In 2011, one of the biggest international media industry stories was the phone hacking scandal at the News International U.K. newspaper unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The past year brought settlements with such celebrities as Hugh Grant and singer/actress Charlotte Church. But it also brought formal charges against former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson and others on charges of hacking. Brooks and others are also accused of conspiring to "pervert the course of justice." Trials are expected to start in the fall of 2013. More fallout will come in the new year from the Leveson Inquiry report that proposed stricter regulation of the British press, which is currently being hotly debated.
LONDON – Five defendants, including former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks and former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, have failed to stop their prosecution on phone hacking charges.
They are set for trials that are scheduled to start in September.
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The five had pushed for the charges to be dismissed by Britain’s Court of Appeal, which on Friday dismissed their appeals.
Beyond Brooks and Coulson, the defendants were former News of the World senior reporter James Weatherup, former managing editor Stuart Kuttner and former news editor Ian Edmondson.
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The five, who weren’t in court for Friday’s decision, had pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the phone-hacking scandal earlier this month.
In calling for the phone-hacking charges to be dropped, their lawyers had argued that the language in the relevant laws does “not extend to cover voicemail messages once they have been accessed by the intended recipient.”
E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
