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THEY WERE ONCE two of the most powerful people in the British media, senior executives for media mogul Rupert Murdoch and associates of Prime Minister David Cameron.
Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson go on trial today, along with several others, on charges of hacking phones and bribing officials while at the now-shuttered Murdoch tabloid.
Both arrived early at London’s Central Criminal Court for the first day of the trial, which was opening with legal arguments and jury selection. Brooks came by taxi with her husband, Charles Brooks, who faces a related charge of obstructing justice.
The trial unfolding in a plain, starkly lit room at the Old Bailey should provide high drama for media watchers – and an unwelcome reminder for Murdoch and Cameron of the two-year-old scandal that continues to tarnish Britain’s media, politicians and police.
Murdoch tweeted about the upcoming trial earlier this month: “Remember, everyone innocent until proven guilty, entitled to fair trial in most countries.”
WHO IS ON TRIAL?
The three highest-profile defendants are: Brooks, 45, ex-editor of the News of the World and former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers; Coulson, 45, another former News of the World editor who was Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications chief until 2011; and Rebekah Brooks’ 50-year-old husband Charles, a racehorse trainer.
Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have become the faces of the scandal, though neither has been convicted of wrongdoing.
He was the elusive figure – rarely photographed – behind Cameron’s canny media strategy. She was the flame-haired high-flyer who exchanged text messages with her friend and neighbour Cameron while overseeing Murdoch’s politically powerful British newspapers.
They face trial alongside former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, ex-news editor Ian Edmondson and former royal editor Clive Goodman; Rebekah Brooks’ former assistant Cheryl Carter; and Mark Hanna, former security chief at Murdoch’s News International.
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
Brooks and Coulson are charged with conspiracy to intercept communications – phone hacking – and with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, which covers bribing officials such as police and prison guards. The other former News of the World journalists face related charges.
Rebekah Brooks, Charles Brooks, Carter and Hanna are accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by removing material from the company archive and withholding computers and documents from police.
The defendants deny all the charges.
HOW DID THE ALLEGATIONS ARISE?
The charges stem from the scandal that erupted in 2011, when it was revealed that journalists at the News of the World eavesdropped on the cellphone voice mail messages of celebrities, politicians, crime victims and others in the public eye.
The furore led Murdoch to close the News of The World and triggered police investigations into phone hacking, computer hacking and the bribery of officials, which have expanded to take in other newspapers.
More than 30 people have been charged, including senior journalists and editors from the News of the World and its sister paper, The Sun.
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES IN THE TRIAL?
This will be a long and complex trial, expected to last up to five months. The first step will be selecting a jury; the prosecution is expected to begin outlining its case later in the week.
Judge John Saunders will ask jurors to ignore everything they may have heard about the defendants and focus on the evidence. The dozens of journalists on hand face restrictions including a ban on tweeting from court as the judge attempts to rein in speculation and comment.
The central questions are: What did Brooks and Coulson know, and how widespread were illegal practices during the periods when they ran the newspaper? Brooks edited the paper between 2000 and 2003; in 2002, it hacked the mobile phone voice mails of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, while police were searching for her. (Brooks denies knowing about any of the hacking). Coulson was in charge from 2003 to 2007.
WHAT SENTENCES COULD THEY GET?
The maximum sentence for phone hacking is two years in prison, while the other charges carry a maximum life sentence, although the average term imposed is much shorter.
WILL THE TRIAL PUT AN END TO THE SAGA?
Not likely. The hacking scandal convinced many politicians and members of the public that Britain’s press was out of control. Cameron ordered a judge-led inquiry into media ethics, which recommended an independent press regulator be set up with state backing. Many editors and journalists fear that could lead to state regulation, but they may find it hard to resist amid a new blare of publicity about media misdeeds.
Revelations at the trial also could heap new pressure on Murdoch, who remains atop his now-fractured media empire. The scandal led him to shut down his best-selling newspaper, pay millions to settle lawsuits from hacking victims and split his News Corp. into two businesses, a publishing company and a media and entertainment group.
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I think it’s too soon to get worried about the Icelandic volcano, we should at least wait until the dust settles……..
I see what you did there ;)
I sold my hoover – it was just gathering dust….
Care to share with us whose joke that is?
I preferred the fish one.
What did the fish say when it swam into a wall
DAM!!!
Dunno Red – heard it in the pub, last night.
that joke won top joke at the Edinburgh comedy festival this year.
“I’ve decided to sell my Hoover… well, it was just collecting dust” – Tim Vine.
“I’ve written a joke about a fat badger, but I couldn’t fit it into my set” – Masai Graham.
“Always leave them wanting more, my uncle used to say to me. Which is why he lost his job in disaster relief” – Mark Watson.
“I was given some Sudoku toilet paper. It didn’t work. You could only fill it in with number ones and number twos” – Bec Hill.
“I wanted to do a show about feminism. But my husband wouldn’t let me” – Ria Lina.
“Money can’t buy you happiness? Well, check this out, I bought myself a Happy Meal” – Paul F Taylor.
“Scotland had oil, but it’s running out thanks to all that deep frying” – Scott Capurro.
“I’ve been married for 10 years, I haven’t made a decision for seven” – Jason Cook.
“This show is about perception and perspective. But it depends how you look at it” – Felicity Ward.
She gonna blow Jim,
Bárdarbunga (Bar-dar-bunga) volcanic system is the largest in Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull and Grimsvotn could easily fit a corner of it. It’s main crater is 10km wide and entire volcanic system is 200 km long and 10 km wide. It erupted more lava than any other volcano on Earth in the last 10,000 years.
It’s largest historical eruption was in 1477, it was VEI-6 level of intensity i.e. it erupted > 10 km3 of ash and ash column was > 30 km high. It was like Pinatubo (1991).
The ground is now swelling as the magma tries to reach the surface. Geologists installed several GPS monitoring stations across Iceland and they are detecting the swelling / movement caused by the ascending plum of magma. Two GPS stations, 25 – 50 km away from where the earthquakes are happening have so far moved 7 to 8 cm in the last 4 days. This station shows the trend suddenly changed last night, it might have started erupting within the last ~24 hours.
http://strokkur.raunvis.hi.is/~sigrun/DYNC_3mrap.png
One geologist so far thinks there has already been a small eruption (I agree), that lava has already reached the surface (the eruption is hidden beneath 0.5 km of ice of Vatnajokull Glacier). This eruption would be meting the ice under the glacier, potentially creating Glacial lake outburst flood called a Jökulhlaup, which can exceed the flow of the Amazon river. If the eruption reaches the surface, it will look like this but possibly allot bigger.
http://glacierchange.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/grimsvotn-mjr_07.jpg
The Laki eruption of 1783-84 in Iceland is estimated to have killed 23,000 people in England due to poisonous sulphur dioxide pollution and a further 8000 died died to the extremely cold winter weather caused by ash and sulphur dioxide haze obscuring the sun.
Is a major eruption imminent? I
oyal…there ain’t no being on the planet m8 (or on the ISS) wot knows the answer to your most stupid and extremely daft question
are you a 5 year old, m8?
So..:to summise…Iceland is fkd.
Just been for a major eruption myself there… There’s a large cloud rising from the crater, so I opened the bathroom window for a while
I nominate the volcano for the ice water challenge !!
Don’t forget to take out your volcano insurance if You are traveling.
Is it compulsory? will I get penalised for not taking it out when I was younger?
See this is what would have happened if we defaulted
GEOLOGISTS DON’T USE THE RICHTER SCALE!!!!!
WE HAVEN’T USED THEM IN FORTY YEARS!!
We’ve been using the moment magnitude scale since the 1970s.
Fecking Iceland with its fecking volcanos .
every house needs a chimney Catherine …
Im going away the weekend and i dont care if im stuck there a few extra days or weeks once I get there……Viva Las Vegas …Viva Las Vegas….Viva,Viva Las Vegaaassss……;)
No more chemtrails for a few weeks.
Chemtrails …… that is absolutely ridicules considering they stopped spraying a few years ago.
They were spraying the other day Glen -
No seriously, the chemtrail switch is right next to the landing lights switch.
Dermot
They still do but nowhere near the scale they were spraying a few years ago …. I know this cause I’m always watching the watchers watching me watching them.
Hello again Glen ;-)
I thought you chaps were into chembursts from clouds now that your insane chemtrail conspiracy has been totally debunked?
@Glen, so they stopped a few yrs ago but still do it!!!!! which is it to be as im confused
Re Paul
I’m not too sure it’s a conspiracy when you have people like the ex Governor of Colombia in Canada stating he knew they were taking place.
have you checked out chunkymark on youtube Glen – he’s a gas man altogether ..well worth it ..no one’s fooling him and his rants are pure quality !
There are farmers in the marts talking about chemtrails…last summer was a great year for watching them …. big xs in the sky and the whole lot …
Lance
Around 2010 they stopped spraying on a massive scale almost daily.
In 2014 you see the odd chemtrails here and there but nothing like it was a few years ago …… Hope that clears it up.
Paul
You only sound silly denying chemtrails when there is thousands of vids of them and billions of witnesses.
I don’t know what a chemtrail (or a tracker mortgage) is!
I don’t know what a glen is
Must go to that country before im 50
…if that country doesn’t come to you first!
Gorgeous people, food and the landscape is alien. Though the hot water smells like farts.
Imagine if it got really bad and we would have to start taking the ferry again to Britain and France for a awhile instead of flying. ….. Methinks we are living in fairly easy times here in most of Europe
Well for all you home birds this is terrible news for me. I travel a lot and the thoughts of getting stuck like folks were the last time this happened is something I dread.
Guess which way the wind is blowing for the next week? From the North! Get the washin in !
My cat looks after all that. Some day soon – as a reward – I’ll feed him.
Etna to the South of us
Iceland to the North of us ,, and earthquakes from fracking in England …..
here I am stuck in the middle with you.
Good one sir …. Good one lol
well done simon that was the song in my head at the time , now it’s in your head ….ha,ha,ha…. funny how music works isn’t it !
Now now Dermot , stop that , no one believes a word of it .
They should take that bleedin volcano of them
Is this the same one which erupted a few years ago? I saw a science program a while ago saying it’s possible that Iceland could easily come apart as their is a plate that runs straight down the middle.
A crack in the Ice(land) so to speak?
That was shameful…. I’ll give you a green thumb though just because I feel sorry for you …!
Those Icelanders, up to no good as usual.
Personally I blame Isreal for all this UN should investigate.
This must be good news for the economy – can it be that geological change and the dynamics of plate technology will do what our useless politicians have failed to do – as in impede air transport and so stop all those euro fraudsters coming over here every month to pick up their dole and children’s allowance payments when they are not even living here…..Mother earth works in mysterious ways indeed.
have your say