Murdoch Bribed Victims Of Phone Taps
James Murdoch, son of Australian tycoon Rupert Murdoch, wrote a letter to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in which he confesses that he and his father were not related to the phone taps and were not even aware of what was happening in their own media.
According to British newspaper The Telegraph, James Murdoch paid around 1.15 million dollars for the silence of the president of the Professional Football Association, Gordon Taylor, he called it a confidentiality agreement.
Clive Goodman, who was a reporter for the weekly News of The World–which was closed by the wiretapping scandal–received more than $ 400,000 from Rupert Murdoch. These payments were made by News International, UK subsidiary of News Corporation. Goodman was sentenced to four months in prison for spying phone messages from the royal family.
On Tuesday, the House of Commons published a letter Goodman wrote for News International in 2007. In Goodman’s letter, he reminded the company that he had been guaranteed he could still have his job when he gets out of jail if he did not commit the company to court. Former reporter also mentioned in his letter the weekly meetings of the News of the World in which it was assumed they were conducting wiretaps to obtain information. “This letter is the most important evidence that proves that there has been a massive coverup,” said Rep. Tom Watson, a member of the parliamentary committee that issued the document.
(MS)
Source: Reuters