As my colleagues Sarah Lyall and Alan Cowell report, during a debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain agreed that there should be a public inquiry into the workings of the British newspapers following reports that journalists for The News of the World hacked into the voice mailboxes of murder and terrorism victims.  Here, from Britain’s Channel 4 News, is video of Mr. Cameron responding to a call for a public inquiry from Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition Labour Party:  Later, the debate turned to the issue of whether the scandal surrounding the use of voice mail-hacking by journalists working for The News of the World and other newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation should delay the government’s decision on approving his company’s takeover of BSkyB, a satellite television channel.  Here is video of remarks on that question by Chris Bryant, a Labour member of Parliament, in which he compared Mr. Murdoch, unfavorably, to Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and media baron:  Mr. Bryant began by saying that several members of Parliament who have led the debate over the influence of Mr. Murdoch in Britain “have had threats.” He then added:  We have let one man have far too great a sway over our national life. At least Berlusconi lives in Italy, but Murdoch is not resident in this country. He does not pay tax here and has never appeared before a select committee of this House. No other country would allow one man to garner four national newspapers, the second-largest broadcaster, a monopoly on sports rights and first-view movies. America, the home of the aggressive entrepreneur, doesn’t allow it; we shouldn’t.  At another stage, another Labour member of Parliament, Tom Watson, suggested that Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of the British newspaper division of News Corporation, who was the editor of The News of the World in 2002 when it published an article based on a voice mail intercepted from the phone of a missing 13-year-old girl, must have known how her reporters were getting information.  Mr. Watson then referred to another serious allegation of wrongdoing by News of the World staff: the claim that investigators working for the newspaper when Ms. Brooks was the editor had interfered with a police officer’s investigation of a murder to protect a private investigator who also worked for the paper.  I want to inform the House of further evidence that Rebekah Brooks knew about the unlawful tactics of News of the World as early as 2002, despite all her denials yesterday. Rebekah Brooks was present at a meeting with Scotland Yard when police officers pursuing a murder investigation provided her with evidence that her newspaper was interfering with the pursuit of justice. …  The (officers, who) included Dick Fedorcio of the Metropolitan Police, told her that News of the World staff were guilty of interference and party to using unlawful means to attempt to discredit a police officer and his wife. She was told of actions by people she paid to expose and discredit David Cook and his wife, Jacqui Hames, so that Mr. Cook would be prevented from completing an investigation into a murder. News International was paying people to interfere with police officers and doing so on behalf of known criminals. We know now that News International, Mr. Speaker, had entered the criminal underworld.  Given this information, Mr. Watson said, Ms. Brooks cannot deny that she was “warned that under her auspices unlawful tactics were being used” or “that she was told by the police that her own paper was using unlawful tactics, in this case, to help one of her law-breaking investigators.”
Members of the British Parliament debated serious allegations of wrongdoing by journalists and editors at a British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch.