The former News of the World royals reporter Clive Goodman, also known as the “rogue reporter” wrote a letter released by a British parliamentary committee four years ago, alleging that the phone hacking was “widely discussed” at editorial meetings and that the company offered to let him keep his job if he kept quiet about it.
According to Bloomberg News, Clive Goodman told the court that editor Andy Coulson, offered him a job to “keep silent” concerning the goings on at the News of the World tabloid. Clive Goodman, 56, testified that Andy Coulson told him that his family would be taken care of if he stayed with a “lone wolf” defense. Clive Goodman is charged with bribing public officials.
Bloomberg News has also reported that there are seven people standing trial on charges related to phone hacking and bribing public officials at the company’s U.K. newspapers.
The Company’s Chairman Rupert Murdoch closed the tabloid in 2011 after public outrage when a journalist at the News of the World accessed messages on a murdered teenager’s voice mail. The Guardian reported that, according to a claim brought by the hacking victims, in November 2009, News International allegedly discussed an “email deletion policy”.
Andy Goodman’s claims also raise serious questions about Rupert Murdoch’s close friend and adviser, Les Hinton, who was sent a copy of the letter but failed to pass it to the police and who then led a cast of senior Murdoch personnel in telling parliament that they believed Andy Coulson knew nothing about the interception of the voicemail of public figures and that Clive Goodman was the only journalist involved.
Andy Goodman was jailed for four months back in 2007 for eavesdropping on voice mails of the Royal Household. The publisher of Dow Jones Les Hinton, the CEO of News International at the time, according to reports by The Guardian, stepped down from his position.
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