Dear All
It could be, we are living in a time where an extraordinary event regarding the Murdoch Empire in Britain is taking place.
A while ago I wrote that the NOTW was experiencing a ‘Ratners’ moment when everything the entire empire stood on crumbled to dust.
The News of the World is dead as a title, but the Murdoch press it seems is willing to publish The Sun seven days a week.
I don’t see this change of title solving their problems.
Rebekah Brooks is expected to resign by the British public or be sacked.
It is what the mood of the people demands, the ‘blood price’ as Blair called it.
Now, we get a BBC investigation which has discovered that the Sunday Times is alleged to have targeted the personal information of the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The virus has spread.
Documents and a phone recording suggest "blagging" was used to obtain private financial and property details.
The Brown family are also worried that medical records relating to their son Fraser may have been obtained.
News International has yet to respond to this latest shocking revelation.
Gordon Brown isn’t popular; it wouldn’t be a stretch to say he is actively despised by the public.
But he is entitled to privacy and so are his children.
There are several allegations for Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks to answer.
The first two relate to personal details it is claimed were obtained for a front-page Sunday Times report that Gordon Brown had purchased a flat owned by Robert Maxwell at a 'knock-down price'.
Blagging, or "knowingly or recklessly obtaining or disclosing personal data or information without the consent of the data controller" has been illegal since 1998.
A blagger alleged to be acting for the Sunday Times posed as Brown and obtained details of his Abbey National account in January 2000.
This blagging was discovered by the building society's fraud department.
It is alleged someone successfully called their Bradford call centre six times pretending to be Brown and was given information.
In letters obtained by the BBC, the Abbey National wrote to Sunday Times editor John Witherow concluding it had suspicions that "someone from the Sunday Times or acting on its behalf has masqueraded as Mr Brown for the purpose of obtaining information from Abbey National by deception."
The Abbey National said to Brown's lawyer it was a "well-orchestrated scheme of deception".
Guardian journalist Nick Davis has alleged a former actor John Ford carried out specialised blagging from banks during this period for the Sunday Times.
This allegation is detailed in his book Flat Earth News.
With News International trying to continue with ‘business as usual’, they have to grasp the enormity of their situation.
If it can be proved that Brown's children medical information was targeted, it will be the possible end of the Murdoch empire in Britain.
Rebekah Brooks has to go.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
November 2006
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