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Phone-hacking police charge Rebekah Brooks
BBC News web site
DATELINE: 15/5/12
Rebekah Brooks and her husband, Charlie, are being charged with perverting the course of justice as part of the phone hacking inquiry. She was arrested on 13 March as part of the Met Police's Operation Weeting. In a statement, they accused the CPS of "posturing" and said: "We deplore this weak and unjust decision." The couple will become the first suspects to be charged in an inquiry lasting 18 months and involving 185 police officers and staff.
Mrs Brooks's PA, Cheryl Carter, her chauffeur, Paul Edwards, security staff member Daryl Jorsling and News International security head Mark Hanna are charged with the same offence.Mrs Brooks is facing three charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice while her husband faces two.
Revealing the charges ahead of a CPS announcement, the couple said: "We have this morning been informed by the Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions that we are to be charged with perverting the course of justice."
They added: "After the further unprecedented posturing of the CPS we will respond later today after our return from the police station."
Announcing the decision, director of public prosecutions legal adviser Alison Levitt, QC, said she was making her statement "in the interests of transparency and accountability" to explain the decision to charge.
Last modified: Tuesday, May 15, 2012
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More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
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The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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Previous stories
Journalism Ethics
11 referred to prosecutors by phone-hacking squad
News of the World phone-hacking cases launched in US
News Corporation's Australian branch in new hacking row
Chris Jefferies: Only press fines can prevent trial by media
Paying cash for stories: a demeaning trade that spawned phone hacking and illegal payments to Police officers
The Sun has eroded British justice, fairness and freedom: now it is feeling the effects
Sun in crisis
Evidence to the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions from CPBF Chair Julian Petley
A Chance for Change
Phone hacking: Leveson inquiry into press ethics starts
The People in libel payout over Dale Farm slavery slur
News of the World hired investigators to spy on hacking victims' lawyers
Phone hacking: NoW warned about 'culture of illegal information access'
Milly Dowler police investigation may have been targeted
Wall Street Journal circulation scam claims senior Murdoch executive
Journalist wins legal battle after refusing to reveal sources
Phone hacking: News International faces more than 60 claims
Journalistic bad practice: more "icebergs" on the way
Phone hacking update
Phone hacking: News of the World reporter's letter reveals cover-up
The Sun and Hillsborough
News of the World accused of hacking Milly Dowler's phone
News of the World prints phone-hacking apology
Police ask BBC for cuts protest footage
Phone hacking: now judge tells police to stop protecting names
News of the World executive suspended over alleged phone hacking
Censored? Media silence over latest Coulson claims
Nick Clegg's rise could lock Murdoch and the media elite out of UK politics
The return of buggingate
Leaking in the public interest
