News of the World registry. In 2006, reporters at the paper used private investigators to illegally gain access to hundreds of mobile phone voicemail accounts held by a variety of people of interest to the newspaper. In 2007 the paper's royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, pleaded guilty to illegal interception of personal communication and was jailed for four months; the paper's editor, Andy Coulson, had resigned two weeks earlier. In 2009/2010, further revelations emerged on the extent of the phone hacking, and how it was common knowledge within the "News of the World" and its News International parent. According to a former reporter at the
Phone hacking Phone hacking Phone hacking is the practice of manipulating or gaining unauthorized access to mobile phones, such as by intercepting telephone calls or accessing voicemail messages. When the unauthorized access is to the phone user's conversation, it is more commonly referred to as phone tapping. The term came to prominence during the News International phone hacking scandal, in which it was alleged (and in some cases proved in court) that the British tabloid newspaper the "News of the World" had been involved in the interception of voicemail messages of the British Royal Family, other public figures, and a murdered schoolgirl