Blaggers could be jailed - Clegg

14 July 2011 Last updated at 11:21 GMT By Brian Wheeler Political reporter, BBC News Deputy PM Nick Clegg: "A whole range of professions have been implicated."

People found guilty of obtaining personal details by deception - known as "blagging" - should be jailed, Deputy PM Nick Clegg has said.

Gordon Brown attempted to introduce prison terms of up to two years for the offence when he was in power.

But the law was never enacted amid concerns from newspaper bosses.

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre said at the time that the "frightening amendment" would "have a truly chilling effect on good journalism".

But in a speech earlier on press freedom, Mr Clegg said it was time to think again in the light of recent revelations about the alleged behaviour of journalists - and investigators hired by them - at News International.

'Under review'

Mr Clegg said: "On the issue of selling confidential information to journalists specifically, a whole range of professions have been implicated.

"Not just the police, but also private investigators, medical professionals and phone companies. Under the current law, for fraud and phone hacking you can go to prison.

"Whereas, under Section 55 of the Data Protection Act, unlawful use of personal data can get you a fine.

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We want to get to the root cause of blagging - the incentive for stealing information and selling it on”

End Quote Information Commissioner's Office "The Information Commissioner recommended in 2006 that that offence should also attract a custodial sentence.

"It wasn't taken up then, and this government has said it will keep it under review.

"I think that now - where it cannot be proved that information was obtained in the public interest - there is a case for looking at this issue again."

Knowingly or recklessly obtaining or disclosing personal information without consent is an offence under Section 55 of Data Protection Act 1998.

However, the act also offers a defence, which is available to anyone who shows that obtaining, disclosing or procuring the information was in the public interest. The public interest defence has never been tested in court.

'Root cause'

Mr Clegg's announcement was welcomed by the Information Commissioner's office, which has been calling for tougher penalties for breaking the Data Protection Act since 2006.

"We believe a custodial sentence is necessary. If it goes to magistrates court, the maximum fine is ?5,000 and that can easily be written off as a business expense," said a spokesman.

"We want to get to the root cause of blagging - the incentive for stealing information and selling it on.

"We believe the threat of a custodial sentence will stop the problem overnight."

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This legislation would have made Britain the only country in the free world to jail journalists and could have had a considerable chilling effect on good journalism”

End Quote Paul Dacre Daily Mail editor in 2008 In a 2008 speech to the Society of Editors, Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre described how he had persuaded then Prime Minister Gordon Brown to rethink the proposals to protect press freedom.

He said: "The fourth issue we raised with Gordon Brown was a truly frightening amendment to the Data Protection Act, winding its way through Parliament, under which journalists faced being jailed for two years for illicitly obtaining personal information such as ex-directory telephone numbers or an individual's gas bills or medical records.

"This legislation would have made Britain the only country in the free world to jail journalists and could have had a considerable chilling effect on good journalism.

"The prime minister - I don't think it is breaking confidences to reveal - was hugely sympathetic to the industry's case and promised to do what he could to help.

"Over the coming months and battles ahead, Mr Brown was totally true to his word."

'Knee-jerk'

In May 2006, the Information Commissioner exposed the trade in details about people's lives - and said journalists were among the main customers.

The report revealed that 305 journalists had been identified during one investigation - Operation Motorman - as customers who were driving the illegal trade in confidential personal information.

It found nine magazines and 22 newspapers had regularly used a private investigator to access illegally-obtained information. A subsequent Freedom of Information request showed where the journalists were employed.

The Daily Mail used the private investigator the most, clocking up 952 transactions - almost five times that used by the News of the World (NoW), the now-defunct newspaper that started the phone-hacking scandal.

The Criminal Justice Act of 2008 provides for a maximum two-year sentence for illegally obtaining personal information without its owner's consent.

It is on the statute book but has never been enacted, meaning it can not be used by judges or magistrates.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "The government is keeping the matter of penalties for offences committed under section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998 under review."

Mr Clegg also used his speech to urge politicians to "resist any temptation to impose knee-jerk, short-sighted restrictions on the media" in the aftermath of the scandal surrounding News International.

The government has launched a judge-led inquiry into press conduct, after allegations of phone hacking and payments to the police.

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Call to cut back Murdoch empire

17 July 2011 Last updated at 03:11 GMT Ed Miliband said current media ownership rules were "outdated" Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for new media ownership rules to limit the "dangerous" concentration of power in Rupert Murdoch's hands.

Mr Murdoch had an "unhealthy" market share that led to "abuses of power", Mr Miliband told the Observer.

It comes as Mr Murdoch's company, News International, placed a second round of adverts in national newspapers saying how it will address wrongdoing.

Its newspaper, the News of the World, shut amid phone hacking allegations.

With that closure, The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and 39% of digital broadcaster BSkyB remain in the News Corporation stable.

Calling for new ownership rules, Mr Miliband said: "I think that we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20% of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News.

"I think it's unhealthy because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation. If you want to minimise the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous."

He told the Observer that current media ownership rules were outdated, describing them as "analogue rules for a digital age" that do not take into account the advent of mass digital and satellite broadcasting.

'Backfired terribly'

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police has disputed reports that a journalist arrested over the phone-hacking scandal had arranged a stay at a luxury health resort for its commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson.

Sir Paul Stephenson denied he accepted hospitality from a former News of the World journalist

Scotland Yard made the statement in response to newspaper reports that former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis was a PR consultant for Champneys health spa when Sir Paul stayed there earlier this year after an operation.

"The accommodation and meals were arranged and provided by Stephen Purdew, MD of Champneys, who is a personal family friend who has no connection with, or links to, his [Sir Paul's] professional life," the Met said.

Mr Purdew said he was "outraged" at the suggestions that the stay had anything to do with Mr Wallis.

'Rebuild trust'

The advert placed by News International in national newspapers on Sunday describes how the company is "putting right what's gone wrong".

It says it has set up an independent management and standards committee to see how the company can prevent similar instances happening again.

It has also asked law firm Olswang to carry out an investigation and a former High Court judge is overseeing the compensation scheme for hacking victims.

News International still owns three national newspapers after the News of the World was closed

So far, celebrities including actress Sienna Miller and football pundit Andy Gray have accepted damages from the compensation fund, believed to be worth ?20m.

The advert says: "It may take time for us to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our readers, colleagues and partners."

The Liberal Democrats have written to media regulator Ofcom calling for it to investigate whether the owners of the BSkyB licence are "fit and proper" following the allegations around News Corp.

Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes, media spokesman Don Foster and party president Tim Farron asked the watchdog to investigate in light of "the manifest public concern about News International's activities, the close integration of News International with its parent company News Corporation, (and) News Corp's effective control of BSkyB".

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said: "We received this letter early on Friday evening. We will be considering our response next week."

She added that the regulator was continuing to gather information and has already written "to a number of relevant authorities and can confirm that follow-up meetings will now be taking place."

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High speed rail debate hots up

13 July 2011 Last updated at 14:43 GMT The high speed trains debate has divided public and political opinion It's like Marmite: you love it or hate it but you can't be undecided.

HS2 is either a vanity project and a waste of money or it is a transformational scheme which will rebalance the British economy.

And by one of those coincidences that happen only in politics, two unrelated but simultaneous sequences of events have conspired together to sharpen the debate.

The six month statutory consultation period, due to end on 29 July, has witnessed a storm of protest along the proposed route.

Parallel tracks A map illustrating part of the proposed route of the London to Birmingham high speed line

Once-sleepy Warwickshire villages like Ladbroke and Burton Joyce have become hotbeds of protest and dissent with local people parading their mascot: yes, inevitably, it's a white elephant!

At the same time, the Commons Transport Select Committee is conducting its own inquiry into the ?36bn project.

They have just returned from a fact finding trip to the high-speed lines in Germany and France. The MPs say they could find no one who thought we in Britain should not follow their lead.

The benefits are very marginal... I'm as productive on the train as I am in my office”

End Quote Jerry Marshall AGAHST

This week, the two converged: the select committee questioned opponents of HS2 including Jerry Marshall, the chairman of Action Groups Against High-Speed (AGAHST).

Action Groups Against High-Speed Trains is the umbrella organisation co-ordinating what might otherwise have become a haphazard assortment of local campaigns, some driven by environmental issues, others more concerned with the fortunes of the local golf club.

Mr Marshall did not pull his punches.

The reduced journey times would produce 'very marginal benefits' which did not justify even the initial ?17bn stretch between London and Birmingham, let alone the full ?36bn network between London and Scotland.

Reconnecting the regions

There is a general recognition among supporters of the project that the opponents of HS2 have made much of the early running.

High speed rail is a transformational project - it will help rebalance the economy”

End Quote David Cameron Prime Minister

Significantly, an all-party group of MPs has come together to talk up high-speed rail.

Their Secretary, the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, Gisela Stuart, sees HS2 as the essential mechanism for reconnecting our more, and less, prosperous regions and combating the threats of the two-speed economy.

And so the debate goes on.

With the results of the public consultation not due to be made known until the end of the year, we're not exactly on the fast track...

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MPs' plea to restore staff bonus

13 July 2011 Last updated at 17:30 GMT By Emma Griffiths Political reporter, BBC News Committee chairman Sir Ian Kennedy gave evidence to MPs The MPs' expenses watchdog has been asked to reconsider bonuses for MPs staff - which have stopped under the new system.

Tory MP Richard Bacon said MPs' staff used to be able to get bonuses of between ?1,000 and ?3,500 a year.

Many people had lost a "chunk of their income" as a result and there was "a lot of feeling" about the issue.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said it had not been ruled out.

But Ipsa's accounting officer Scott Woolveridge added: "Right now, the time is not quite right".

The issue came up at a meeting of the public accounts committee - which was questioning Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy, Mr Woolveridge and finance director Bob Evans about how the organisation's cost effectiveness.

'Healthy buffer'

The previous MPs' expenses system was discredited during the expenses scandal in 2009 - all parties agreed to move to a new independently run system and Ipsa took over payments after last year's general election.

Mr Bacon told them that under the old system, MPs staff could get up to a maximum of 15% of their salary as a bonus.

"We are not talking about very highly paid people, you were talking usually about payments of between ?1,000 and ?3,500.

"They've now gone - which for many members of staff is a very significant chunk of their income," Mr Bacon said.

He said MPs used to keep a "healthy buffer" in the staff budget to deal with unexpected costs and if it turned out those costs were not needed "then you decided on your bonuses".

He asked what Ipsa's view was of the role of bonuses in managing staff "to achieve performance" and suggested he revisit the issue.

Not city bonuses

Mr Woolveridge said Ipsa's board had looked at what was common across the public sector for staff on similar salaries.

"We didn't generally find that bonuses were being paid so we adopted broadly that model."

But Mr Bacon challenged him and said he was not talking about "city bonuses" adding: "It's quite common across the public sector for there to be bonuses".

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The more we can make this a matter of routine, the more confidence MPs can have they can go to the doorstep without this being the first item of conversation”

End Quote Ian Kennedy Ipsa chairman He said there were about 80 senior Commons staff on more than ?50,000 a year for whom bonuses of between ?4,500 and ?8,000 were still being paid.

Another Conservative MP, James Wharton, said being able to pay bonuses allowed MPs more "flexibility" to deal with unexpected costs throughout the year - and not having that flexibility could lead them to make more claims on a contingency fund.

Mr Woolveridge said the issue "may come back onto the agenda after the public sector pay freeze". He added that Ipsa was planning a staffing review which would cover some of the issues raised.

He said staff bonuses were considered "not appropriate" at the moment but "we may come back to this, it's not something we have ruled out but we have to be mindful of what I think was in the public perception - that on occasions bonuses were paid to use up staffing allowances."

Chairman Margaret Hodge said it was "potty" that 38% of all claims cost more to process than they actually paid out - Mr Woolveridge said they were comparable to other legislatures.

Another MP, Lib Dem Ian Swales, complained MPs were "embarrassed" about making small claims - and said the cost of processing claims appeared to be "out of all proportion".

Sir Ian Kennedy, chairman of Ipsa, suggested the routine publication of MPs' expenses has led to a dip in public interest in the topic.

He said while the first publication of all expenses online had attracted more than 10,000 hits - the fifth publication attracted only 83.

"The more we can make this .... a matter of routine and matter not of comment, the more confidence MPs can have they can go to the doorstep without this being the first item of conversation they have to deal with," he said.

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Titans clash

14 July 2011 Last updated at 12:48 GMT By Peter Jackson and Tom de Castella BBC News Press barons down the ages were prone to inflate their power, historians say The actions of Rupert Murdoch's newspaper group have drawn the wrath of Westminster, but this is not the first time that politicians have done battle with mighty press barons.

When the Times flexed its considerable muscle at the ruling classes of the mid-19th century, it was enough to turn the politicians' faces the shade of a modern-day red-top.

Known as the Thunderer, it was arguably the most influential daily in the world, of which Abraham Lincoln said: "I don't know of anything which has more power, except perhaps the Mississippi."

When press titans have tried to push their own political agenda, power struggles have occasionally erupted, sometimes in spectacular fashion.

Baldwin disliked the insolence of the press barons

Historian Dr Piers Brendon has described UK press magnates as "mad, bad, dangerous-to-know beasts in the newspaper jungle who did what they wanted". He may well have had Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook in mind.

The respective owners of the Daily Mail and Daily Express arguably held a tighter grip on the news agenda than modern-day magnates. These tycoons were free from the diluting influence of TV, radio and other media.

The Express covered the entire spectrum of classes and in the 1930s was the first paper to have a circulation of two million - a huge total at the time.

In 1930 the barons almost ousted former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin as leader of the Conservative party by running two separate campaigns against him on the issue of empire free trade.

Baldwin favoured protectionism whilst the two Lords wanted the British Empire to become a free trade bloc, setting them on a political collision course.

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The model for press barons is William Randolph Hearst. He owned almost 30 papers throughout America and was satirised in the movie Citizen Kane.

He's credited with the invention of tabloid journalism in the 1890s when his New York Journal began a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. He also had a reputation as a warmonger.

"You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war," goes an apocryphal instruction he was supposed to have sent in a telegram to an illustrator in Havana.

Hearst's papers pioneered big headlines, lots of pictures, cartoons, crime and xenophobia.

Nothing's really changed, says Chris Horrie, author of Tabloid Nation, the barons still follow his lead. "They all want to be Hearst. You start wars, select presidents and in the end go mad."

When Beaverbrook formed the Empire Free Trade Crusade, a campaigning political party, and started running by-election candidates alongside Rothermere, Baldwin snapped.

On 17 March 1931 he delivered his now famous speech at the Queens Hall in London, some of which was supplied by his cousin Rudyard Kipling.

"Their newspapers are not newspapers in the ordinary acceptance of the term, they are engines of propaganda for the constantly changing policies, desires, personal wishes, personal likes and personal dislikes of two men," he thundered.

"What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, but power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."

Dr Brendon, author of The Life and Death of the Press Baron, says the use of Kipling's phrase "harlot" was genuinely shocking at the time, and enough to shut the barons up.

He says Beaverbrook had openly admitted running his newspapers to promote his own political agenda, and was unapologetic.

A year earlier, Rothermere refused to support Baldwin unless he provided him with the names of at least eight out of 10 of his future cabinet should he be elected.

Baldwin replied: "A more preposterous and insolent demand was never made on a leader of any political party. I repudiate it with contempt and I will fight that attempt at domination to the end."

King was the nephew of Northcliffe and Rothermere

Cecil King is notorious for trying to bring down the government of Harold Wilson with a front page.

He was chairman of the Daily Mirror's parent group during the 1960s when the paper sold over five million copies. By 1968 he had become disillusioned with Wilson's government and moved to topple the prime minister.

On 10 May, he went over the head of Mirror editor Hugh Cudlipp and ran a front page with the headline "Enough is enough."

Geoffrey Goodman, a former assistant editor of the Daily Mirror, described it in the Guardian as a "sensational piece written and signed by King demanding Wilson's dismissal by his own government and removal from 10 Downing Street".

Mr Wilson has lost all credibility: all authority, Cecil King wrote

But the move backfired. When King called a meeting of those he hoped to recruit for his national government, they reacted to his plan by calling him a traitor and storming out.

And the Mirror Group board responded by sacking King and replacing him with Cudlipp. "It was a mad idea," says Roy Greenslade, who wrote about the episode in his book Press Gang.

The genesis of King's anger with Wilson was a sense of injustice, Greenslade believes. He had wanted a cabinet post when Wilson's government was elected in 1964.

He also viewed Wilson's policies as too left wing. In the end, his behaviour was continuing a venerable family tradition. King's mother was the daughter of Lord Northcliffe.

"There was something in the genes," Greenslade says. "It all goes back to Northcliffe."

Northcliffe was the first of the great buccaneering press barons of the 20th century

"In terms of the press baronetcy, Northcliffe is number one," says Roy Greenslade.

Born Alfred Harmsworth in Ireland, he was a pioneer of tabloid newspapers. With younger brother Harold - later the first Lord Rothermere - he launched the mass market Daily Mail and later bought the Times.

The former became the highest selling newspaper in the land, while the latter gave him a direct line to the British establishment.

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Northcliffe became obsessed with Perrier water and Bolsheviks, Cecil King believed he could foresee the future, and ex-Daily Mirror owner Robert Maxwell reportedly once holed up in a penthouse suite organising world peace via phone calls to Mother Teresa.

Indeed the telephone is the weapon of choice for press barons, says Piers Brendon.

Beaverbrook would ring up editors in the middle of the night, while entwined with a giggling lover.

Maxwell was a "great brute who liked to act as God on five telephones".

Source: Ian Jack, Chris Horrie, Piers Brendon

Before World War I his papers demanded a strongly anti-German line, prompting the Daily Star to declare: "Next to the Kaiser, Lord Northcliffe has done more than any living man to bring about the war".

By this point, his newspapers accounted for half of those sold in London. In 1915 the Times seriously undermined PM Herbert Asquith, paving the way for Northcliffe favourite David Lloyd George to replace him in Downing Street the following year.

Lloyd George responded by offering him a seat in cabinet. Northcliffe declined and instead took up the post of director of propaganda.

"He had the masses with the Daily Mail and the ruling classes with the Times," Greenslade says.

For a time the vast circulation of his papers gave him unrivalled power.

For sheer political influence, he was surpassed by Lord Beaverbrook, Greenslade believes. But Northcliffe remains a towering figure in the history of newspaper proprietors.

He is credited with the line: "News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress, everything else is advertising". (A variant of this is also attributed to US newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst.)

The cartoonist Max Beerbohm portrayed him struggling to restrain his tabloid instincts, with the line: "'Help! Again I feel the demons of sensationalism rising within me! Hold me fast!'" His legacy lives on today in the form of Northcliffe House in Kensington, home to the Daily Mail.

Beaverbrook was born in Canada and published his first newspaper as a teenager

In the austere years following World War II, Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee used a different method to tackle a hostile press - flatly ignoring them.

It was a tactic that proved highly successful, according to Dr Brendon, as it allowed him to focus on policies such as establishing the welfare state and nationalising major industries.

By now, Express owner Lord Beaverbrook - the first baron of Fleet Street - presided over the world's largest selling newspaper with a circulation approaching four million.

He had a reputation to be able to make or break almost anyone.

Historian and author Richard Heller says Attlee was so removed from the media that he had to be persuaded by his press secretary, Francis Williams, to install a tape machine at Number 10 to monitor breaking news.

Williams only sold the idea to cricket fanatic Attlee on the basis that it would give him access to the latest scores, Heller says.

One day when Attlee was checking the scores he was horrified to notice that the machine was also clattering out political news, the historian adds.

"Francis," Attlee said, "My cricket machine's gone wrong. It's putting out stuff about the government."

Williams replied: "I know, prime minister, I put it there."

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AUDIO: Hague 'not embarrassed' over NI

Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that he is not personally embarrassed by the Conservatives' relationship with News International editors and executives.

But speaking on the Today programme, he said accepted the relationship between the press and politicians had to change.

"There is something wrong here in the country and that it must be put right has been acknowledged by the prime minister and I think that is the right attitude to take," he told John Humphrys.

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PM's Murdoch press links defended

16 July 2011 Last updated at 17:54 GMT Rupert Murdoch's printed apology promises further steps "to make amends for the damage caused". Foreign Secretary William Hague has defended David Cameron, saying he was "not embarrassed" by the extent of the PM's dealings with News International.

Mr Cameron has met its top executives 26 times in the 15 months since he became prime minister, it emerged.

Mr Hague defended the PM's decision to entertain Andy Coulson after the latter quit as an aide over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

In press ads, Rupert Murdoch apologises for "serious wrongdoing" by the paper.

The Mail on Sunday said on Saturday that its former news editor Sebastian Hamilton and ex-investigations editor Dennis Rice had been told by Scotland Yard that their phones may have been hacked by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

Mulcaire was jailed in 2007, along with former New of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, after admitting intercepting voicemail messages on royal aides' phones.

A list of engagements released by Downing Street shows that Rebekah Brooks, who quit as News International chief executive on Friday, had been entertained at the prime minister's official residence Chequers in June and August last year.

News International chairman James Murdoch also attended Chequers in November.

There were further social meetings between Mr Cameron, and James Murdoch and Mrs Brooks, last December.

Mr Coulson stayed at Chequers in March this year, two months after he quit as Downing Street director of communications following fresh allegations of phone hacking under his editorship at the News of the World.

"In inviting Andy Coulson back, the prime minister has invited someone back to thank him for his work - he's worked for him for several years - that is a normal, human thing to do," Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I think it shows a positive side to his character."

Mr Coulson was arrested last week as part of the police inquiry into phone hacking.

Regarding Mr Cameron's meetings with various News International executives, Mr Hague said: "I don't think that would be very different from previous prime ministers.

"Personally I'm not embarrassed by it in any way - but there is something wrong here in this country and it must be put right. It's been acknowledged by the prime minister and I think that's the right attitude to take."

Continue reading the main story

It sort of fuels the perception - certainly the accusation from Labour - that the prime minister was too close to News International”

End Quote Norman Smith BBC Radio 4 chief political correspondent The 26 meetings or events involving News International figures compares with: nine involving Telegraph Media Group figures; four meetings involving Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday; four meetings involving the Evening Standard.

BBC Radio 4 chief political correspondent Norman Smith said: "It's pointed out that News International is a formidable player in the British media market and therefore it's perhaps understandable that the prime minister should devote so much time to them.

"Similarly, when you look at the list, many of the meetings were for things like charity receptions or award ceremonies. They were sort of informal gatherings rather than serious, across-the-table discussions with senior executives at News International.

"Nevertheless, it sort of fuels the perception - certainly the accusation from Labour - that the prime minister was too close to News International."

The prime minister's relationship with Mr Coulson was "the one thing that could profoundly damage Mr Cameron from all these hacking allegations," our correspondent added.

"Still Mr Cameron seems unwilling to disown Andy Coulson, repeatedly stressing the good work he did in Downing Street and in no sense cutting him loose."

'Lack of judgement'

Labour's Lord Prescott accused Mr Cameron of being "very much wrapped into the Murdoch operations".

Shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis said the disclosure of the list of engagements offered "yet more evidence of an extraordinary lack of judgement by David Cameron".

The apology letter appeared in several Murdoch papers and other titles

"He hosted Andy Coulson at Chequers after, in the prime minister's own words, Mr Coulson's second chance hadn't worked out.

"David Cameron may think that this is a good day to bury bad news but he now has an increasing number of serious questions to answer."

Rupert Murdoch has taken out full-page advertisements in several newspapers on Saturday, using the space to say: "We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred."

The printed apology expresses regret for not acting faster "to sort things out".

"I realise that simply apologising is not enough. Our business was founded on the idea that a free and open press should be a positive force in society. We need to live up to this.

"In the coming days, as we take further concrete steps to resolve these issues and make amends for the damage they have caused, you will hear more from us," says the statement, signed "sincerely, Rupert Murdoch".

MPs' questions

Rupert and James Murdoch and Mrs Brooks are due to appear in front of the Commons media select committee on Tuesday to answer MPs' questions on the hacking scandal.

Mrs Brooks was editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003, during which time the phone belonging to murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was tampered with.

As well as her resignation, senior News Corporation executive Les Hinton quit on Friday.

Mrs Brooks has been replaced by Tom Mockridge, who was in charge of News Corporation's Italian broadcasting arm.

In a resignation statement, Mrs Brooks said she felt a "deep responsibility for the people we have hurt".

Mr Cameron said through a spokesman that her resignation was "the right decision".

Mr Hinton, chief executive of the media group's Dow Jones, said in a statement that he was "ignorant of what apparently happened" but felt it was proper to resign.

The most senior executive to leave the conglomerate, Mr Hinton was previously head of News International from 1995 to 2007 and has worked with Rupert Murdoch for more than five decades.

On Friday, Rupert Murdoch apologised to Milly Dowler's family at a meeting in London.

The family's solicitor Mark Lewis said the newspaper boss looked very shaken up and upset during the talks, which were arranged at short notice.

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