BREAKING; NEW CAMPAIGN IMMINENT

Update: Target Overshoot

The response to this has been phenomenal: it was funded in one day which, as Rupert Murdoch once said (a tad ungrammatically) is 'the most humble day of my life'. Just so contributors know, I won't be spending the overshoot on wine and Cayman Beach holidays: every extra thousand pounds should buy me a couple of more weeks at the trial, expected to last till next Easter. 

Live Tweeting the Old Bailey Trial

As I've explained on my blog here, I am unable to continue to cover the current Old Bailey trial for financial reasons. However, there have been a large number of people urging me to crowd fund the money to cover my basic costs. Despite a bit of embarrassment, I'm going to put pride to the side and see if I can do that. 

• Though my background is in drama and screenwriting, for the last two years I've been covering the impact of the phone hacking scandal for the Daily Beast (which is now under a new editorship and financial constraints)
• Through my book Fall of the House of Murdoch published last year by Unbound I've come to know much of the background. 
• Since then I've attended many of the pretrial hearings, and have come to know several of the personalities involved. 
• I first started live tweeting at the beginning of the trial and had a phenomenal response. I didn't realise that live tweeting would be allowed after the opening statements, and so had no plan (or resources) to continue. 
• My approach to the News Corp scandals isn't personalised or party political.  I also think the problem of monopoly is one which both right and left can recognise.
• Daylight is the best cleanser: transparency and disclosure are the antidotes to the secret abuse of power. That the Milly Dowler story took ten years to finally emerge is a sign that certain industrial interests (even the revered British press) find it hard to investigate themselves.
• If we think the alleged abuses of media power at News International are bad, what are the potential pitfalls of the emerging digital monopolies of the future? Lessons must be learned now, or paid for later. 

The Plan

It's fairly simple: living costs in London are such that I cannot attend the trial without support

• £4000 will enable to continue attending the trial till Christmas
• I will continue to live tweet daily and provide background
• For those who want, I will provide a dedicated email or some kind of private Q&A forum.

Your Help

The response on twitter to my live tweeting has been immense, and there has been a popular demand that I continue:

• The public is always right. 
• Though I like traditional articles, the response on social media is much more direct and accessible. I'd like to continue, but there's no subscriber option on twitter. 

Other Ways You Can Help

There are many many people much more hard up than I am. Those who can't contribute have already done an immense amount by publicising this story and researching more details :

• The money is just means to an end. If this doesn't work I'll still keep covering this in any way I can. 
• Please distribute, retweet this and use the Indiegogo share tools!

Thanks for reading, and all the support so far