British Murdoch paper prints phone-hack apology



LONDON- Britain's News of the World tabloid on Sunday publicly apologised to victims of phone hacking, as the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper sought to draw a line under the scandal.
The paper said it had contacted victims of the practice to admit liability and "apologise unreservedly", and would do the same for anyone else where evidence justified their claims.



British Murdoch paper prints phone-hack apology
Referring to the victims, the News of the World said: "Here today, we publicly and unreservedly apologise to all such individuals."
"What happened to them should not have happened. It was and remains unacceptable," added the paper, in the piece headlined "Voicemail interception: An apology" on page two of its latest edition.
The apology came two days after the News of the World's owner, News International, said sorry and announced a compensation fund for victims reported to be worth around £20 million ($33 million, 23 million euros).
Actress Sienna Miller, who has been taking legal action against the paper, is believed to be among those offered a settlement.
Her lawyer said Saturday that she was the victim of "outrageous violations of her privacy" and had not dropped her action against the paper despite the apology.
The News of the World's apology caps a turbulent week for one of Britain's most popular papers.
On Tuesday, its chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, and a former news editor, Ian Edmondson, were arrested on suspicion of having unlawfully intercepted phone voicemail messages.
They were the first arrests in the case since police reopened the investigation in January.
An initial police probe in 2007 into the hacking led to the jailing of the paper's royal correspondent Clive Goodman and a private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
The paper insisted at the time that the pair were acting alone. But a steady stream of fresh allegations and mounting criticism of the original investigation led to it being reopened.
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Sunday, April 10th 2011
AFP
           


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