Cameron calls for emergency session of parliament over scandal

LONDON – British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday called for an emergency session of parliament to brief lawmakers on the spreading phone hacking scandal, trying to gain control of a crisis that is threatening Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, the upper echelons of London’s police force and the country’s leader himself.

Parliament is due to break for the summer today after lawmakers grill Murdoch, his son James and his former British chief executive Rebekah Brooks about the scandal, but Cameron said ‘it may well be right to have Parliament meet on Wednesday so I can make a further statement.’Cameron was speaking in Pretoria, South Africa, on the first day of a two-day visit to the continent. He had planned a longer trip, but cut it short as his government faces a growing number of questions about its relationship with the Murdoch empire and a scandal that has taken down some of Britain’s most powerful people with breathless speed.In the latest twist in the legal saga, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, Britain’s anti-fraud agency, said yesterday it was giving ‘full consideration’ to a request from a lawmaker that it open an investigation into Murdoch’s News Corporation.The office said any possible probe would be limited to News Corp activities in Britain, but it added that it is ready to assist authorities in the United States, where the FBI has already opened an inquiry into whether 9/11 victims or their families were also hacking targets of News Corp journalists.Cameron insisted his government had ‘taken very decisive action’ by setting up a judge-led inquiry into wrongdoing at the newspaper and relations between politicians, the media and police.’We have helped to ensure a large and properly resourced police investigation that can get to the bottom of what happened, and wrongdoing, and we have pretty much demonstrated complete transparency in terms of media contact,’ Cameron said.But he is under pressure after the resignation of London police chief Paul Stephenson and the arrest on Sunday of Murdoch’s former British CEO – and Cameron’s friend – Brooks on suspicion of hacking and police bribery.Brooks was detained and questioned for nine hours on Sunday before being released on bail. Stephenson resigned on Sunday over his ties to a former News of the World executive editor who has been arrested over the scandal. In his resignation speech Stephenson made pointed reference to Cameron’s hiring of Andy Coulson, a former editor of the shuttered tabloid who was arrested earlier this month over hacking.Cameron said the situations of the government and the police were ‘completely different,’ because allegations of police corruption ‘have had a direct bearing on public confidence into the police inquiry into the News of the World and indeed into the police themselves.’Police are under pressure to explain why their original hacking investigation several years ago failed to find enough evidence to prosecute anyone other than News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.Cameron’s office said he will be back in Britain tomorrow after visits to South Africa and Nigeria. He had also planned to visit Rwanda and Sudan but a decision was made last week to drop that part of the itinerary. – Nampa- AP

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