Media coverage in conjunction with the news media phone hacking scandal unaware of phone hacking. The newspaper was encouraged earlier that year by "The Guardian" to investigate and report on phone hacking. The NY Times reported the disclosures made by "The Guardian" regarding Milly Dowler's hacked phone on the same day "The Guardian" article appeared. The Independent; (5 July 2011) "The Independent" covered "The Guardian's" story about Milly Dowler the same day. The newspaper also followed up with investigative reporting and published an article 22 September 2011 reporting that, within weeks of the arrests of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire in August 2006, "a senior police officer" advised Rebekah Brooks there
2009–2011 News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations in bringing the revelations about phone hacking into the open. Watson was concerned by alleged press misconduct, as were his colleagues Chris Bryant, the MP for Rhondda, Khalid Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, and Sion Simon, then MP for Birmingham Erdington. Watson joined the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in 2009, under the chairmanship of Conservative MP John Whittingdale, specifically to pose questions to leading figures in News International about the ethics at both "The Sun" and the "News of the World," and allowing him to quiz Andy Coulson, who was director of communications for the Conservative Party, about