Britain is finally getting ready to start prosecuting some people for the whole News International phone-hacking fiasco, and they include four journalists and a cop, along with six others whose files Scotland Yard sent to prosecutors on Wednesday.

After all those arrests (43 in total, according to The Telegraph), all those high-profile hearings, all those knocks to James Murdoch's career, this whole shebang is finally going to get real with a couple criminal trials. Maybe. See, all that's actually happened is that Scotland Yard has sent the cases to the Crown Prosecution Service to charge, but CPS hasn't said when or even if (with any certainty) those charges would come.

Still, to best understand who's charged with what, in the absence of anybody actually being named a defendant, BBC's report has the best rundown on the charges at issue, which include "allegations of misconduct in a public office, perverting the course of justice, witness intimidation and harassment." The Wall Street Journal's Jeanne Whalen also has a good summation, with the interesting detail that its own sibling company was unavailable for comment: "News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper unit didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. News Corp. also owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal." Surely you don't just call the PR folks there, do you, Journal? Actually, that's probably exactly what they make you do. No point in over-sharing when you're on the defensive.

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Adam Martin