Former British PM Says Bezos Should Consider Publishing Washington Post

Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister, claims that Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids hacked into his mobile phone voicemail for years when he was a senior government official, that Murdoch’s journalists used fraud to obtain his private financial records, and that they forced a hospital worker to secretly provide details about his infant son’s condition.

“It was simply to embarrass me and, if possible, humiliate me,” Brown told NPR in a phone interview this week from her home in Scotland. “But I’m more concerned about ordinary members of the public, quite frankly, who shouldn’t expect their private lives to be disrupted. And I can’t allow that to continue under the banner of a free press.”

There is bad blood between Brown and Murdoch. The media tycoon backed Brown when he became prime minister in 2007. The tabloids then withdrew their support and gave it to his rival. Murdoch later blamed Brown for thwarting the billionaire’s bid to take full control of satellite TV giant Sky.

Now, newly released court evidence suggests how deep the animosity ran. It shows that in 2011, a senior Murdoch official — questioned by police — blamed Brown for the company deleting millions of emails that could have contained evidence of such tabloid misconduct. That’s a double whammy, Brown says.

“I thought it was an attempt to incriminate me as a cover-up for a crime they were committing,” Brown says. “And that’s why I want the police to investigate.”

Police to re-examine events from 13 years ago

This week, Scotland Yard confirmed it had opened a preliminary investigation into allegations that Brown obstructed justice and lied to police by a Murdoch media official. His name is Will Lewis; he is now publisher and chief executive The Washington PostA special team of investigators will assess whether a full investigation is warranted.

Lewis is not named as a defendant in any of the civil cases stemming from the tabloids’ actions and has not been charged with any crime. He has broadly denied any wrongdoing while declining to comment further.

Will Lewis, shown here in the Washington Post newsroom, was chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's British publishing arm 13 years ago. He was accused of lying to police about why the company destroyed evidence during an investigation into wiretapping by Murdoch's newspapers. — Will Lewis, pictured here *Washington Post* was the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloid newspaper 13 years ago.

Brown points to Washington PostThe slogan, “Democracy dies in darkness,” is a warning to Lewis’ current boss, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Brown wonders whether a newspaper publisher credibly accused of obstructing justice can continue to operate.

“I think Washington PostThe owner needs to think very carefully about whether this is the right message to send to readers about the ethics of The Washington Post,” Brown says. “There are very serious questions to be asked about the paper itself and what it wants to do in the future.”

A scandal that has been going on for years

It’s a new twist in a decades-long history of criminal charges — and investigations — involving News UK, the British branch of Murdoch’s newspaper. In 2015, the British Crown Prosecution Service said of News UK: “There are legitimate reasons for companies to have policies to delete emails. In this case, there is no evidence to suggest that the deletion of the emails was intended to pervert the course of justice.”

News UK has denied Brown’s accusations of hacking and wilful destruction of evidence.

“Mr Brown has only seen partial information that has emerged as a result of the civil proceedings,” a spokesperson for the corporation said in a statement, noting that the former prime minister does not have access to all of the material that News UK has produced in court because he is not suing News UK.

But police notes released this week weakened Brown’s allegations.

Payment parade exceeds $1.5 billion

News UK has paid out more than $1.5 billion to others who sued tabloids for unlawful invasions of privacy. Many of those who settled with tabloids have nondisclosure agreements.

But in the meantime, a wealth of new evidence has come to light in civil cases involving Prince Harry, Hugh Grant and various prominent politicians, celebrities and crime victims. Although News UK has reached settlements with some of the litigants in recent months, including Grant and a former government minister, many are still ongoing.

Brown said the hackers’ victims were relatives of people killed in terrorist attacks or other violent crimes.

“Civil rights violations are occurring at a time when families are most vulnerable and experiencing tragedy and suffering,” Brown said.

Important emails missing

Lawyers for the litigants had previously argued in court that News UK had given police a hard drive that could not have belonged to News UK chief executive Rebecca Brooks and that it had not stored her emails on a separate hard drive.

In the latest case, lawyers for former MP Tom Watson alleged earlier this week that Lewis “fabricated a false security threat” to explain the mass deletion. Brown told NPR that Lewis made what he believed was a “deliberate plan” to delete evidence and blame him instead.

In early 2011, Lewis told the company’s CTO that he had the “green light” to begin “migrating” its email system. Millions of emails were destroyed. Many of them could not be recovered.

When police investigators learned of the mass deletions during a meeting with the technical director in July 2011, they also dragged Lewis into the conference room, according to police notes from the time released this week. Lewis told police they had received a “tip from a source” that Watson had obtained Brooks’ emails from a company employee — later changed to a former employee.

“Then the source came back,” Lewis explained, according to the police notes, “and the emails had certainly been passed on and were controlled by Gordon Brown. That increased our concerns.” Brown and Watson were allies and friends in the Labour Party, while Watson was a key parliamentary critic of News UK’s actions.

Lewis said the company had not confronted Watson about “his handling of stolen (News UK) data,” according to a police official. However, Lewis said Watson was “extremely well-informed” about the matter.

But it has not been shown that the data was stolen. A consultant hired by News UK in 2011 found no evidence of such a breach. Apart from a note from its technical director just before the massive wave of email deletions, News UK has not provided any evidence of the threat or even the source of the tip, although it says the warning was credible and serious.

“It’s clearly a completely made-up story,” Brown says. “No police officer ever tried to question me about this accusation that could incriminate me.”

News UK’s technical director, Paul Cheesbrough, is now a senior executive at Murdoch’s television giant Fox Corp. A corporate spokesman declined to comment on behalf of Cheesbrough or the company.

Allegations about Lewis’s role have surfaced in legal proceedings against News UK at least four times in the past eight months; Bezos expressed measured support for Lewis in late spring when NPR and other media outlets reported on the ongoing court hearings.

A few words from Jeff Bezos

“I know you’ve heard this from Will, but I also wanted to speak directly: The journalistic standards and ethics at The Post will not change,” Bezos said in a memo to senior Washington Post editors.

Bezos tapped Lewis to lead the paper out of financial trouble: It has lost at least $177 million over the past two years, and digital subscriptions are down from their peak.

The Washington Post and Bezos did not respond to requests for comment on the latest developments involving Lewis or his position at the newspaper.