Ad Week interviewed Guardian journalist Nick Davies about the phone hacking scandal. (Credit: Ad Week, screenshot)

Ad Week published an interview with Guardian journalist Nick Davies, who has “been at the forefront of the investigation into phone hacking by News of the World.”

Davies was in the United States to look into any potential phone hacking in the U.S., according to Ad Week. He dismissed the resurfaced story that the Guardian’s David Leigh had “used voicemail hacking.” As iMediaEthics wrote, Leigh had admitted in a 2006 report that he had broken into a voicemail.

Davies alleged that “illegal activity” isn’t confined to News International newspapers, but rather extends to “Fleet Street as a whole.”  He explained that “it’s actually a fluke” that News International is in the center of the investigation into the media.  Davies commented that “News International made the mistake of getting caught doing something illegal” by hacking the phone of the royal family, who Davies said “the police couldn’t ignore.”

Davies also called the decision to close News of the World “an entirely unnecessary, brutal and unforgivable decision.”  He added that he didn’t expect Murdoch’s BSkyB bid to be squashed or the series of resignations and “contagion of panic” brought on following his story reporting that News of the World hacked into murdered teenager Milly Dowler’s phone.

Read more here.

News Corp’s ‘Independent Directors’

The Times broke down some of the relationships to Murdoch of the 16 independent News Corp. directors.  For example, members include a News Limited former CEO/chairman (Ken Crowley), a former News International executive chairman (Andrew Knight) and the godfather to one of Murdoch’s grandchildren (Viet Dinh).

According to the Times, the close relationship between the directors and News Corp. could be problematic because “corporate governance experts” call it ” a glaring example of how chumminess in the boardroom can allow and even contribute to mismanagement.”

The Times stated that “News Corporation considers nine of its 16 directors independent.”

Books about the Scandal

In the past year, a slew of books including books by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the NY Times and the Guardian were published on WikiLeaks.

Now get ready for News of the World books.

The New York Times announced Aug. 9 that two of its reporters, Sarah Lyall and Don Van Natta Jr., will publish a book on the scandal.

The Times stated that it intends the book to offer “a narrative and investigative account of the culture of phone hacking, payoffs, and coziness with police officials and politicians at the News of the World and other media outlets owned by Murdoch’s News Corporation.”

The Guardian also announced that its reporter Nick Davies would write a book on the scandal.  The book is slated for a fall 2012 release date, according to the Associated Press.

New Standards Guide Needed?

The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone reported that News of the World is still included in News Corp.’s most recently released “standards of Business Conduct.”

The guide was “just revised in May” and distributed to New York Post employees earlier this month.

James Murdoch

James Murdoch was accused of giving bad information to Parliament during his July 19 hearing, as iMediaEthics has previously written.

According to Bloomberg, Murdoch must “submit written replies to parliament in London to respond” to those claims by Aug. 10.