Zimpapers Logo

over the phone hacking scandal, British media reported.
Scotland Yard said in a statement that a 43-year-old woman had been arrested over allegations of phone hacking and corruption.
They would not confirm it was Brooks and there was no immediate comment from News International.
Sky News, which is part of Murdoch’s British media empire, and the BBC both reported it was Brooks, who resigned as head of News International on Friday.
“The MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) yesterday afternoon arrested a female in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking,” Scotland Yard said in a statement.
“At approximately 1200hrs a 43-year-old woman was arrested by appointment at a London police station by officers from Operation Weeting together with officers from Operation Elveden. She is currently in custody.”
Operation Weeting is investigating that the force reopened into hacking in January. Operation Elveden is a separate probe looking at payments by the News of the World to police officers in return for information.
“She was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section (1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906,” the statement added.
Those arrested so far over the scandal include Prime Minister David Cameron’s former communciations chief and one-time News of the World editor Andy Coulson.
Coulson’s deputy, Neil Wallis, was arrested last Thursday.
Scotland Yard has since faced questions over why it hired Wallis, who went on to become the paper’s executive editor, as an advisor two months after he quit the tabloid in 2009.
The force’s chief, Paul Stephenson, was also linked to Wallis in reports which said Stephenson accepted a five-week stay earlier this year at a luxury health spa where Wallis worked as a PR consultant.
A police spokesman strongly denied any wrongdoing, saying Stephenson’s meals and accommodation were provided by the spa’s managing director, a personal friend, while he was recovering from a serious operation.
In April police arrested News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck (50) and former assistant editor (news) Ian Edmondson.
Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch faced calls yesterday for the break-up of his British empire despite issuing a second public apology for the phone-hacking scandal that has gone to the heart of the establishment.
The media baron’s latest bid to atone for the crisis spawned by the News of the World tabloid fell on deaf ears as opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband called for new ownership laws to dismantle Murdoch’s British media interests.
Britain’s top police officer meanwhile came under renewed pressure as interior minister Theresa May prepared to issue a statement detailing “concerns” on Scotland Yard’s links with former Murdoch executives.
Miliband told The Observer that British politicians had to “look at the situation” whereby Murdoch was able to own more than 20 percent of the newspaper market plus have a large stake in satellite television.
“I think he has too much power over British public life,” said Miliband, who is enjoying a boost in the polls for his stance over the crisis.
Murdoch owns The Sun, Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, The Times and The Sunday Times, having closed the News of the World a week ago over the hacking claims. His family also owns a 39 percent share in pay-TV giant BSkyB.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, of the Liberal Democrats, agreed that there should be more “plurality” in the British media.
Clegg also urged Murdoch to “come absolutely clean” when he, his son James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, former head of his British newspaper wing News International, face a grilling by lawmakers this week.
A gruelling week for Murdoch in which he shut the News of the World and abandoned his offer for BSkyB got worse on Friday as he let go two top executives – Brooks and Dow Jones chief Les Hinton.
Abandoning his earlier defiance, Murdoch placed ads in most of Britain’s Sunday newspapers entitled “Putting right what’s gone wrong”, a day after taking out full-page, signed ads in the British press saying “We Are Sorry.”
Yesterday’s ads promised to fully cooperate with police investigating the hacking and provide compensation for those targeted, adding: “There are no excuses and there should be no place to hide.”
In a further blow, however, the Sunday Telegraph reported that board members at BSkyB will hold a special session on July 28 to discuss James Murdoch’s future as chairman.
The Murdoch empire’s links to the British establishment also came under fresh scrutiny.
Lawmaker John Whittingdale, the head of the parliamentary committee that will grill Murdoch tomorrow, defended himself over reports that he was a Facebook “friend” of Brooks, Hinton and Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth.
News International’s ties with the police have also emerged in more detail, as London’s Metropolitan Police revealed that Commissioner Paul Stephenson met its executives and editors 18 times socially between 2006 and 2010.
Scotland Yard has faced criticism for failing to unearth information on thousands of victims when the phone hacking allegations first emerged in 2005.
Stephenson was linked to former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis in media reports yesterday, which said the police chief accepted a five-week stay earlier this year at a luxury health spa where Wallis worked as a PR consultant.
The force is already facing questions about why it hired Wallis as an advisor just two months after he quit the tabloid. Wallis was arrested last week over the phone hacking scandal.
A police spokesman strongly denied any wrongdoing, saying Stephenson’s meals and accommodation were provided by the spa’s managing director, a personal friend, while he was recovering from a serious operation.
Home Secretary Theresa May will make a statement to parliament on Monday to set out her “concerns” about the hiring of Wallis, Home Office minister James Brokenshire said.
Prime Minister David Cameron was also forced on the defensive after it emerged that he personally had 26 meetings in 15 months with key figures in Murdoch’s hierachy.
Cameron hosted Brooks and James Murdoch at his country retreat, Chequers.
Foreign Secretary William Hague also defended Cameron’s decision to invite Andy Coulson, his former media chief and another one-time editor of the News of the World tabloid, to Chequers in March, two months after Coulson quit Downing Street.
Coulson was arrested last week in connection with the scandal. The phone hacking scandal is also being investigated by the US FBI. – AFP.