Accounts show parent firm still spending an eighth of revenue dealing with phone hacking.

Hacked Off’s Policy Director Nathan Sparkes said,

“News UK have pursued a legal strategy of stringing out cases for months only to settle immediately before allegations of phone hacking at The Sun are tested in court. These figures show how this approach has not only subjected claimants to months and years of needless anxiety, but also cost News UK tens of millions in legal costs which they could have better spent on hiring journalists. Instead of resolving claims quickly and responsibly, News UK's persistence with putting claimants through months of legal action with mounting costs and liability for both sides has backfired. The greatest threat to the financial security of publishers like News UK is their own executives' obsessive refusal to respond meaningfully to the volume and extent of allegations of illegality they face.”

ENDS

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NOTESHacked Off is the campaign for a free and accountable press, and we work with the victims of press abuse to achieve those aims.