Inquiry begins into hacking scandal

[July 28, 2011]  LONDON (AP) -- A senior judge on Thursday opened an inquiry into Britain's phone-hacking scandal that will start by looking at whether the country needs tougher media regulation.

Justice Brian Leveson said he has the legal power to demand evidence from witnesses -- and plans to use it "as soon as possible."

Leveson's inquiry was announced earlier this month by Prime Minister David Cameron in the wake of a scandal over illegal eavesdropping that has closed down the 168-year-old News of the World tabloid and shaken Rupert Murdoch's global media empire.

Leveson's 7-member panel includes a veteran newspaper reporter, a former police chief, a civil liberties activist and a broadcast journalist. They held their first formal meeting Thursday and will begin public hearings in September.

The panel is due to issue a report within a year. Leveson said he would strive to meet that deadline, but "not at all costs."

Leveson said that "in the first instance the inquiry will focus primarily on the relationship between the press and public and the related issues of press regulation."

Later it will look at relations among the press, police and politicians.

The inquiry has the power to summon evidence and witnesses, including journalists, news executives, police and politicians. But Leveson said he hoped people would participate willingly to help root out wrongdoing.

"It may be tempting for a number of people to close ranks and suggest that the problem is or was local to a group of journalists then operating at the News of the World, but I would encourage all to take a wider view of the public good and help me grapple with the width and depth of the problem," he said.

The inquiry will try to get to grips with a scandal that continues to shake Britain's police, political and media establishment. It already has led to the resignations of London's police chief and two senior executives of Murdoch's News Corp.

On Thursday the board of British Sky Broadcasting will meet, under pressure to reconsider the future of its chairman James Murdoch, Rupert's son.

The board meeting is the first since News Corp. abandoned a takeover bid for BSkyB because of the scandal at the British Sunday tabloid News of the World.

British newspapers fall within James Murdoch's responsibilities as CEO and chairman of the International division of News Corp.

The meeting is primarily held to sign the full year earnings report of BSkyB, which is 39 percent owned by News Corp. But analysts say the board members are likely to discuss James Murdoch's future with the company and the possibility of a special dividend.

[Associated Press; By JILL LAWLESS]

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