Obviously. The credibility of Rupert Murdoch’s News International has been thrown into further disarray as the media giant finally admitted in the High Court that it had also illegally been accessing emails. This follows the emergence of some 36 hacking settlements yesterday.

Mr Justice Vos yesterday ordered that News International search computers that he said might show that executives deliberately tried to cover up email hacking and destroy other evidence related to the scandal.

Vos told the counsel representing News International that he had personally seen evidence that raised evidence of:

A carefully conceived plan to delete emails [that] was put into effect at the behest of senior management. [Leading to] compelling questions about whether you concealed, told lies or actively sought to get off scot free.

Michael Silverleaf QC, News International’s leading counsel, then confirmed that its titles had unlawfully accessed the emails of the son of the serial killer Harold Shipman and the freelance journalist Tom Rowland.

This latest confession in the scandal reifies the fact that all kinds of illegal activities were going on at News International, and not just the one publication that seemed to take the fall: News of the World.

In April last year, actress Sienna Miller said that her email account had been accessed. She was awarded an out-of-court settlement of £100 000 which then prevented further disclosures by the actress on the matter.

Gordon Brown, the previous British Prime Minister, also claimed that his email had been hacked in the past.

After months of denial and legal obstruction, News International finally seems to be succumbing to the law.

Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch continues to whine about copyright infringements and American tax reforms on his Twitter feed.

[Source: TheIndependent]