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By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron's former media chief Andy Coulson was jailed for 18 months on Friday for encouraging widespread phone-hacking by journalists to obtain scoops at the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid he edited. Coulson, editor of the now defunct News of the World newspaper from 2003-2007, was convicted last week of conspiracy to intercept voicemails on mobile phones following a high-profile eight-month trial at London's Old Bailey court. "Mr Coulson ... has to take the major blame for the phone hacking at the News of the World," judge John Saunders said. "He knew about it and encouraged it when he should have stopped it." The sentence was passed exactly three years to the day that the Guardian newspaper published revelations that staff on the paper had hacked into the voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.More...