Murdoch press chiefs in contempt of Parliament to get a slap on the wrist
![Editor Colin Myler (left) and legal chief Tom Crone (right) misled MPs, a report found [Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/160914-Colin-Myler-Tom-Crone-PA-Archive.jpg)
Editor Colin Myler (left) and legal chief Tom Crone (right) misled MPs, a report found [Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images].
Here, two former News of the World executives have been found in contempt of Parliament over the phone hacking affair – a hugely serious issue that had far-reaching consequences, not least in the obstruction of police crime investigations.
And what happens to them?
They get “named and shamed” in the House of Commons.
I reckon these two hacks will be able to live with that; people in the reporting industry tend to be thick-skinned.
Parliament has the power to impose sentences up to and including imprisonment, but apparently a small slap on the wrist was all it could justify for the inconvenience these men have caused.
They’ll know they can do it again, then.
Two former News of the World executives have been found in contempt of Parliament for “misleading” MPs over phone-hacking.
Former Rupert Murdoch employees Colin Myler and Tom Crone face being named and shamed on the floor of the House of Commons after the finding by a powerful group of MPs.
Today’s 150-page report by the Privileges Committee examined the pair’s conduct around the time the newspaper was engulfed in the phone-hacking scandal.
It found ex-editor Mr Myler and ex-legal manager Mr Crone “misled” the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee where there they were grilled by MPs.
In Mr Myler’s case, the report said he answered “questions falsely about [his] knowledge of evidence that other News of the World employees had been involved in phone-hacking and other wrongdoing”.
Mr Crone, the report adds, “misled the committee” in 2009 over how the firm drew up a £600,000-plus payout to Professional Footballers’ Association chief Gordon Taylor.
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Talking of News Group contempt, if you’ve not come across it before, can I recommend you take a look at this website set up by Gordon Dangerfield, a lawyer working on behalf of Tommy Sheridan (who just defeated NotW/Murdoch’s appeal to have his libel pay-out returned). The judgement is damning of the behaviour of NotW in the case and subsequently.
You can make your own mind up about Sheridan, but the site puts forward pretty compelling evidence that he’s been stitched up – it’s well worth clicking through the documents on the right of his site.
It’s also pretty daming of the Scottish and UK media that they’ve failed to cover any of this.
http://tommyslawyer.co.uk/