Hacker group claims WikiLeaks-style joint effort with media outlets on News of the World emails

The sourcing collaborations that WikiLeaks struck up with a cabal of prominent international news organizations last year seem to be something of a game-changing new media model. The controversial whistle-blowing group's partnerships with major press outlets ensured that its vast cache of classified military and diplomatic documents got wide play in the media.

Now, a like-minded online collective claims it has forged similar relationships in an effort to further expose wrongdoing at News Corp.'s embattled British publishing division News International, as it weathers a severe and fast-spreading scandal over widespread phone-hacking at Rupert Murdoch's tabloid properties.

And who better to potentially have dug up fresh dirt about the company's alleged phone-hacking practices than, well, a bunch of hackers?

LulzSec, a nebulous troupe of hacktivists who wreaked havoc on the website of News International's surviving tabloid, The Sun, several days ago, now claims to be in possession of 4GB worth of emails poached during its online fishing expedition on Tuesday.

An affiliated hacker group, Anonymous, which had earlier retaliated against companies that stopped doing business with WikiLeaks in the wake of its data dumps, likewise appears to have tapped an email server at News International.

An administrator of one of the accounts affiliated with Anonymous, @AnonymousIRC, tweeted Thursday: "We think, actually we may not release emails from The Sun, simply because it may compromise the court case." The message referred to the ongoing criminal probe of News Corp. and some of its current and former top executives, including Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of the company's recently shuttered tab News of the World in 2002, when journalists there allegedly hijacked the voicemail of a murdered 13-year-old girl.

But LulzSec announced on its own Twitter account Thursday: "We're currently working with certain media outlets who have been granted exclusive access to some of the News of the World emails we have."

Which "certain media outlets" might LulzSec be in cahoots with?

The Guardian and the New York Times would seem obvious candidates. Both papers were in on the WikiLeaks revelations, and both have done more to advance the phone-hacking story than any other news organizations. The two broadsheets even had a bit of a collaboration of their own when Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger approached Times captain Bill Keller last year to help "stop the story from dying on its feet," as Rusbridger writes in the latest issue of Newsweek.

Alas, neither paper is in the loop this time around, both have confirmed.

Rusbridger was out of the office Friday, as was Keller (perhaps there's tete-a-tete in progress?), but the Guardian chief forwarded The Cutline's email to a spokeswoman for the newspaper, who said, "We're not one of the media outlets in question and we have not been approached." Keller, through a Times spokeswoman, replied: "We have had no contact" with LulzSec.

Nor did either editor entertain an inquiry as to whether their venerable publications would work with LulzSec—which would have obtained whatever information it sourced to the papers through the same morally and legally compromised practices favored by the bad actors at News of the World. But it certainly doesn't stretch credulity to assume that there are plenty of editors and reporters out there who would gladly run with whatever intelligence from the British tabloid wars LulzSec was willing to share.

For now, the logistics of the supposedly pending email dump remain a guessing game. Though yet another affiliated hacker group, Sabu, claims it is imminent and explosive: "We're releasing something we found in The Sun's mail server, shortly. Ouch. Ready for the media storm?"

Show us the smoking gun!

Ex-Cameron aide, Andy Coulson, arrested in UK hacking scandal

London: London police on Friday arrested Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who also served as the prime minister's former communications chief, in relation to Britain's tabloid phone-hacking scandal.

London police said a 43-year-old man was arrested Friday morning over allegations of phone hacking and police bribery and was in custody at a London police station. They did not name him but offered the information when asked about Coulson.

The Murdoch media empire on Thursday shut down the 168-year-old muckraking tabloid. The paper has been engulfed by allegations its journalists paid police for information and hacked into the phone messages of celebrities, young murder victims and the grieving families of dead soldiers.

It comes just as media baron Rupert Murdoch is seeking U.K. government clearance for a euro12 billion ($19 billion) bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting, a prize far more valuable than his British stable of newspapers.

Earlier Friday, Prime Minister David Cameron admitted that British politicians and the press had become too cosy and promised to hold two full investigations into activities at the News of the World tabloid and into future media regulation.

Cameron said press self-regulation had failed and a new body, independent of the media and the government, was needed to properly enforce standards

"The truth is, we've all been in this together," Cameron said at a news conference a day after the announcement that the News of the World was closing down. "Party leaders were so keen to win the support of newspapers that we turned a blind eye to the need to sort this issue. The people in power knew things weren't right but they didn't do enough quickly enough."

Cameron said his friend Rebekah Brooks, a former editor of the tabloid, should have resigned as chief executive of News International, the British unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.. He also said there were questions to be answered by James Murdoch, the heir-apparent to his father's media empire.

"I want everyone to be clear: Everything that has happened is going to be investigated," Cameron said.

He said a judge will be appointed to lead a thorough investigation of what went wrong at the News of the World, including alleged bribery of police officers, and a second inquiry to find a new way of regulating the press.

Two employees of the tabloid were sent to prison in 2007 after being convicted of hacking into royal telephones, but the police investigation of the activity at the time has been slammed as incomplete or compromised by new bribery allegations.

Cameron also suggested that a decision on Murdoch's BSkyB takeover is likely to be delayed.

"Given the events of recent days, this will take some time," Cameron said.

The prime minister refused to apologize for hiring Coulson as his spokesman, a move that opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband described Friday as an "appalling error of judgment."

Cameron said Coulson, who resigned from his government post in January, remained a friend.

The prime minister referred to reports that Brooks had offered her resignation. "In this situation I would have taken it," Cameron said.

A reporter asked whether James Murdoch was a fit and proper person to run a company, following his admission on Thursday that regretted authorizing out-of-court payments to some hacking victims.

Murdoch's statement "raises lots of questions that need to be answered," Cameron said.

The scandal exploded this week after it was reported that the News of the World had hacked the mobile phone of 13-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 while her family and police were desperately searching for her. News of the World operatives reportedly deleted some messages from the phone's voicemail, giving the girl's parents false hope that she was still alive.

That ignited public outrage far beyond any previous reaction to press intrusion into the lives of celebrities, which the paper had previously acknowledged and for which it paid compensation.

Dozens of companies pulled their advertising from the paper this week, fearing they would be tainted by association. James Murdoch then announced Thursday that this Sunday's edition of the tabloid would be its last and all revenue from the final issue, which will carry no ads, would go to "good causes."

News International, the British unit of Murdoch's News Corp., has not said whether it will move quickly to put another paper into the Sunday market which had been dominated for decades by News of the World. But according to online records, an unnamed U.K. individual on Tuesday bought up the rights to the domain name "sunonsunday.co.uk."

Shares in BSkyB, which have fallen all week because of doubts whether the takeover will go ahead, were down more than 4 per cent Friday in London trading at 779 pence ($12.40).

Shares in News Corp. rose 1.6 per cent on the Nasdaq index in New York after Thursday's announcement.

The British government on June 30 already gave its qualified approval allowing News Corp. to purchase the 61 per cent of British Sky Broadcasting that it doesn't already own, on the condition it spins off Sky News as a separate company. News Corp. made an initial offer of 700 pence per share, valuing BSkyB at 12.3 billion pounds ($19.8 billion). Analysts believe News Corp. may have to go as high as 900 pence per share to persuade shareholders to sell out.

Analysts expect the BSkyB deal approval to be delayed now until at least September.

Despite the public outcry, many analysts think Britain will still sanction the takeover, since officials have already said that threats to competition will be resolved with Sky News' spin-off.