Former Australian News Corp Editor Ita Buttrose Claims Murdoch Told her to Tail Someone

by Sydney Smith August 23, 2011 04:02 PM EST

Tags: Andy Coulson, Australia, England, Glenn Mulcaire, Hacking, Invasion of Privacy, Ita Buttrose, Milly Dowler, News Corp., Phone Hacking Scandal, The Telegraph (Australia)

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Former Australian Telegraph editor Ita Buttrose claimed Rupert Murdoch suggested she tail someone for a story. (Credit: ABC.net.au, screenshot)

Former editor-in-chief of News Corp-owned the Australian Telegraph Ita Buttrose alleges that Rupert Murdoch recommended she “have someone followed” to get a story. Buttrose, who edited the newspapers “in the early 1980s,” noted that the story was “dropped,” though, according to ABC.net.au.

However, News Limited, the Australian branch of News Corp., denies the charges. A spokesperson for the company is quoted as telling ABC.net.au that “Mr Murdoch has never asked any journalist to do anything improper.”

“Mr Cowley has never been asked by Mr Murdoch to have a reporter conduct surveillance of any kind on any individual and nor would he have agreed to it had he been asked by Mr Murdoch or anyone else.”

Andy Coulson

Meanwhile, Andy Coulson, a former editor for News of the World who resigned as communications director for UK Prime Minister following re-surfaced allegations of phone hacking at the newspaper, reportedly was being “paid by News International while working for Cameron.”

Ad Week reported that Coulson was paid “several hundred thousand pounds” in his “compromise agreement” between him and the company following his 2007 resignation from News of the World.

He also reportedly “kept his company car.” The BBC reported that an unnamed “senior member of the government” commented that “Tory Party managers” didn’t know of the financial links between Coulson and Cameron during his time working for the prime minister.

News International declined to comment to the BBC.

Glenn Mulcaire

Glenn Mulcaire, the former News of the World private investigator who was convicted in 2007 of hacking phones, has been “ordered…to reveal who instructed him to access the voicemails of six public figures,” according to Yahoo News.

According to the Guardian, Muclaire must “reveal these details by the end of” this week.

Milly Dowler

The News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal detailed differences among three versions of News of the World reports on Milly Dowler, the murdered teenager whose phone News of the World is accused of hacking. Comparing “two early editions” and a “late edition” of April 14, 2002’s News of the World, the Wall Street Journal discovered that the first two editions “contained detailed quotes from voice mails,” whereas the third version “contained only one passing reference to a voice mail.”

The newspaper reportedly wanted to use information gleaned from one of the voice mail messages while she was missing – “suggesting she worked” at a factory — to find her and report that “scoop” of “Missing Milly Dowler Found Alive,” according to the Journal.

According to the Journal, “News Corp. officials” know which News of the World staffer had Glenn Muclaire hack Dowler’s phone. However, News Corp. “hasn’t released that person’s name.”