From: Guardian
Phone-hacking denials: what Murdoch executives said
NI executives continued to insist phone hacking was confined to a rogue reporter after Clive Goodman's explosive letter guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 August 2011 13.49 BST
Watch the phone-hacking denials. Credit: Mustafa Khalili, Laurence Topham and Rebecca Waters Link to this video
The emergence of a four-year-old letter from the disgraced former News of the World royal correspondent Clive Goodman stating that knowledge of phone hacking was widespread at the paper is particularly explosive because News International (NI) executives have insisted they did not become aware until recent months that the problem extended beyond a rogue reporter.
These are some of the statements made after the company had received the Goodman letter.
2007
March (Days after NI receives Goodman letter)
Les Hinton, former NI chief executive: "I believe absolutely that Andy (Coulson) did not have knowledge of what was going on."
Asked by an MP whether NI had conducted "a full, rigorous internal inquiry" and whether he was "absolutely convinced that Clive Goodman was the only person who knew what was going on", Hinton responded: "Yes, we have and I believe he was the only person, but that investigation, under the new editor, continues."
2008
February
Stuart Kuttner, managing editor of the News of the World, on radio: "It happened once at the News of the World. The reporter was fired; he went to prison. The editor resigned."
2009
July
News International statement after publication of first Guardian hacking story by Nick Davies: "All of these irresponsible and unsubstantiated allegations against News of the World and other News International titles and its journalists are false."
Letter from Rebekah Brooks, then editor of the Sun, to John Whittingdale, chairman of the culture and media committee, in response to Guardian allegations: "The Guardian coverage has, we believe, substantially and likely deliberately misled the British public."
Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World, to the culture and media committee: "I have never condoned the use of phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where phone hacking took place ... I took full responsibility at the time for what happened but without my knowledge and resigned."
August
News of the World editor Colin Myler to the Press Complaints Commission: "Our internal inquiries have found no evidence of involvement by News of the World staff other than Clive Goodman in phone message interception beyond the email transcript which emerged in April 2008 during the Gordon Taylor litigation and which has since been revealed in the original Guardian report."
Myler also told the PCC that allegations by the Guardian that police "found evidence of News Group's staff using private investigators who hacked into thousands of mobile phones", and that the police findings "put the figure at two or three thousand mobiles" were "not just unsubstantiated and irresponsible, they were wholly false".
2010
September
News of the World statement after fresh allegations of widespread hacking under Coulson's editorship of the News of the World: "We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World."
December
Coulson testifying at the Tommy Sheridan perjury trial: "I don't accept there was a culture of phone hacking at the News of the World. All I can tell you is that, as far as my reporters are concerned, the instructions were very clear: they were to work within the law and within the PCC code. It's in their handbooks."
2011
April
NI apologises to eight hacking victims and admits liability in their cases: "Following an extensive internal investigation and disclosures through civil legal cases, News International has decided to approach some civil litigants with an unreserved apology and an admission of liability in cases meeting specific criteria."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/16/phone-hacking-cover-up-denials
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