News Corporation faces fresh allegations in the US

Lawyers of phone-hacking victims have revealed a large number of complaints from across the Atlantic

By Emily Wight Published 20 April 2012

Mark Lewis has represented phone-hacking victims in the UK, including the family of Milly Dowler. Photo: Getty Images

News Corporation is facing fresh phone-hacking allegations in the United States, the solicitor Mark Lewis has revealed.

Lewis, who has represented phone-hacking victims in the UK including the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, is working with New York lawyers Norman Siegel and Steven Hyman. Siegel and Hyman have been pursuing an inquiry into the hacking of 9/11 victims' phones.

At least 10 people across the Atlantic have made complaints against News Corporation, Lewis said. The allegations are directed at the now-defunct News of the World and also Fox News in the US.

Lewis said that the complaints were not only of hacking but "other untoward dark arts." He said he had been contacted by people "raising issues against other (News Corp) titles or Fox News, not necessarily about hacking but about other untoward dark arts to obtain information that should be private."

Under US federal law, anyone who intercepts telecommunications for the purposes of commercial advantage can face five years in prison. There are four firm cases of alleged phone hacking in the US, but the lawyers are refusing to name possible victims in order to protect their privacy.

The news will put further pressure on James Murdoch, who has recently moved to New York from London after stepping down as chairman of News International.

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Tags: media Phone hacking scandal News Corporation

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2 comments

Wed, 2012-06-13 17:33 — Andrew Chapman (not verified)

This is quite a good article. Many new questions emerge to the surface, all you need do is to read further information about the issues. Only then one can form a final view on a particular subject. Otherwise everything is seen only in the dimension of cum more black and white. The natural logic of evaluating things before vstavane skrine they were properly cognitively processed is a horrible mistake, made by those less intelligent. People should not throw away their common slovakia sense easily. Anything and everything deserves appropriate time for making judgements.

Fri, 2012-04-20 23:01 — mbrecker (not verified)

How's that for irony? You'll investigate "alleged" hacking of 9/11 victim's phones. But, you won't press for a re-opening of the 9/11 Investigation (one of the worst ever done in history). Why? Because "we just don't talk about things like that".