ID :
195729
Tue, 07/19/2011 - 08:58
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https://www.oananews.org//node/195729
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Cameron under pressure on hacking scandal after police chief resigns
London, July 19, IRNA – Pressure has switched to Prime Minister David Cameron following the resignation of Britain's top police officer over the phone-hacking scandal.
In a carefully worded resignation speech, Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, suggested the prime minister risked being 'compromised' by his close relations with his former spokesman, Andy Coulson, who resigned as editor of the News of the World over the scandal in 2007.
Stephenson said that he was “aware of the many political exchanges” in relation to the previous employment of Coulson, who resigned as the prime minister's communications director in January.
“I believe it would have been extraordinarily clumsy of me to have exposed the prime minister, or by association the home secretary, to any accusation, however unfair, as a consequence of them being in possession of operational information in this regard,” he said.
Answering questions on whether his position had been compromised during a visit to South Africa on Monday, the prime minister defended his decision to be out of the country but revealed he is asking for parliament to sit for an extra day on Wednesday so that he can make a statement on the hacking scandal.
The scandal, which dates back almost a decade centring on Rupert Murdoch's media empire, has embroiled a failed police investigation into the extent of hacking and close relations between the press and politicians.
Cameron is also facing questions about his friendship with Murdoch’s News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who resigned from her post on Friday and was arrested over the scandal on Sunday,
Brooks' resignation is also seen exposing News International chairman James Murdoch, who is due to be questioned on the scandal by MPs on Tuesday along with his father.
Last week, British journalist and broadcaster Yvonne Ridley told IRNA that the fallout from the phone hacking scandal in the UK has the potential of being equivalent to Watergate in the US, which led to the resignation of former president Richard Nixon.
“This scandal has its roots right back in to the 80s and has the capacity to be as damaging as the Watergate scandal was in US politics,” Ridley said./end
In a carefully worded resignation speech, Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, suggested the prime minister risked being 'compromised' by his close relations with his former spokesman, Andy Coulson, who resigned as editor of the News of the World over the scandal in 2007.
Stephenson said that he was “aware of the many political exchanges” in relation to the previous employment of Coulson, who resigned as the prime minister's communications director in January.
“I believe it would have been extraordinarily clumsy of me to have exposed the prime minister, or by association the home secretary, to any accusation, however unfair, as a consequence of them being in possession of operational information in this regard,” he said.
Answering questions on whether his position had been compromised during a visit to South Africa on Monday, the prime minister defended his decision to be out of the country but revealed he is asking for parliament to sit for an extra day on Wednesday so that he can make a statement on the hacking scandal.
The scandal, which dates back almost a decade centring on Rupert Murdoch's media empire, has embroiled a failed police investigation into the extent of hacking and close relations between the press and politicians.
Cameron is also facing questions about his friendship with Murdoch’s News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who resigned from her post on Friday and was arrested over the scandal on Sunday,
Brooks' resignation is also seen exposing News International chairman James Murdoch, who is due to be questioned on the scandal by MPs on Tuesday along with his father.
Last week, British journalist and broadcaster Yvonne Ridley told IRNA that the fallout from the phone hacking scandal in the UK has the potential of being equivalent to Watergate in the US, which led to the resignation of former president Richard Nixon.
“This scandal has its roots right back in to the 80s and has the capacity to be as damaging as the Watergate scandal was in US politics,” Ridley said./end
