News of the World three: Don’t make ordinary hacks pay the price for News International’s phone-hacking ‘cover-up’

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 18 April 2011 at 10:36
Tags: Journalism, Journalists, National Newspapers, News of the World, Quiz

There was huge shock among many red-top journalists last week at the latest News of the World journalist to have his collar felt as part of the criminal side of the phone-hacking inquiry – James Weatherup.

I met him when he won a darts competition Press Gazette ran in 2007 as part of a commercial tie-up with Ladbrokes. He seemed like a thoroughly nice guy – very far from the snarling tabloid hack of the public imagination.

He was arrested and questioned along with chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck (who has long been implicated in the affair) last week. Their arrests followed that of former assistant editor Ian Edmondson.

In a sense the police are damned whatever they do now. If they are seen to be too lax there will be more allegations they are in cahoots with NI – yet at the same time one has to question why 45 detectives are being used to investigate tabloid snooping when so many more serious crimes go unsolved.

It was a travesty that Clive Goodman was locked up in Belmarsh in 2007 alongside murderers and rapists for what was a gross invasion of privacy, but no more. And it would be a huge over-reaction if more journalists suffered out of proportion punishments because of widespread anger over the perception that News International has been involved in a cover-up over phone-hacking.

We do now need to get to the bottom of this matter. News International will find that sunshine is the best way to disinfect its reputation.

But it would be grossly unfair to punish more and more ordinary hacks. Phone-hacking spread far, far beyond the News of the World so where would we stop? They threw the book at Goodman and it had the desired affect. As far as we know, no British journalists hack mobile phone messages any more.

News International brought this crisis on itself mainly by going far over-the-top in its “rogue reporter” defence and by sticking to that line in evidence to MPs in 2009.

Those who presided over a culture that let phone-hacking flourish and who then misled MPs and the public over the extent of the problem are those who should have the heaviest weight on their consciences.

News International now admits that its own investigation into phone-hacking was not sufficiently “robust” and it has apologised for that. Because so much litigation is ongoing it has to be careful about what it says. But I would venture that more apologies and more evidence of a thorough cleaning of its house will be needed before the News of the World and News International can start to turn the page on  phone-hacking.

Press Awards 2011: Cast your vote for newspaper of the year (just for fun)

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 23 March 2011 at 15:41
Tags: Journalism, Journalists, National Newspapers, Quiz

The seating plan for the British Press Awards was always carefully considered to avoid possible punch-ups – and the same will no doubt be true for The Press Awards at the Savoy on 5 April.

Not least because arch enemies The Guardian and News of the World are up against each other in a number categories – the most hotly fought-over of which will be newspaper of the year.

This is a great award to win because it usually ends up on the masthead for a whole year serving to pat your loyal readers on the back for having such great taste as well as perhaps winning over a few new ones.

The Guardian has without doubt had a memorable year – with its Wikileaks and News of the World phone-hacking coverage providing the highlights.

The News of the World has also had some historic scoops – including the Pakistan match-fixing exclusive and the sensational undercover tapes revealing that Sarah Ferguson was willing to sell access to Prince Andrew for cash.

The Daily Mail has to be a leading contender for newspaper of the year because of its surging website growth (miles more than anyone else at 50m+ unique browsers a month) and its singular print circulation success – up 0.8 per cent year on year to 2,136,568 in January.

The Sunday Times has had another strong year, reflected by its 13 award nominations – including a scoop of the year nod for “World Cup: Cash for votes”.

And the Mail on Sunday had 12 nominations - the judges described it as “consistently brave…with an absolute commitment to holding those in authority to account”.

Vote for your favourite below and we’ll find out on the night how our votes  compare with the decision of the judges.

The top five contenders for this prize were arrived at following a round of voting from the 120-strong Press Awards ‘academy’ of senior journalists. The one with the most votes is already known by the organisers, so this vote can’t affect the ultimate outcome.

If your number one national newspaper for 2010 is not listed in the top five, tick the ‘other’ box and why not write in your suggested winner in the comments box below?

Interactive quiz: Who do you think should win scoop of the year at The Press Awards?

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 2 March 2011 at 10:28
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers, Quiz

By any standards there is a bumper crop of entries in The Press Awards (the new national newspapers awards event organised by the NPA and the Society of Editors). And scoop of the year promises to be a particularly hard-fought category.

There were so many good contenders for this one that the organisers felt compelled to put eight in the shortlist, rather than the usual six.

The Treasury Chief, his secret lover and the £40k claim at The Daily Telegraph was a great story – prompting what is believed to be the quickest UK cabinet minister resignation from a government in history.

Lib Dem Tapes at The Daily Telegraph was another great story, albeit one which is still tinged with controversy over the use of subterfuge when there was no advance evidence of wrongdoing and over questions about why key information was omitted from the initial story.

Cricket Corruption at the News of the World was by any standards a stonker – the revelation, in the middle of a test match, that Pakistan players were involved in match-fixing has had wide-ranging ramifications.

WikiLeaks at The Guardian involved a historic series of revelations about the conduct of the war in Iraq and about the contents of classified US embasssy communications.

Hacking at The Guardian has been an impressive and dogged investigation, albeit one where the initial revelations were made back in 2009 (rather than 2010).

World Cup: Cash for Votes Scandal for The Sunday Times was another superb example of undercover journalism in the public interest – in which two Fifa officials were filmed by journalists offering to sell their influence over the location of the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups.

News that England star Wayne Rooney had slept with a prostitute was a biggy for the Sunday Mirror, although the News of the World also carried the story – evidently the Sunday Mirror has claimed it as its scoop.

The Secret Life of John Venables for The Daily Mirror provides the other red-top contender.

The Press Awards judges have a tough job on their hands picking a winner. Take part in this fun quiz to have your say about who you think should take the top prize, and give your reasons why at the end of this story.

(NOTE: Press Gazette is not involved in organising The Press Awards. I was  a judge in one of the categories, but not this one.)

(PS: It goes without saying that the results of this poll will have no bearing whatsoever on the judging process!)