View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Media Law
May 23, 2012

‘Bullying’ Piers Morgan’s hacking lesson for Paxman

By PA Media Lawyer

Former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan once told Jeremy Paxman how to access voicemail messages, the Leveson Inquiry heard today.

Newsnight anchorman Paxman said he attended a lunch at Mirror headquarters in Canary Wharf in September 2002 where Morgan teased Ulrika Jonsson about her relationship with former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, saying he knew about a conversation they had.

Paxman said Morgan explained to him how to access people’s phone messages after teasing the Swedish television presenter about the conversation.

Paxman told the inquiry: “He turned to me and said ‘Have you got a mobile phone?’ I said yes and he asked if there was a security setting on the message bit of it. I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“He then explained the way to get access to people’s messages was to go to the factory default setting and press either 0000 or 1234 and that if you didn’t put on your own code, his words, ‘You’re a fool’.”

The BBC Newsnight presenter said he remembered the lunch for two reasons: he wondered why he had been invited and because of what Morgan said.

“Mr Morgan was teasing Ulrika that he knew what had happened in a conversation between her and Sven-Goran Eriksson,” said Paxman.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

“I don’t know if he was repeating a conversation he had heard or he was imagining this conversation. To be fair to him I should imagine both are possibilities, because he probably was imagining it.”

Paxman said Morgan put on a funny Swedish voice. “It was a rather bad parody.”

He added: “I don’t know if he was making this up, making up the conversation. But it was clearly something he was familiar with and I wasn’t. I didn’t know that this went on.”

The presenter said Morgan’s treatment of Jonsson was close to bullying. “I didn’t like it,” he said.

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network