Personal details of the families of servicemen who died on the front line have been found in the files of Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective who worked for Rupert Murdoch's Sunday tabloid.
The shocking revelations emerged after the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, bowed to pressure to hold public inquiries into what he called the "absolutely disgusting" allegations of phone hacking by journalists at News of the World, and into the original police investigation into the scandal.
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Puppets representing British Prime Minister David Cameron, left, and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt are held aloft by "Rupert Murdoch" at the launch of the campaign group Hacked Off in London. Photo: Getty ImagesNew disclosures that grieving relatives of war dead were targets for the newspaper prompted anger among military charities, who said it was a "disgusting and indefensible assault on privacy".
The Metropolitan Police is facing calls from the families of murder victims, those killed in terrorist attacks and those who died in natural disasters, such as the Indonesian tsunami, to disclose if they were targets.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, was informed by the police on Wednesday night that he may have been a victim of hacking.
Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World and now the chief executive of News International, its parent company, faced calls from the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, to step down.
Pressed by Mr Miliband in Parliament to conduct a full public inquiry, Mr Cameron said he was appalled by the revelations and agreed it was important that inquiries were conducted that were "public, independent, and have public confidence".
However, he also signalled that News Corporation's takeover of the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB would be allowed to go ahead.
He rejected Mr Miliband's call for the matter to be referred to the Competition Commission, which he suggested would be illegal. Mr Miliband told Mr Cameron he had made a "catastrophic error of judgment" when he hired the former editor of the newspaper, Andy Coulson, as his director of communications – a post Mr Coulson quit in January.
In a dramatic Prime Minister's question time dominated by the hacking scandal, Mr Miliband accused Mr Cameron of being out of touch with public opinion on the issue of BSkyB and of a "failure of leadership" in the biggest press scandal in modern times.
Mr Miliband said the investigation should cover "the culture and practices of the industry, the nature of regulation ... and also the relationship between the police and the media".
Mr Cameron told the Commons the inquiries could not be started immediately because of the major police investigation under way, though he conceded it "may be possible" to start some of the work earlier.
The ramifications of the scandal continued to be felt by the News of the World through other channels as Halifax bank and Virgin Holidays cancelled advertisements due to run in this Sunday's paper. The Ford car company said on Tuesday it was suspending its advertising in the paper. Other companies, including Britain's biggest advertiser, Procter & Gamble, said it was reviewing its position amid an online campaign urging firms to withdraw their advertising.
Mr Murdoch broke his silence on the matter to condemn the "deplorable and unacceptable" activities at the News of the World.
Mr Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, said he had appointed Joel Klein, a former aide to Bill Clinton, to oversee the company's inquiry.
Guardian News & Media, Telegraph, London
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/fallen-soldiers--families-lead-tabloid-outrage-20110707-1h4ww.html#ixzz1RUAEOy5X
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