Culture, Media and Sport CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Linklaters LLP, on behalf of the Management and Standards Committee

Further to our letter of 12 December 2011, we enclose two further emails which came to our attention on Friday 16 December 2011 following further inquiries in light of the discovery of the e-mail of 7 June 2008. Redactions have been made to protect the privacy of third parties.

The MSC’s review of data held by News International is an on-going piece of work. This investigation is wide ranging and goes back to the early part of the last decade. It involves the identification and review of extensive electronic data bases (holding many millions of e-mails) and thousands of boxes and crates of hard copy documents. There have been issues concerning the changes in systems and procedures over the years as well as the absence of consistent journaling and archiving processes. Hardware has also been changed and technological corruptions of the data base have resulted in some data being lost on some parts of the systems. PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”) and Stroz Friedberg LLC (“Stroz”) have been assisting the MSC with electronic extraction of data and searching of the extracted data as well as forensic analaysis. We, PwC and Stroz have worked hard to identify and restore this lost data. This has not been a simple matter of interrogating a comprehensive single database and producing the responsive e-mails. It has been a much more complex and challenging exercise. The process is still continuing and the MSC has not made any public comment on when the review of evidence will be complete.

The Select Committee should also note that the MSC wished to conduct its own data review exercise. Mr James Murdoch has acted throughout in accordance with the wishes of the MSC in this regard and neither he nor his legal advisers commissioned a search of the data, but were instead provided by the MSC with the relevant material. The MSC has designed, planned and managed the data review process and is responsible for it. Mr James Murdoch has cooperated fully with the MSC and has readily given or authorised access to everything we have asked for.

20 December 2011

From:	JRM
Sent:	27 May 2008 09.34
To:	[Secretary]
Subject:	Re: MESSAGE

OK

From:	[Secretary]
To:	JRM
Sent:	Tue 27 May 2008 09:25:21
Subject:	MESSAGE

Colin Myler would like 10 minutes with you today.

From:	Colin Myler
Sent:	18 June 2008 17:14
To:	JRM;
Subject:	FW:

Fyi

From:	Tom Crone
Sent:	18 June 2008 17:08
To:	Colin Myler
Subject:

Colin … here’s Julian’s msg back from Taylor lawyer … the conversation was yest’y evening.

Tom

Mark Lewis called me back. I said to him the Editor was interested in meeting Taylor on a one-to-one basis, confidentially and without prejudice and was willing to travel if needed.

ML said his client was likely to be very voluble and have plenty to say. I said the Editor would be able to look after himself and said it may be cathartic for GT as much as anything else. ML said he’d get back to me.

I dropped in the fact that the amended defence made it clear that not all of their inferences stood up. ML said the amended defence had made GT angry: difficult to justify that really, unless he expected “trousers down”.

Julian