A Duty to Inform, as well as Entertain: The BBC On the Edge of an Abyss
2018 has been a troubling year for those who support public service broadcasting and the national broadcaster’s remit to INFORM not just entertain.
2018 has been a troubling year for those who support public service broadcasting and the national broadcaster’s remit to INFORM not just entertain.
An occasional series to accompany the UNTOLD: Dial M for Mueller podcasts with Carole Cadwalldr, and why Britain needs an FBI style investigation
The team who made the Daniel Morgan Murder story go viral return with another series about hacking, media and politics – but on a global scale.
After six years of wrangling, NewsUK has admitted that News of the World hacked and surveilled the family of the detective leading the fourth murder inquiry into the involvement of their favourite private investigators, Southern Investigations, in the murder of Daniel Morgan
More detail from the Untold: the Daniel Morgan Murder Exposed book which shows that News Corp had extensive knowledge of criminal activity, funded it regardless, and misled parliament about the extent of their knowledge
As we await Culture Secretary’s decision on Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Sky, some revelations from the Daniel Morgan Murder podcast and book should stop the acquisition outright
The British governments consultation on whether Leveson Two should go ahead ends at 5pm today. Don’t let there be another coverup
Mazher Mahmood’s extensive dealings with Southern Investigations require News UK and the Metropolitan police to explain their knowledge and protection of the murder suspects
Thanks to Byline supporters the Ten Part Podcast is underway – but we need your help to overcome the media’s disinterest and/or collusion
Facing an onslaught from many sections of the press for breaking the Whittingdale scandal, Byline is also an acute focus of interest for Rupert Murdoch’s UK press.
Call it conflict of interest or regulatory capture, the Culture Secretary must resign from any say on legislation on the press which has extensive materials about his private life
At the heart of the country’s best selling newspaper is a legendary 7 foot high safe full of ‘eye-popping’ material on public figures that won’t be published, suggesting a form of blackmail is at the heart of the British press
New information reveals how Rupert Murdoch’s best selling Sunday tabloid was inextricably linked for three decades with Britain’s most investigated murder
A new opening episode available to subscribers, a new sponsor and distributor, and support from the Shadow Culture Minister.
As funding closes and the 10 part podcast serial is set for general release in Spring, some news about the production
The first episode is set for release to sponsors before Christmas. We returned to the Murder Scene. And more episodes announced.
If you’ve discovered this Podcast project and want to know more about the background, I’ve been covering this story for a few years now, and there are plenty of links on Byline
Over the course of three decades, Daniel Morgan is the most investigated murder in British history. Now Byline can reveal how News of the World tried to derail the final fifth investigation, and how intimidation of the murder inquiry team continues to this day
Brief comment on the news the CPS will not be prosecuting former DCS Dave Cook after an IPCC investigation into Misconduct in Public Office
Greg Miskiw’s confirmation that another NOTW executive was subverting a high profile murder inquiry on behalf of the prime suspects demands a full investigation by the Metropolitan Police
Draft Speech for the Investigative Journalism Conference hosted by HBO and Gazeta Wyborga, Warsaw, 3 November 2015
As former private detective Jonathan Rees claims core participant status at the Undercover Police Inquiry, secret tapes reveal how the Guardian editor was targeted by double cross and the dark arts.
With new shadow ministers appointed for both the Home Office and DCMS, it’s worth looking back at an important speech by the recently appointed Labour deputy leader, Tom Watson, which outlines the ‘criminal media nexus’ around News of the World.
At a GMB Injustice Conference last Saturday, I followed Alastair Morgan’s painful explanation of his brother’s murder and cover-up with my personal view about why this injustice has lasted so long.
On the eve of Rebekah Brooks’ return as CEO of News UK, the axe murder of Daniel Morgan is a continuing problem for her company. New evidence undermines two crucial denials.
Following the chronology of the Daniel Morgan murder – the most investigated murder in British history – we have now arrived at the phone hacking era. But a timeline reveals Glenn Mulcaire’s work to be the relatively benign tip of a much darker iceberg
While foreign newspaper barons may want to squash the BBC, it won’t help them with their failing business models and collapsing paywalls.
Rebekah Brooks worked at News of the World for all but two years from 1989 to 2003. How much did she know know Southern Investigations and police inquiries into their role in the murder of Daniel Morgan?
After the Summer of 87 and two violent deaths in the circle of police and private investigators in South London, how did the News of the World cover the aftermath? Digging deeper in the archives reveals an astonishing interview
A repost from December last year when the BBC were told charging decisions against Mazher Mahmood were “weeks away” – SEVEN MONTHS ago
The 30 year cover-up of the Daniel Morgan murder is often portrayed as a murky morass. But revisiting the news coverage of the time, the outlines of the alleged conspiracy are clearer than you would imagine.
News that the first head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission is under investigation for providing ‘misleading information’ during the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry is of great concern to the family of Daniel Morgan
15 years ago the Met’s Operation Two Bridges exposed a lucrative illegal trade between corrupt police officers, private investigators and Fleet Street. Nothing was done. But what happened to two Guardian journalists who were writing about police corruption at the same time?
Overlooked evidence proves that the justification for News of the World’s surveillance of the senior investigating officer in the Daniel Morgan murder inquiry is an abject excuse
A Bellingcat and Byline investigation for the first time can reveal Scotland Yard had intelligence Mazher Mahmood was corrupting police officers as far back as the summer of 2000
Writers and producers of BBC television drama are being stifled by the corporation’s top-down commissioning system. But public service broadcasting could easily be more pluralistic….
A repost of an article from last November when, the BBC was told, any coverage of the Fake Sheikh would be ‘prejudicial’ to CPS charging decisions which were “weeks away.” That was SEVEN MONTHS AGO.
After four years of a phenomenal corporate fightback after the phone hacking scandal erupted in 2011, is Rupert Murdoch’s resignation from the entertainment giant just a natural succession? Or is there some revelation pending in the wings?
Forget phone hacking. It’s just the tip of an iceberg. Much more invasive illegal press practices are coming to light. Paddy French has more detail.
The role of Lord Stevens in the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and allegations that the Metropolitan Police failed to disclose important evidence
The tussle between a 17-year-old political activist and a Sun columnist is distracting us from a bigger issue – how the paper tracked her family down
A discovery of previously unpublished images from the history of Oxford’s Bullingdon club shows David Cameron in a less marginal place than before
In the air war of the British General election, social media was like a hand-held stinger missile against the massed squadrons of the press
How the iconoclastic Matt Drudge of the British political blogosphere became a party drone
Why does the newspaper that has consistently backed the winning prime minister for the last 36 years sound so panicked?