ANALYSIS:The News of the World has routinely shown scant regard for normal ethical behaviour, writes MICHAEL FOLEY
THE LATEST revelations of phone hacking by the News of the Worldmight well be a bridge too far for the newspaper that appears to have made hacking into the mailboxes of mobile phones a routine part of reporting.
The news that the newspaper allegedly found ways into the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler (13), who was abducted and later murdered by serial killer Levi Bellfield, has caused revulsion, with calls for a boycott of the newspaper and those who advertise in it, and for a public inquiry.
In addition to the serious ethical considerations, there are also implications for those at the very top of News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, which owns the News of the World.
Rebekah Brooks, now the chief executive of News International, was editor of the paper in 2002.
There are also implications for the British establishment: Andy Coulson, Brooks’s deputy at the time of the phone tapping and her successor as editor, later became David Cameron’s communications director. He was forced to resign when the phone hacking story just refused to go away.
As with so many ethical issues regarding the British press, this story goes back to the royal family. In 2006, the newspaper’s royal editor, Clive Goodman, and two others were arrested following an investigation into articles published the previous year that relied on information gathered from the message systems of mobile phones belonging to members of the royal household.
Goodman and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, were given prison sentences. Coulson resigned to become the spokesman for Cameron.
Fast forward three years.
The Guardianmade a series of allegations that phone message tapping, or hacking, was not the preserve of Goodman, nor were the victims just members of the royal household. The Guardianclaimed that victims included politicians, sports people, publicists and people in showbusiness.
The police were unwilling to reopen any investigation, but one year later, in 2010, and the story that refused to die went international. The New York Timespublished results of its investigation into the News of the World's alleged hacking and Coulson's knowledge of it.
Coulson denied any knowledge of phone hacking and denied even knowing the investigator Mulcaire, who had been paid by the News of the Worldduring his editorship. Brooks also denied knowing Mulcaire.
Coulson resigned from his post in Cameron’s office in January this year.
The story twists and turns and, so far, we know of eight people who have sued successfully. They range from actor Sienna Miller to Labour MP and former minister Tessa Jowell, and football commentator Andy Gray, who, ironically, worked at the time for Sky Television.
This story is about arrogance and a media that believes it is more or less beyond any norms of decency and responsibility.
Here is an organisation that believes its senior journalists can interfere with the investigation of a case where the life of a young girl was at stake, that believes it can tap into any phone it likes, and still its senior executives are at the heart of the British establishment.
Cameron is a good friend of Brooks and the Murdoch family. His government is expected to take a decision soon allowing News International to take control of the 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not yet own and so diminish media plurality further.
The News of the Worldhas shown scant regard for normal ethical behaviour, even for those codes to which the newspaper has signed up.
There was no public interest in tapping into the message systems of footballers, politicians or actors, just a gross invasion of their privacy.
In the case of Milly Dowler, it is clear that the public interest lay in leaving well alone and allowing the investigation to go ahead.
Will this latest incident make any difference?
The British and Irish public are probably fed up with controversies about the privacy of the rich and famous. Phone tapping, superinjunctions to either stop or find stories about celebrity affairs, are hardly going to have a huge impact on readers with increasing economic worries.
However, these latest allegations are different and have already had an impact.
A number of major advertisers have withdrawn from the News of the Worldand there have been calls for a boycott of the paper.
The rest of the press yesterday used words like “disgust”, “contempt” and “shameful” in editorials on the subject, in a rare example of dog eating dog.
It now appears there will be some sort of inquiry, which will, in the prime minister’s words, look at this incident and will also include a wider look at “media practices and ethics”.
News International has handled it badly. It now appears it will claim that Brooks was on holidays at the time of the Milly Dowler incident.
However there is huge pressure on News International, the prime minister and on the wider establishment, but one wonders how a wide-ranging inquiry will be welcomed by the rest of the press, much of which only found its voice yesterday.
Michael Foley lectures in journalism and media ethics at the School of Media at DIT.