Libel actions

• In 1988 the parents of actor David Scarboro who played Mark Fowler in BBC's Eastenders commenced liable proceedings with solicitor Michael Shelton due to the hounding of David whilst he suffered from mental illness. During this time the News of the World and its sister paper The Sun published stories calling him a 'Zombie' as well as 'Dracula' and purported that he took cocaine. According to the parents this escalated David's depression resulting in him committing suicide on 27 April 1988. Due to the suicide the libel action was forced to cease.^[47]
• In 2005, England footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria brought a legal action against the paper seeking libel damages over an article that carried the headline "Posh and Becks on the Rocks"; suggesting that their marriage was under pressure. The legal action was withdrawn in 2006 and "resolved on a confidential basis," according to the couple's spokeswoman Jo Milloy.
• In April 2006, England footballer Wayne Rooney received £100,000 in damages from the publishers of the News of the World and its sister paper The Sun over articles falsely reporting he had slapped his fiancée Coleen (now his wife). Both had always denied the reports.
• In June 2006, England footballer Ashley Cole received damages from the publishers of the News of the World over articles incorrectly alleging the footballer had used a mobile phone as a gay sex toy, just weeks before his marriage to pop star Cheryl Tweedy. Together with its sister paper The Sun, the News of the World paid Cole £100,000 to settle the case.
• In July 2006, a libel action brought by the Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan came to court in Edinburgh. Sheridan denied allegations, made by the newspaper in November 2004 and January 2005, that he had an affair, engaged in group sex and attended a swinger's club in Manchester. Sheridan won the case and was awarded £200,000 in damages. The newspaper intends to appeal against the jury's decision,^[48] and has refused to pay out the money; Sheridan and his wife Gail were charged with perjury; the court case commenced on 4 October 2010. Charges against Gail were dropped and she was acquitted on 17 December 2010.^[49] Tommy was subsequently convicted^[50] on 23 December 10. The case was the longest perjury trial in Scottish history.
• In 2008 in the invasion of privacy case Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited the President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Max Mosley challenged the News of the World newspaper which had alleged on 30 March 2008 that he had been involved in a sadomasochistic sex act involving several female prostitutes, when they published a video of the incident recorded by one of the women, and published details of the incident. The case resulted in Mosley being awarded £60,000 (approx. ) in damages.
• In January 2010 Norwich City Football Club started legal proceedings against the News of the World after they published an article, "Canaries on Brink" on 24 January 2010 claiming that the club had begun the processes of going into administration.^[51]
• In February 2010, the Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made plans to sue the News of the World after it published allegations about their relationship.^[52]
• In June 2011, the UK Press Complaint Commission (PCC) gave Yasir Hameed, Pakistani Cricketer, a victory by ordering the News of the World to remove a video and story about Yasir Hameed from its website.^[53]
• Also in 2011, footballer Artur Boruc won an out-of-court settlement against the News of the World after the newspaper made untrue allegations about the goalkeeper being unfaithful to his girlfriend. Mr. Boruc was paid £70,000 and a full apology was issued

Links to police corruption

In a September 2010 interview broadcast on 7 July 2011 on the BBC Radio 4 news programme The World at One, former News of the World features editor Paul McMullan made an admission relating to police corruption. He told of having used material obtained by a colleague's bribery of a police officer as the basis of a series of articles published over several years on Jennifer Elliott, the daughter of the actor Denholm Elliott. He stated, 'The going rate for that kind of thing might have been two to five hundred pounds and that would have been authorised, and he [i.e. the police officer] would have been paid... and he would have been on the lookout for another story...' The articles described Ms Elliott's destitute situation and stated that she had worked as a prostitute. Jennifer Elliott killed herself in 2003. In Mr McMullan's opinion the News of the World – specifically, his own articles – contributed significantly to her suicide.^[45] In 2011, the paper knowingly used private investigators to gain stories from corrupt police officers.

Phone hacking scandal

In 2006, reporters at the paper used private investigators to illegally gain access to hundreds of mobile phone voicemail accounts held by a variety of people of interest to the newspaper. In 2007 the paper's royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, pleaded guilty to illegal interception of personal communication and was jailed for four months; the paper's editor, Andy Coulson, had resigned two weeks earlier. In 2009/2010, further revelations emerged on the extent of the phone hacking, and how it was common knowledge within theNews of the World and its News International parent. According to a former reporter at the paper, "Everyone knew. The office cat knew," about the illegal activities used to scoop stories.^[36] On 17 January 2011, The Guardian reported that Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator paid by the paper, testified that he had been asked by the newspaper's leadership to hack voicemail accounts on its behalf.^[37] In April 2011, attorneys for the victims alleged that as many as 7,000 people had their phones hacked by the News of the World;^[38] it was further revealed that the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, had attempted to pressure Prime Minister Gordon Brown andLabour Party MPs to "back away" from investigating the scandal.^[39] Three journalists on the newspaper were initially arrested: Ian Edmondson and Neville Thurlbeck on 5 April^[40] and James Weatherup on 14 April.^[41] The newspaper "unreservedly" apologised for its phone hacking activities during April 2011.^[42] On 4 July 2011, it was disclosed that potential evidence had been deleted in spring 2002 from the hacked voicemail account of Milly Dowler, then missing, but later found to have been murdered

1843 to 1968

The newspaper was first published as The News of the World on 1 October 1843, by John Browne Bell in London.^[11] Priced at three pence (equal to £1.04 today), even before the repeal of the Stamp Act (1855) or paper duty (1861), it was the cheapest newspaper of its time^[12] and was aimed directly at the newly literate working classes. It quickly established itself as a purveyor of titillation, shock and criminal news. Much of the source material came from coverage of vice prosecutions, including transcripts of police descriptions of alleged brothels, streetwalkers, and "immoral" women.

Before long, the News of the World established itself as the most widely read Sunday paper, with initial sales of around 12,000 copies a week. Sales then suffered because the price was not cut following the abolition of newspaper taxes and the paper was soon no longer among the leading Sunday titles, selling around 30,000 by 1880, a greater number but a smaller proportion, as newspaper sales had grown hugely. The title was sold by the Bell family in 1891 to Lascelles Carr who owned the Welsh Western Mail. As editor, he installed his nephew Emsley Carr, who held the post for 50 years. But the real engine of the paper's now quick commercial success was George Riddell, who reorganised its national distribution using local agents. Matthew Engel, in his bookTickle the Public: One Hundred Years of the Popular Press (Gollancz, 1996), says that the News of the World of the 1890s was "a very fine paper indeed". The paper was not without its detractors, though. As one writer later related: