Allegations of phone-hacking spread beyond the felled News of the World to other tabloids yesterday as media heir James Murdoch faced pressure over the extent of his knowledge of the scandal.
Former journalists at the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror -- the main tabloid competitors to Rupert Murdoch's British stable -- reportedly said the illegally hacking of voicemails was widespread at their papers too.
Back at the Murdoch empire, a lawmaker on Friday referred James Murdoch's testimony to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday to the police, while Cameron said he had "questions to answer" after doubts were raised over his evidence.
James Murdoch, the chairman of News International, has been challenged by two of his former employees over evidence he gave before parliament's media scrutiny committee.
A lawmaker has referred James Murdoch's testimony to the police. The junior Murdoch is standing by his evidence.
Meanwhile, the BBC quoted an unidentified former Sunday Mirror journalist who worked on the paper in the past decade who claimed to have witnessed routine phone hacking in the newsroom.
The allegations about the Sunday Mirror were detailed by a source who told BBC's Newsnight: "One afternoon in the newsroom I saw Liz Hurley's phone being hacked and a reporter listen to her mobile phone messages and take a note of what was said.
"It was a Thursday and I was told that there wasn't much on there - just something about lunch from another woman, so they would keep trying before the weekend to see what they could find."
The programme's source said the technique of phone hacking was used on a daily basis.
"Designated reporters would be doing it pretty much every day," they said.
"One reporter who was very good at it was called the 'master of the dark arts'.
"At one point in 2004 it seemed like it was the only way people were getting scoops.
The source even claimed the Sunday Mirror hired a voiceover artist to imitate famous people in order to get information about them.
"He was such a god of a voiceover artist that he could pretend to be famous people or failing that he'd pretend to be their lawyer or someone related to them.
Separately, James Hipwell, a former Daily Mirror financial journalist jailed in 2005 for buying shares before tipping them in the paper, said he heard hacking was being used at the paper as he worked next to the showbusiness desk where it was rife. Hipwell worked at the Mirror for two years until 2000.
Trinity Mirror, the group which publishes both papers, said its journalists work within the law and the code of conduct of Britain's self-regulatory Press Complaints Commission. It said Hipwell's allegations were "totally unsubstantiated."
Also it has emerged that Lord Leveson, the judge who will lead the hacking inquiry has said he had attended functions with Rupert Murdoch's son-in-law - but that he had informed Prime Minister David Cameron of this before the appointment was announced.
The senior judge met with Matthew Freud, who is married to Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, at functions while he was chairman of the sentencing council, which advises the government on sentencing policy.
The scandal has rocked the British police and even given Prime Minister David Cameron a rough ride, but has so far largely been limited to the News of the World, which Murdoch shut on July 7 amid public outrage.
In a further twist, the New York Times reported that Kroll, a firm of corporate investigators hired by Britain's Daily Telegraph to probe the leak of a story, said they suspected the involvement of senior News International executive Will Lewis, the former editor of the Telegraph.
The Telegraph had obtained a recording of Business Secretary Vince Cable saying he had "declared war" on Murdoch in December, but it was leaked to BBC reporter Robert Peston, a friend of Lewis, before the paper could run the story.
Soruce : The Daily Star
