Piers Morgan, the host of CNN's 'Piers Morgan Tonight' show and former editor of two British newspapers, has vehemently denied claims he participated in phone-hacking. A Conservative member of Parliament made the allegations against the television personality during a committee hearing on Tuesday (19th July 2011).
Posing questions to News Corp Ceo Rupert Murdoch, member of Parliament Louise Mensch alleged that Morgan had admitted to phone hacking in his book 'The Insider', revealing he knew a trick involving entering a four-digit code to hear voice messages. Mensch added, "In that book he boasted that using that little trick enables him to win scoop of the year for a story about Sven Goran Eriksson.So that is a former editor of the Daily Mirror being very open about his personal use of phone hacking ..." Morgan, who was tweeting regularly throughout the hearing, rubbished the allegations, telling followers, "That MP just claimed I boasted in my book of using phone-hacking for a scoop.Complete nonsense. Just read the book". He later added, "I've never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, or published any stories based on the hacking of a phone". The former 'Britain's Got Talent' judge claims in his book he states that someone warned him phones could be hacked, which promoted him to change his pin number.
Piers Morgan used a section of his show on Monday (18th July 2011) to state he never published any stories in an unlawful manner while editor of the News of the World and The Daily Mirror.