The 'Phone Hacking Affair in the United Kingdom

The ‘Phone hacking controversy, in The United Kingdom, gets more serious by the day. This news story has been rumbling on for years. Since 2005, there have been constant stories that journalists, at the News of the World, a Sunday newspaper, intercepted, or caused to be intercepted, voicemails on mobile telephones belonging to celebrities, politicians, and members of the Royal family. News Corporation, the paper’s parent company, stated that one rogue journalist caused the problem. Police investigated the matter and the News of the World’s royal correspondent and a private investigator were prosecuted and jailed, in 2007, concerning matters pertaining to intercepting the Royal Family’s telephones.

In 2010, a Parliamentary select committee investigating privacy and libel issues, complained of “deliberate obfuscation and collective amnesia” by press witnesses, who gave them evidence. It is rare that any Parliamentary committee is so forthright in its condemnation. It further went on to single out the News International representatives for special condemnation saying "We strongly condemn this behaviour, which reinforces the widely held impression that the press generally regard themselves as unaccountable and that News International, in particular, has sought to conceal the truth about what really occurred”.

The story has rumbled on through the intervening years, with various allegations surfacing that many more people had suffered illegal ‘phone hacking. News Corporation made out of court settlements on various celebrities, but the allegations continued to surface. In February 2011, The Metropolitan Police Force began a new enquiry into the affair, at the time there twenty, or so, civil actions pending against the newspaper. Lawyers for victims believe that the News of the World may have hacked thousands of mobile telephones. In early April 2011, The News of the World printed an apology and admitted, finally, that the problem was more widespread, having insisted that it was an aberration by one reporter for five years.

Although it is a serious case in its own right, revelations on the sixth of July 2011 that murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s voicemail messages were intercepted and some messages deleted, (during the time that Milly was missing, before her body was found) have disgusted the British Public, politicians, and even other journalists. Not only did this raise Milly’s parent’s hopes that their daughter was still alive, it impeded the police in their enquiry, and destroyed what may have been vital evidence.

The Public are angry and there are several campaigns on social networking internet sites, calling for a boycott of the News of the World newspaper. Advertisers have pulled advertising from the 10 July 2011 issue of the newspaper. Politicians were so concerned they called for an emergency parliamentary debate, on the issue, on 6 July 2011. During which it appears that other crime victims’ families, victims of the 7/7 London bombings and the bereaved families of service personnel, who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, may also have been subject to the interception of their voicemail messages.

The ‘phone hacking affair has implications, which go much further than privacy invasion or even the enormous pain it has caused to its victims. There are questions as to whether the information necessary to hack into some ‘phones came from police officers, paid for that information. There is the question of why the original police investigation, in 2006, only resulted in two prosecutions.

There was, as news reports prove a close relationship between senior politicians and very senior police officers and the News of the World. Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor 2003 -2007, was Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications director from 2007 until January 2011, when he resigned after continued media coverage of the ‘phone hacking affair. There is a suspicion that the News of the World is probably not the only British newspaper involved in paying police officers for information. Could it be that, as the Parliamentary select committee said, the British Press believes itself above the law? Many voters remember a headline “It's The Sun Wot Won It", which appeared on Saturday 11 April 1992 on the front page of The News of the World’s sister paper, The Sun, commenting on a surprise conservative victory in the general election. Perhaps the press has forgotten that the government governs the land and the press’s proper position, within the constitution, is to hold the government to account for its actions whilst doing so, the press would do well to remember that historical kingmakers usually lost their heads.

The other question that the phone hacking affair raises is to do with the News of the World’s owner wishing to acquire the Sky News television channel. As News international already own so much of Britain’s newspapers and media some people are uneasy about it owning any more. News broadcasting organizations’ owners must prove themselves fit and proper persons.

The mobile telephone hacking affair raises many questions and it is unclear where the new police investigations and the public enquiries, promised by the Prime Minister during the emergency Commons debate July 6 2011, will lead. What is clear is that no one knows what other matters may be raised, once people begin lifting the stones.