NEWS CORPORATION chairman Rupert Murdoch will today offer a full apology to the British public for the News of the World's phone-hacking, following a "humble apology" last evening to the family of one of the tabloid's victims, murdered teenager Milly Dowler.
The decision to publish a public apology came just hours after Rebekah Brooks, the head of News International, the company’s UK subsidiary, announced her resignation – even though she had said just days ago that she was needed as a “lighting conductor”.
The carefully crafted attempt to restore the company's reputation was quickly threatened by actor Jude Law's decision to sue for alleged hacking by the News of the World's sister title, the Sun– the first time that it has faced court action in the controversy, though the allegation was firmly denied.
Personally signed, today's newspaper advertisement says that the News of the Worldhad been "in the business of holding others" to account: "It failed when it came to itself. We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected. We regret not acting faster to sort things out.
“I realise that simply apologising is not enough,” Mr Murdoch wrote, going to say that News International would take further steps to ‘make amends’.
During a private meeting with the Dowler family, Mr Murdoch had been “very humbled, very shaken and very sincere”, said the family’s solicitor, Mark Lewis: “He apologised many times. I don’t think somebody could have held their head in their hands so many times and say that they were sorry.”
The billionaire magnate told the Dowlers his newspapers had not met the standards set down by his own father, Keith.
“I think this was something that had hit him on a very personal level and was something that shouldn’t have happened,” Mr Lewis told reporters.
Meanwhile, the FBI has begun an investigation into an unsourced, anonymous allegation in the Daily Mirrorthat News of the Worldjournalists hacked into the messages of British victims of the 9/11 atrocity.
Saying that he would not be surprised if hacking had occurred, Tom Clarke, a spokesman for the families of British victims, said: “I know I left lots of messages on my sister’s mobile phone. I know all of her friends left messages. But I am not convinced this ever happened.”
Meanwhile it has emerged that prime minister David Cameron hosted former News of the World editor Andy Coulson at Chequers in March – two months after Coulson quit as communications chief because the hacking controversy had made it impossible for him to stay on in No 10.
In the Commons last week, Mr Cameron told Labour leader Ed Miliband he had seen Coulson, who he said was still a friend.
“I have spoken to him. I have seen him, not recently and not frequently.” However, Mr Cameron has since put distance between them.
Mr Cameron last night issued a list of all of the meetings he has had with senior Fleet Street editors and publishers since he took up office, followed quickly by a shorter list from Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
The Cameron list, however, confirms that his Christmastime dinner last year with Ms Brooks and James Murdoch took place two days after Liberal Democrat business secretary Vince Cable had been stripped of media competition regulation powers for saying that he was “at war” with the Murdochs.
Meanwhile Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is to face further allegations in the Sunday papers about his ties to the News of the World, following fury at the disclosure that he had hired Neil Wallis, former deputy editor of the tabloid, on contract for a year.
The Commons’ home affairs committee chairman, Keith Vaz, still unhappy about the evidence earlier this week by senior Met officers, has now asked the commissioner and his communications chief, Dick Fedorcio, to give evidence on Tuesday.
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Britain's Daily Mail General Trust is planning a new mass-market Sunday tabloid to fill the gap left by the News of the World, which shut down last weekend.
The source said that the newspaper group’s Associated Newspapers national titles division would do an internal dummy run this weekend and would launch the following weekend if it was a success.
Names under consideration for the new Sunday title are the Sundayand the Sunday Lite, the source said, adding that former Suneditor Kelvin MacKenzie had been mooted as a columnist. – (Reuters)