Tabloid editor-turned-UK PM aide arrested for phone hack

London - 09 July 2011: British Prime Minister David Cameron's ex-communications chief Andy Coulson, who was editor of the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World, and a former royals' editor for the tabloid were arrested on Friday as a scandal over phone hacking and bribing police rocked Britain and 10 Downing Street and raised concerns about journalistic ethics. Editors and reporters of the 168-year-old tabloid face serious charges of not only crossing the ethical line but stepping beyond law to grab eyeballs and face serious charges of hacking phone messages of celebrities and even bribing police officers when Coulson was chief editor from 2003 to 2007. He quit after royal reporter Clive Goodman and a private investigator were jailed for hacking into phones of royal aides.

A beleaguered Cameron, known to be close to Murdoch as well as News Corp chief executive Rebekah Brooks, rushed to distance himself from the affair and promised urgent inquiries into failures by politicians, police and the press. His proximity to the tabloid bosses has turned into a major embarrassment as outrage grew over the way the tabloid had hacked cell phones, even that of a 13-year-old murder victim in 2002 while her family and police were looking for her. The tabloid operatives reportedly deleted some messages from the phone's voicemail giving her parents false hope.

Dozens of companies pulled their advertising from the paper this week fearing association would taint them. Murdoch on Thursday announced he was shutting down the paper, Britain's oldest. The last edition is scheduled for Sunday. London police confirmed 43-year-old Coulson's arrest "in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking," less than an hour after the prime minister addressed a hurriedly convened presser over the scandal. Cops were also searching his London home for more evidence.

source: TOI