UK PM's ex-communications chief to face charges in phone-hacking scandal

[jimmy olsen]

Interesting. 

Languish Brits, how much do you think this will damage Cameron politically?

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/24/12922171-uk-leaders-ex-communications-chief-to-face-charges-in-phone-hacking-scandal?lite

UK leader's ex-communications chief to face charges in phone-hacking scandal
By NBC News wire services

LONDON -- Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief and Rupert Murdoch's former British newspaper boss are among nine people who face charges in a phone-hacking inquiry that has shaken the British establishment, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Prosecutors said that Andy Coulson, who was Cameron's communications chief from 2007 until January 2011, and Rebekah Brooks, who was courted by a succession of prime ministers including Cameron in her role as Murdoch's U.K. newspaper chief, would be charged with offenses linked to the hacking.

The alleged offenses were committed when both were editor of the News of the World newspaper, the Sunday tabloid that Murdoch was forced to close last July amid public revulsion at the phone-hacking revelations.

Six other former News of the World journalists and staff are also to be charged, prosecutors said.

The scandal has rocked Murdoch's News Corp., put the notoriously aggressive press under the spotlight and embarrassed senior politicians, including Cameron, over their often cozy ties with the Australian-born businessman.

Former UK PM accuses Murdoch of misleading inquiry into phone-hack scandal

Brooks had already been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, accused of hindering the police investigation into phone hacking and corruption by staff at his British tabloids.

The detective leading the hacking inquiry said earlier a parallel investigation into corrupt payments by journalists would be extended beyond Murdoch's British newspaper business to other publishers.

Since January last year, police have been working with Murdoch's News International, part of News Corp., to uncover wrongdoing among its staff over allegations journalists illegally accessed mobile phone voicemail messages.

That inquiry has since been expanded to look at corrupt payments to public officials and allegations of computer hacking.

Complete UK news coverage on NBCNews.com

News International has been particularly hit by the repercussions. Murdoch abandoned a bid to acquire the whole of the lucrative pay-TV group BSkyB, which would have been the biggest deal in News Corp.'s history. He also closed down the 168-year-old News of the World Sunday tabloid.

UK police criticized
Police have been widely criticized for their failure to come to grips with the hacking issue when it first emerged nearly seven years ago. Police repeatedly ignored crucial leads and dismissed new evidence, claiming that phone hacking was a limited practice affecting only a handful of people.

Rupert Murdoch not 'a fit person' to run major company, UK lawmakers say

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said investigators had notified 2,615 people who might have had their phone hacked, of which 702 were likely to have been victims.

The investigations have led to more than 60 arrests including dozens of current and former journalists, some of whom held senior positions at News International titles.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.