist that Murdoch’s story is false – that the infamous ‘For Neville’ email containing evidence of hacking was explicitly brought to his attention.

Today, that accusation was also made under oath.

The pressure on Mr Murdoch is growing – not least because he continues to tinker with his story in response to fresh information uncovered by the police investigation. But this week’s events show that even what we consider certain is actually shrouded in doubt, and that even those who we trust to give us the facts cannot always be relied upon.

These latest twists and turns in this saga raise as many questions as answers. Europe might be the crisis with no solution; this is the scandal with no limits. To the media (ironically), they are the gifts that keep on giving.