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| Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson charges set new context for Leveson | Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson charges set new context for Leveson |
| (5 months later) | |
| It is less than two weeks before Lord Justice Leveson is expected to deliver his final report on press standards and regulation – and the additional charges made against Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks on Tuesday morning set a fresh context for the judge as he continues with writing up his final report. | It is less than two weeks before Lord Justice Leveson is expected to deliver his final report on press standards and regulation – and the additional charges made against Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks on Tuesday morning set a fresh context for the judge as he continues with writing up his final report. |
| The charges against Rebekah Brooks, the former Sun editor, and the Sun's chief reporter, John Kay, bring Rupert Murdoch's daily tabloid into the charging picture for the first time. Significantly, the CPS said that the charges against the two for alleged misconduct in a public office cover the period between 2004 and as recently as 2011 – when payments to MoD official Bettina Jordan-Barber totalling about £100,000 are alleged to have been made. | The charges against Rebekah Brooks, the former Sun editor, and the Sun's chief reporter, John Kay, bring Rupert Murdoch's daily tabloid into the charging picture for the first time. Significantly, the CPS said that the charges against the two for alleged misconduct in a public office cover the period between 2004 and as recently as 2011 – when payments to MoD official Bettina Jordan-Barber totalling about £100,000 are alleged to have been made. |
| Meanwhile, as David Cameron weighs up how he will respond to Leveson, the prime minister has to deal with the additional complication of the fact that the man who was his director of communications until January 2011 has again been charged. Coulson already faces five charges of conspiring to hack into phones – charges denied by the man who edited the News of the World between 2003 and his resignation in 2007. | Meanwhile, as David Cameron weighs up how he will respond to Leveson, the prime minister has to deal with the additional complication of the fact that the man who was his director of communications until January 2011 has again been charged. Coulson already faces five charges of conspiring to hack into phones – charges denied by the man who edited the News of the World between 2003 and his resignation in 2007. |
| With his former close associates in such focus, Cameron will have to demonstrate that any decision he takes as regards Leveson's next steps has been done without consideration to the adviser he brought with him from opposition into No 10 after the general election – and the woman with whom he exchanged texts so intimate he signed them "Lol" meaning "lots of love". | With his former close associates in such focus, Cameron will have to demonstrate that any decision he takes as regards Leveson's next steps has been done without consideration to the adviser he brought with him from opposition into No 10 after the general election – and the woman with whom he exchanged texts so intimate he signed them "Lol" meaning "lots of love". |
| Although Coulson is denying and Brooks is likely to deny the charges levied against them, it will be easy for opponents to invoke their names in pursuit of political points. | Although Coulson is denying and Brooks is likely to deny the charges levied against them, it will be easy for opponents to invoke their names in pursuit of political points. |
| For News International, though, the story about alleged corrupt payments to public officials is far from over – and the Sun is now in the spotlight. A total of 21 Sun journalists were arrested in the early part of this year over the allegations – and one, Kay, a totemic figure at the Sun, has now been charged. Over the coming weeks and months, the police will decide whether to refer other such cases to the CPS for a charging decision; a long wait for the journalists involved, most of whom are now back working at Britain's best-selling tabloid with the approval of the company's management. | For News International, though, the story about alleged corrupt payments to public officials is far from over – and the Sun is now in the spotlight. A total of 21 Sun journalists were arrested in the early part of this year over the allegations – and one, Kay, a totemic figure at the Sun, has now been charged. Over the coming weeks and months, the police will decide whether to refer other such cases to the CPS for a charging decision; a long wait for the journalists involved, most of whom are now back working at Britain's best-selling tabloid with the approval of the company's management. |
| There have been plenty of arguments about whether paying sources in the public sector for information would represent legitimate public-interest journalism, and they are likely to emerge in full volume soon enough. However, the Crown Prosecution Service has a duty to make a similar assessment, on the basis of guidance that asks prosecutors "to consider whether the public interest served by the conduct in question outweighs the overall criminality before bringing criminal proceedings". But the debate is unlikely to stop just there. | There have been plenty of arguments about whether paying sources in the public sector for information would represent legitimate public-interest journalism, and they are likely to emerge in full volume soon enough. However, the Crown Prosecution Service has a duty to make a similar assessment, on the basis of guidance that asks prosecutors "to consider whether the public interest served by the conduct in question outweighs the overall criminality before bringing criminal proceedings". But the debate is unlikely to stop just there. |
| There will be inevitably more "who knew what, when" questions for Murdoch's News International – in particular what did Rupert and James Murdoch know of alleged corrupt payments at a business that the father has long run from New York and his son chaired between December 2007 and February 2012 from London. | There will be inevitably more "who knew what, when" questions for Murdoch's News International – in particular what did Rupert and James Murdoch know of alleged corrupt payments at a business that the father has long run from New York and his son chaired between December 2007 and February 2012 from London. |
| The timing of the alleged payments in the Brooks and Kay case – 2004 and 2011 – are for a far later period than the phone-hacking period. Hacking charges laid by the CPS against Brooks, Coulson and others range from October 2000 to August 2006, before the younger Murdoch arrived at Wapping. | The timing of the alleged payments in the Brooks and Kay case – 2004 and 2011 – are for a far later period than the phone-hacking period. Hacking charges laid by the CPS against Brooks, Coulson and others range from October 2000 to August 2006, before the younger Murdoch arrived at Wapping. |
| There is plenty more to be resolved too. The Met's Elveden probe has spread elsewhere, too – with journalists from the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Star Sunday – the Trinity Mirror title and Richard Desmond's newspaper group's publication – recently arrested. And, more to the point, the extra charges against Brooks and Coulson will have to be factored into planning for phone-hacking trials currently scheduled for September 2013. | There is plenty more to be resolved too. The Met's Elveden probe has spread elsewhere, too – with journalists from the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Star Sunday – the Trinity Mirror title and Richard Desmond's newspaper group's publication – recently arrested. And, more to the point, the extra charges against Brooks and Coulson will have to be factored into planning for phone-hacking trials currently scheduled for September 2013. |
| It would be hard, now, to be confident that the increasingly complex situation would be resolved for a trial at that moment – meaning that the phone hacking and corrupt payments saga is likely to drag on, closer and closer to the next general election. | It would be hard, now, to be confident that the increasingly complex situation would be resolved for a trial at that moment – meaning that the phone hacking and corrupt payments saga is likely to drag on, closer and closer to the next general election. |
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