Tabloid Espionage: Trial Exposes Darkest Corners of British Press

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/phone-hacking-trial-reveals-darkest-aspects-of-british-press-a-937016.html



Former editors with newspaper News of the World are currently on trial in London, where they are accused of spying on private phone conversations for years. The unfolding testimony against close associates of publisher Rupert Murdoch shows just how far the British tabloid press has been willing to go for a scoop.

Tabloid Espionage: Trial Exposes Darkest Corners of British Press
By Christoph Scheuermann
December 04, 2013 – 03:25 PM

On March 21, 2002, a girl disappeared in a town in southern England, not far from London. Her name was Amanda Dowler, nicknamed Milly, and her disappearance soon gripped the entire country. She was just 13.

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It isn't unusual for editorial offices in the cutthroat London news business to hire professionals to dig through the dirt on their behalf. Private investigators can be useful because they can employ every legal and illegal trick on the hunt for stories, and their employers never have to get their hands dirty. Mulcaire was a good detective, and it didn't take him long to find Milly Dowler's cellphone number.

In its first edition on April 14, 2002, News of the World quoted a message left on Dowler's cellphone, which Mulcaire had intercepted. The call was from a recruitment agency employee, who it later turned out had simply dialed the wrong number. The police focused on other clues, and the missing girl's body was found in a forest several months later.

The call to Dowler's voicemail is now a key element in the indictment against seven former News of the World employees, including former editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. The Crown Prosecution Service in London has charged them with conspiracy to intercept hundreds of phone calls over the years, paying public officials for information and obstructing the subsequent investigations.