[July 06, 2011] UK parliament to debate tabloid hacking saga Tweet Jul 06, 2011 (Al Jazeera - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- British lawmakers will hold an emergency debate on Wednesday over a phone-hacking scandal at a top-selling newspaper. Revelations that the News of the World (NoW) may have accessed the voicemail messages of crime victims, including an abducted 13-year-old girl later found murdered, have caused outrage in Britain. Three hours of parliamentary time have been cleared for the debate, during which some politicians have said they could call for a national boycott of the News of the World. The newspaper has been at the heart of the long-running saga previously thought to have targeted celebrities and other high-profile figures. Al Jazeera's correspondent, Paul Brennan, reported from London that "allegations [of hacking] first emerged in 2005. An enquiry was launched and it was realised that journalists were hacking into people's private answering service. "And NoW was paying celebrities out of court settlements to remain court. "There are now question marks over NOW's handling [of the scandal], police's initial handling and also what happens next?" US automaker Ford has already said it would pull advertising from the the paper until the matter is resolved properly. Other companies havel also said they were reviewing the situation. New information News International, which publishes Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch's stable of British newspaper titles, including The Times, The Sun and News of the World, said new information had recently been provided to police. "Full and continuing cooperation has been provided to the police since the current investigation started in January 2011," it said in a statement. "Well understood arrangements are in place to ensure that any material of importance to which they are entitled is provided to them. We cannot comment any further due to the ongoing investigations." The BBC said the material passed to police related to a trail of emails appearing to show that payments for information were made to police in the past which were authorised by Andy Coulson, former NoW editor, who later became Prime Minister David Cameron's head of communications. Coulson resigned as NoW editor in 2007 and has insisted he knew nothing about the phone hacking. It is not the first time a News Corp paper has been linked to police payments. In 2003, Rebekah Brooks, then editor of The Sun, told a parliamentary committee that her paper paid police for information. News Corp later said this was not company practise. Brooks is now head of News Corp's British newspaper arm and is a frequent guest at David Cameron's country home. UK media reports The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that NoW journalists may have attempted to access voice messages left on phones as relatives waited for information about their loved ones in the aftermath of the London bombings in 2005, when British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on the transport network, killing 52 people. And The Independent newspaper said Brooks commissioned a search, on a personal matter, by one of the private investigators used by the News of the World, to trace the family of the murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler. The Guardian said police investigating the phone-hacking claims were turning their attention to high-profile cases involving the murder or abduction of children since 2001. The parents of two murdered schoolgirls in another high-profile case dating back to Brooks' editorship of the NoW have been visited by police investigating the phone-hacking affair. Cameron is likely to face intense questioning over the issue at the weekly prime minister's questions session in parliament on Wednesday, particularly his friendship with Brooks and her successor Coulson. Cameron said on Tuesday he was "appalled" by the allegations that in 2002 the murdered schoolgirl's voicemail messages had been hacked by a NoW investigator, misleading police and her family. Cameron's government is weighing approval of News Corp's takeover bid for British broadcaster BSkyB . The hacking revelations are unlikely to derail that deal since approvals are focused on whether the takeover will give Murdoch too much power over the British media. The government has said it does not believe it will. Murdoch's media muscle Murdoch transformed the British press landscape in the 1980s during Margaret Thatcher's years as prime minister, bringing in new technology and confronting printers' and journalists' trade unions. He commands audiences with global leaders and, through his media, is seen as one of the world's most powerful men. Brooks, who has worked for Murdoch for nearly half her life, was previously seen as untouchable because of her close relationship with the News Corp chairman and chief executive. But popular pressure could prove her undoing if readers, who had largely shrugged off news that investigators accessed the phone messages of royals, footballers and celebrities to break stories, start to desert the Sunday paper. Facebook and Twitter campaigns have sprung up in the wake of the latest allegation encouraging readers and advertisers to boycott the News of the World. Sales of News Corp's The Sun newspaper never recovered in the city of Liverpool after it offended football fans in the wake of a stadium disaster more than 20 years ago in which 96 people died. Al Jazeera and agencies To see more of Al Jazeera, go to http://english.aljazeera.net. 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