PM's former aide takes stand at UK ethics inquiry

[May 10, 2012]  LONDON (AP) -- Britain's phone hacking scandal came knocking on the door of Downing Street on Thursday, as Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief faced a grilling by a media ethics inquiry about his time as editor of a tabloid newspaper that practiced large-scale illegal eavesdropping.

Andy Coulson has insisted he did not know that News of the World employees were hacking voice mail messages of celebrities, politicians and crime victims in a quest for scoops and circulation.

He left the paper in 2007 after a reporter and a private investigator were jailed for hacking, and became Cameron's powerful media chief later the same year, helping return the Conservatives to power at the May 2010 national election. He quit 10 Downing St. in January 2011 as the hacking scandal intensified.

Coulson was appearing as Lord Justice Brian Leveson's inquiry turned its attention to the sometimes too-cozy relationship between Britain's press and politicians. It has already examined newspapers' relations with the public and the police.

Politicians of all parties for years sought the support of newspapers -- especially Rupert Murdoch's best-selling tabloids, whose backing was credited with the power to swing elections. Unease has been growing about what favors the newspapers may have received in return.

Leveson said he would investigate whether the relationship had "got out of hand."

"It is obvious that politicians will want to gain support and need support for the messages they want to convey," he said. "But ... is there a risk that there is an inappropriate press influence? "

Coulson's appearance at the inquiry will be uncomfortable for the Conservative prime minister, whose relationships with senior executives of Murdoch's News Corp. has embroiled him in the hacking furor.

Cameron has close ties to Coulson and to Rebekah Brooks, another ex-news of the World editor and former chief of Murdoch's British newspapers, who is due to give evidence to the inquiry on Friday.

Both Coulson and Brooks have been arrested and questioned by police about tabloid wrongdoing, though neither has been charged.

Speculation is rife about what the pair will reveal about their relations with Cameron and his Conservative Party, whose popularity is already at a low amid economic uncertainty and unrest from grassroots activists.

The Murdoch-owned Times of London newspaper reported Wednesday that Brooks has retained supportive text messages from the prime minister, a personal friend, neighbor and occasional riding companion in the upmarket rural enclave of Chipping Norton.

There is an irony in Cameron's discomfort. It was the prime minister who asked Leveson to lead an inquiry to sift through the fallout of the hacking scandal that has rocked Britain's establishment and rattled Murdoch's News Corp. with revelations of widespread journalistic malpractice.

The inquiry has heard from reporters, police and public figures in an effort to understand why nothing was done to stop the phone hacking for so long.

Murdoch shut the 168-year-old News of the World in July after evidence emerged that it had intercepted the phone messages of a missing schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.

Murdoch has so far paid out millions to settle lawsuits from 60 actors, athletes, politicians and other public figures whose voice mails were hacked. Dozens more lawsuits have been filed.

Coulson was due to give evidence after Jonathan Harmsworth, also known as Viscount Rothermere, the aristocratic owner of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.

Those papers and their hugely popular website have flourished on celebrity exposes, but no evidence has emerged of phone hacking, and Harmsworth said his conscience is clear.

"I feel pretty confident that our newspaper has acted ethically and I am willing to stand up for us," he said.

[Associated Press; By JILL LAWLESS]

Associated Press writer Raphael Satter contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.