Phone hacking: PCC 'was not fully informed during investigation'

Baroness Buscombe makes admission about 2009 probe into News of the World phone-hacking claims

The chair of the Press Complaints Commission, Baroness Peta Buscombe, admitted today that the regulator appeared not to have been fully informed when it carried out its criticised 2009 investigation into claims of phone hacking at the News of the World.

The PCC's report, which concluded in November 2009 that there was "no new evidence" of widespread phone hacking at the News International paper, was condemned at the time by MPs as a "whitewash".

Buscombe today admitted it "sounds now as if we weren't fully informed" about the extent of phone hacking at the paper, where further revelations about its activities led to the dismissal last month of assistant editor (news), Ian Edmondson.

The paper's former editor, Andy Coulson, resigned as David Cameron's director of communications last month, saying the continuing wave of allegations about illegal phone hacking at the paper meant he was unable to do his job.

"I don't want to get caught into any traps about the degree to which or if we were misled at the time," Buscombe told Steve Hewlett on BBC Radio 4's Media Show.

"There are a lot of new allegations and a lot of revelations ... It sounds now as if we weren't fully informed."

The PCC has previously said that it had found no evidence that it was "materially misled" by the News of the World over the alleged hacking of celebrities' mobile phones.

A highly critical parliamentary report into the affair last year condemned the "collective amnesia" and "deliberate obfuscation" of News International executives.

The commission announced this week that it was setting up a working group to "draw together lessons learned" from the new police investigation and various legal cases relating to the phone-hacking affair.

Buscombe said: "The truth is we have to be incredibly careful, we cannot act in any way that is going to cut across a criminal investigation.

"We are so pleased that the police are now saying they are not going to leave any stone unturned in terms of investigating these really serious matters."

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, who described the original PCC inquiry into phone hacking as "worse than pointless ... it's actually rather dangerous to the press", told The Media Show today he had "not much" confidence in the new PCC working group.

"The problem with the PCC is that they simply don't have the investigative machinery to get to the truth," he told the Radio 4 show. "The report was an embarrassment, it was worse than useless. It completely discredited the PCC and the concept of regulation."

On Buscombe, he added: "There is no sign that she has realised the full enormity of what's been going on. She's got things to prove. She has announced another inquiry, let's see what becomes of that. I think the position of the PCC on this whole phone-hacking saga is unsustainable."

Buscombe, who had to make a high court apology last year after appearing to cast doubt on evidence given by a lawyer about phone hacking to a pa! rliament ary select committee, denied a suggestion that her position had become unsustainable.

She said she wanted to do everything in her power to ensure "those who are not behaving in the right way are brought to book".

"What is really important is we mustn't see all the work of the PCC through the prism of phone hacking. The PCC do a lot of positive stuff and works extremely well as a public service," Buscombe added.

"If you are asking somebody should the press regulate itself of the course the answer is no. The PCC is an independent regulator of the press, it's not owned by the press, it's funded by the press. It is not controlled by the press, that is a very important distinction.

"The other important thing to make clear is that phone hacking is a criminal offence ... and the commission has been consistently clear it is not the role of the PCC to duplicate the investigations of the police or establish criminality. Its role is to raise standards in the industry."

To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".


guardian.co.uk Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UK greenhouse gas emissions fall 8.7%

Image
Total UK emissions plummet as recession lowers electricity and fuel use A dramatic fall in greenhouse gas emissions following the recession has brought the UK's climate change targets for the next five years within easy reach, taking the pressure off government and business to comply. Government estimates released on Tuesday showed greenhouse gas emissions fell by 8.7% from 2008 to 2009, the biggest drop since records began in 1990. Carbon dioxide levels plunged 9.8%, a fall only matched in 1980, in records extending to 1970. The unexpectedly deep slump in emissions mirrors the fall in industrial output in the recession, with high-emitting sectors including construction and transport hit particularly hard. But it also means that government-set climate change targets of cutting emissions by 35% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, now look much easier to meet. The UK has already met the targets for 2016, provided emissions stay at 2009 levels. This raises the prospect that business...
Keep reading

Top flyer boo-boo : Shut off noisy engines

LONDON: It's too noisy, could you please turn off the engines ? Could you please open the window? These are some of the "foolish" and "bizarre requests" flyers often make to flight attendants, according to a new survey. The survey of some 3,000 Virgin Atlantic cabin crew members found that some passengers fail to understand why they are prevented from opening the window, others think "turning down" the engines could reduce the noise. "Please, can you open the window?" was among the most common unusual queries made by uncomfortable passengers who seem to be unaware of the benefits of a pressurised cabin at 35,000ft. Other unique questions included "could you turn the engines down because they are too noisy?" and "please can the captain stop the turbulence?", the Telegraph reported. The survey also laid bare the level of comfort and service some customers expect, with several asking flight attendants "can you sho...
Keep reading

Dogs can be trained to sniff out bowel cancer, Japanese researchers say

Image
Experiments show that labrador retriever's sense of smell can identify minute traces of chemicals circulating in human body Dogs can be trained to sniff out bowel cancer, even when the disease is in its early stages, researchers in Japan claim. In a series of experiments that involved sniffing the breath or stool samples of patients, a specially-trained labrador retriever proved nearly as good at identifying those with cancer as a conventional colonoscopy examination. The team, led by Hideto Sonoda at Fukuoka dental college hospital, said some dogs have such a keen sense of smell that they can detect minute traces of chemicals that appear to circulate in the bodies of people who have cancer. The finding builds on previous experiments in which researchers used dogs to sniff out cancers in the skin, lungs, bladder and ovaries. Writing in the journal Gut , the researchers describe how the eight-year-old dog was trained to distinguish between the smell of a patient with colorectal canc...
Keep reading