G24 Media Tuesday April 8 2014 14:46 GMT
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| pdf edition | Tuesday April 8 2014 Media G24 Downloaded 14:46 GMT Ex-News of the World managing editor denies telling staff to falsify names Stuart Kuttner tells hacking trial he did not suggest journalists should give false names for sources on forms for payments Page 2 Game of Thrones 2am simulcast opener watched by 9,000 in the UK Sky Atlantic airs first episode of series four at same time as HBO in US, with 1 million watching across two UK broadcasts. By Mark Sweney Page 3 Line of Duty set to return for third and fourth series BBC confirms return of Jed Mercurio’s acclaimed police corruption drama after series two finale drew 3 million viewers Page 3 YouTube wants its Panorama bailiffs Kim Cattrall: ‘I don’t Today’s media stories creators to build investigation to be want to play someone’s from the papers Page 8 ‘fanbases’ rather than aired after high court wife and become a joke audiences Page 4 bid fails Page 6 about plastic surgery’ Page 7 Maria Miller row: Hancock’s Half Hour Johnson calls for recreated by BBC Page 6 Michael Buerk criticises ‘ethical’ watchdog female presenters who Page 5 ‘cry ageism’ Page 8 theguardian.com © Guardian News and Media Limited 2012 theguardian.com Registered in England and Wales. No. 908396. Registered office: PO Box 68164, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1P 2AP Page G24 Media Tuesday April 8 2014 14:46 GMT he been “a little bit more hungry”; the paper’s former chief Ex-News of the World managing editor reporter Neville Thurlbeck was “very focused and tenacious” while Greg Miskiw was “very hard working”. But, he added “I denies telling staff to falsify names do not think we clicked”. Kuttner described Goodman as an “enigma” who didn’t like Stuart Kuttner tells hacking trial he did not to go out of the office for stories. suggest journalists should give false names Another senior journalist who cannot be named for legal for sources on forms for payments reasons, was described by Kuttner as “impatient”. Kuttner was also asked if he had come across Mulcaire, who Lisa O’Carroll has pleaded guilty to hacking, before his arrest in 2006. “I am loathe to say I had no dealings, but I have no recollection of any dealings with Glenn Mulcaire,” he said. He added that he it was “possible” but he could put it “no higher than that” that he might have telephoned him to say “When can I expect payment?” Kuttner told jurors he reviewed “thousands” of financial documents a week, sometimes so fast he would have almost described it as a “superficial” process. Kuttner, who held the position for 22 years and worked with up to 15 editors, said that controlling the finances was the “major part” of his job, but he also liked to keep his hand in with the journalism on the paper. He said his 29-year career at the paper, was built on “trust”. “The culture in newspapers in my overlong experience is one Ex-News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner has of trust. You trust people bringing in the stories, people who denied telling staff to falsify sources’ names. Photograph: Rex create the financial documents and until proven otherwise, Features until the matters that led me here, as far as I know I was never The former managing editor of the News of the World has flatly let down”. denied telling journalists to “falsify” the names of those the Asked about the quantity of financial documents that would paper made cash payments to for stories or pictures. come before him in any given week he put it at thousands. In his first day in the witness box at the hacking trial, Stuart “That review process sometimes, I was going to say Kuttner said he “most certainly did not” suggest “journalists superficial, but quite fast is the major part of the managing should provide a false name and addresses on the forms” for editor’s work. I was going to say hundreds, but that would be cash payments. a considerable mistake, probably amounts to thousands per Kuttner twice said the number of cash payments were “few”, week,” saying he considered such demands as the equivalent of normal He opened his defence, which the judge has told the jury is requests for payments to contributors to the paper. expected to last four days, by describing his 53-year career in “The suggestion of falsification, deliberate falsification, I newspapers. would reject with all the force I have,” Kuttner told jurors at the He started his career at the Stoke Newington and Hackney Old Bailey. Observer at the age of 16 and after a brief stint on the People The court has previously heard that the former royal editor worked at the Evening Standard under Charles Wintour, whom Clive Goodman used three aliases for cash payments while he described as his “formative editor”. the self-confessed hacker Glenn Mulcaire had a number of He covered many of the big stories in the 1960s and 1970s, pseudonyms for payments, including David Alexander and Paul the jury heard, including the Profumo affair, the Moors murders Williams. in 1965, a coup in Greece in 1967, the Paris student riots in Kuttner has denied a single charge that he conspired with 1968 and the Jeremy Thorpe scandal which led to Thorpe’s others, including former News of the World editors Rebekah acquittal for the murder of Norman Scott in 1979, something he Brooks and Andy Coulson, to hack phones between 2000 and described as an “important” case to investigate. 2006. The jury heard that Kuttner has suffered two heart attacks Goodman and Coulson have denied conspiring to pay public since retirement in 2009 – one in March 2010 and one in July officials for royal telephone directories. Coulson and Brooks 2011. He has also suffered a brain stem stroke. have denied a separate charge that they conspired with Kuttner The trial continues and others to intercept voicemails. Kuttner described Brooks as “a very dedicated, ambitious” person and raised a smile with Coulson in the dock when he described him as “very focused and balanced newspaper man”. Both are previous editors of the News of the World. The 74-year-old newspaper veteran was asked to describe a number of other senior News of the World journalists, including three who have already pleaded guilty to hacking related charges – James Weatherup, a former news editor was not “hungry enough”, and might have progressed further had theguardian.com © Guardian News and Media Limited 2012 theguardian.com Page G24 Media Tuesday April 8 2014 14:46 GMT Game of Thrones 2am simulcast opener Line of Duty set to return for third and watched by 9,000 in the UK fourth series Sky Atlantic airs first episode of series four BBC confirms return of Jed Mercurio’s at same time as HBO in US, with 1 million acclaimed police corruption drama after watching across two UK broadcasts series two finale drew 3 million viewers Mark Sweney Mark Sweney The season four premiere of Game of Thrones was broadcast Line of Duty is based around an anti-corruption unit’s internal at the same time by Sky Atlantic in the UK and HBO in the US. investigations of fellow police officers. Photograph: Unknown/ Photograph: HBO/Sky Atlantic BBC/World Productions Sky Atlantic’s 2am simulcast of the Game of Thrones series Line of Duty, Jed Mercurio’s popular and critically lauded police four premiere for hardcore fans averaged 9,000 viewers, while corruption drama, will be returning to BBC2 for two more more than 1 million watched the episode in the UK across two series. broadcasts or via Sky+ recording on Monday. The BBC confirmed on Tuesday that it had taken the In the US, the Game of Thrones premiere attracted HBO’s relatively unusual step of commissioning two further series of biggest audience since The Sopranos finale in 2007tinyurl. the drama, which drew 3 million viewers to its series two finale com/ppwp9v9 , with 6.6 million for the initial 9pm transmission, last month tinyurl.com/olmw9d3 . and another 1.6 million for an 11pm repeat. Line of Duty, based around an anti-corruption unit’s internal In the UK, BSkyB – which rebranded its Sky Atlantic channel investigations of fellow police officers, will return with two new as the Home of Thrones to hype the launch of the eagerly- series of six one-hour episodes apiece. anticipated fourth series – struck a deal to broadcast the The double commission will be well received by fans, with premiere at the same time as HBO’s first airing to audiences on the show steadily increasing in popularity since it returned in the east coast of the US. February for a second series. When timeshifted viewing – by those who recorded the Line of Duty’s audience grew from the 1.8 million who tuned episode on their Sky+ digital video recorder and watched later in for the second season premiere, to a season-high 3 million in the day – is include, the 2am broadcast airing drew an average tinyurl.com/olmw9d3 overnight audience for the finale, rising to audience of 538,000. 4.1 million taking into account seven day catch up viewing. An average of 675,000 watched at 9pm on Monday night – or Mercurio, the creator of medical dramas Cardiac Arrest and recorded and watched it before 2am on Tuesday morning – the Bodies, which also featured protagonists grappling with the regular Game of Thrones slot for the rest of the series, giving moral dilemmas thrown up by their profession, promised new Sky Atlantic a first-day total audience of 1.21m.