Mirror Group charged with phone hacking claims

 

Daily Mirror gets muddled up in the phone hacking scandal

The phone hacking scandal refuses to die down as it spreads further from the Rupert Murdoch-owned News International to the Daily Mirror and The People tabloid newspapers now, as four individuals issued High Court claims against the these publications on Monday.
One of the claimants in the case is former England football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, who has pushed a case against the Daily Mirror, alleging the Daily Mirror to be involved in phone hacking scandal when Piers Morgan was editor. Morgan has vehemently denied any involvement in phone hacking scandal.

The Sunday Mirror and The People face allegations from three other claimants who are Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati; former nanny for the Beckham family-Abbie Gibson; and the former captain of Blackburn Rovers football team-Garry Flitcroft.
The charge levied against these publications by the claimants says, “breach of confidence and misuse of private information” relating to the “interception and/or misuse of mobile phone voicemail messages and/or the interception of telephone accounts”.
The effect of the phone hacking claims remains to be seen. The phone hacking claims relate to articles published many years ago. The fact that the cases are at an early stage means MGN, the subsidiary of Trinity Mirror, is not yet expected to file any response in court.
The phone hacking claims come as a blow to the Daily Mirror whose market capitalisation is £180 million and has recently struggled to cope with falling newspaper circulation and weak advertising revenues.
These fresh claims on phone hacking come weeks before Lord Justice Leveson is due to present his proposals for the regulation of the UK press. Lord Leveson is expected to recommend statutory regulation and offer a damning indictment of the ethics of the press.