Relatives of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler are to meet Prime Minister David Cameron for talks about the public inquiries into phone-hacking.
Mother Sally and sister Gemma Dowler, and alleged hacking victims including Hugh Grant, will visit No 10 on Monday.The News of the World has closed in the wake of claims including that Milly's phone was hacked after her abduction.
Labour wants to halt News Corporation's bid to buy BSkyB pending police investigations into phone-hacking.
The party plans to force a vote by MPs during an opposition day debate on Wednesday in an attempt to suspend the takeover bid by News Corp - of which News of the World (NoW) publisher News International is part.
A spokeswoman for Labour leader Ed Miliband said she believed there would be support from MPs of all parties for the takeover to be delayed and hoped the government would heed the calls for a "pause".
"The vote will not be binding but it will increase the pressure on the government to prevent or at least delay the takeover," says BBC political correspondent Carole Walker.
The Downing Street talks on Monday are intended to give victims of NoW phone-hacking a say in deciding the nature of the public inquiries into phone-hacking and press regulation.
They will also meet Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Mr Miliband to discuss the scandal.
The talks have been organised by the Media Standards Trust charity, which led the Hacked Off campaign for a public inquiry into phone-hacking by journalists.
News International announced the closure of the NoW last week following the latest hacking allegations.
The 168-year-old paper published its final edition this weekend, in which it said it was "truly sorry".
Its editorial said: "There is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing. No justification for the pain caused to victims, nor for the deep stain it has left on a great history.
"Yet when this outrage has been atoned, we hope history will eventually judge us on all our years."
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment