nine years ago when the story was run i m told now that the story you re referring to was a single column on page 9 of the newspaper of that edition. i am sure questions were asked about where that story that information came from. they will be asked of the reporter, or they will have been asked of the news editor. the night editor would have checked them. the lawyer would have checked them and there would sr-pb a process around every story whether it s a single column or the front page. there would have been something around where that information came from. and i can tell you now that it would not have been the case that someone said, oh, yes, that came from an illegal voice mail interception. it seems now that it s inconceivable that people didn t know this was the case, but at the time it wasn t a practice that was condoned or sanctioned at the news of the world under
without your knowledge who was an employee of yours at news of the world decided without talking to the editor, or maybe did consult to pass that onto the police. is that is that the case? is that the chain half events? i think i understand the question, i think it s important to say that obviously the milly dowler news story went on for many years, and i had been editor of news of the world and the sun while the investigation was on going. what i thought you were referring to was when did i first hear and allegation that milly dowler s phone or voice mail had been intercepted by either someone working for the news of the world or authorized by someone at the news of the world, and the first time i d ever heard that was two weeks ago. right. the information was imparted to the police about hablgin hackine
my own voice mails and i reported that back to the company and was exempt from any subsequent investigation. i just remained editor of the sun. when i became chief executive in 2009 that s when i started to pick up much more responsibility of how we acted, and getting to the bottom of this story. can i just move onto milly dowler. after that story, which was the straw that broke the camel s back finally, your company on your behalf i assume was very quick to distance you from being anywhere on the premises at the time that particular story was run, but they said and it s been questioned in these papers that you were on holiday at the time. is that the case? it s slightly irrelevant where i was. i was the editor of at the time.
that not the case. look, we v particularly, i tk this committee held an inquiry into the operation which was incredibly extensive. every single letter from fleet street was called to this committee. as far as i was concerned the failings of all these papers in not understanding the extent of the use of private investigators across fleet street was held to account then, and there were many changes because of operation motor man to the data perception abt. and although i accept the knowledge of the observer, it s far better than mine, they did a very good editorial on this i think about three months ago, sort of addressing, again, readdressing that khraoeup at then and how different it is
person fighting the establishment. would you say when you became editor and your relationship with those prime ministers, there was a shift in actually the news international became parts of the establishment as opposed to being anti-establishment? considering the amount of complaints i used to get from both prime ministers about the coverage in the sun they would say that many not the case. one of the main campaigns we have had is for help for heroes. i think the sun is the paper for the military and that caused to us have very, very uncomfortable conversations particularly with prime minister gordon brown. and one of the issues that still is apparent today as it was back then is the lack of awareness of other aspects of the media and of parliament to acknowledge that currently we have soldiers