Pattern of Illegality Is Cited at Paper

As a government-commissioned inquiry into Britain’s journalistic practices opened, its chief lawyer delivered a series of bombshell revelations about what he called a “thriving cottage industry” of illegality at the defunct News of the World tabloid.

In addition, said the chief lawyer, Robert Jay, police evidence showed that hacking was not limited to The News of the World, which was summarily closed by its owner, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, in July. Instead, he said, two other tabloids — the Murdoch-owned Sun, and The Daily Mirror, owned by the Trinity Mirror Group — had also illegally intercepted people’s voice-mail messages, employing the same private investigator as The News of the World. But those papers’ potential malfeasance appears to have paled beside that of The News of the World, according to Jay, chief counsel to the investigation, the Leveson Inquiry, a far-reaching examination into the practices and regulation of the British news media.