Hold the press to account

It isn't just the News of the World which has been taking people's privacy for granted.  We have known about widespread abuse for years - yet nothing has been done about it.

The Metropolitan Police have now set up a team to look into this - Operation Tuleta.  However, this is currently merely a "scoping exercise".  With the Met in turmoil and the spotlight on the Murdoch’s, there is a risk this operation may get forgotten about.

Join us in writing to Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick to demand a proper investigation into the entire newspaper industry.  Add your name here:

The full text of the letter can be found below.

Full text of letter:

Operation Tuleta
Metropolitan Police Service
New Scotland Yard
8-10 Broadway
London
SW1H 0BG

Dear Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick,

I am writing to you in order to clarify your position on a number of points relating to Operation Weeting and more generally the illegal data gathering operation documented by the Information Commissioner in its 2006 report ‘What Price Privacy?’.

I understand that the remit of Operation Weeting only covers phone hacking and that whilst there is a smaller team under the name Operation Tuleta inquiring into wider issues of hacking and illegal data gathering that this is only a ‘scoping exercise’ not a full investigation. 

The 2006 ICO report naming journalists names over a dozen newspapers as clients of private investigators involved in either phone hacking or other methods of illegal data gathering.  The Daily Mail and Daily Mirror in particular were cited as two of the worst offenders.

Given the failure of the Metropolitan Police to follow up this report at the time with a proper police investigation I was wondering if you could clarify the following points:

• Given the evidence in the ICO report will they move Operation Tuleta from a scoping exercise to a full scale investigation?
• Will the Metropolitan Police confirm whether Operation Tuleta will look at other newspapers beyond the News of the World?
• Will the Metropolitan Police proactively seek evidence from other newspapers, private investigators and review the evidence collected by the ICO in its 2006 report?
• Will Operation Weeting and/or Operation Tuleta be requesting access to the archives of other newspapers implicated in the ICOs 2006 report in order to ensure vital evidence is not missed in the course of the current investigations?

We are concerned that the current turmoil at the Metropolitan Police risks seeing the wider issue of hacking and illegal data gathering by tabloid newspapers go unpunished.  Investigating News International and the News of the World is a start but to regain public trust the Metropolitan Police must now properly investigate the practices of the entire industry.

Kind Regards,

Peter Facey
Director, Unlock Democracy