News of the World mobile phone used to eavesdrop on more than 1,000 voice mails

The Independent
The Independent reports that police in the U.K. have discovered a secret mobile phone, nicknamed “the hub,” that was registered to News International and used by News of the World staff to access voice mails for more than 1,000 phone numbers. “Despite detailed company logs recording every call made on the hub phone, it was left unexamined by two internal News International inquiries, which dismissed the notion that phone hacking was rife at the title,” write James Cusick and Cahal Milmo. An unidentified former journalist tells The Independent that the phone was controlled by a small group of people on the news desk, who gave reporters precise information on where to find sources, but never told them how they got the information. The reporter likened the situation to “IRA cells who were assigned stories, given precise information, but never told where this information actually came from.” || Related: Les Hinton says previous phone-hacking testimony was as truthful as his incomplete knowledge allowed (Poynter.org) | News Corp. shareholders’ protest vote casts doubt on James Murdoch’s future at company (Guardian)