The Legendary Scandal of the Legendary Murdoch
In the world of politics, business, and economics, major national and international companies mainly have an effect on the public and policies followed. However there are certain ethics that those companies should abide by. For example, privacy is a major issue that cannot be messed with, and a violation of privacy could cause an outrage by the public and policies against the company itself.
Legendary Murdochracy Shot by Scandal
Keith Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-American media tycoon who was known to be the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the News Corporation (News Corp.), which was rated as the second-largest media corporation as of 2011 in terms of revenue.
However, in the beginning of 2006, allegations were spread stating that individuals from the British tabloid newspaper News of the World, which was published by News International of the News Corp, had engaged in phone hacking.
The aforementioned allegations were at first limited to phone-hacking celebrities, politicians and individuals from the British Royal Family. Other scandalous allegations indicated that the Rupert Murdoch's corporation had engaged in phone-hackings leading to victimize a murdered schoolgirl called Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British troops and other victims, after which a national public outcry was erupted throughout the United Kingdom.
Moreover, the News of the World newspaper was also accused of police bribery, and exercising improper influence on politicians during its course of work.
2011: News of the World tabloid Shut Down, UK Launches Inquiry
Years after that, in July 2011, News Corp halted the publishing of the News of the World newspaper after 168 years of publication due to previous and yet recent phone-hacking scandal.
In this context, British Prime Minister David announced that he would be forming a public government inquiry into the phone hacking scandal, naming Lord Justice Leveson as the chairman of the inquiry. The main goals of this inquiry were to look into the phone-hacking and police bribery of the News of the World tabloid.
Unfortunately to the News Corp., the issue was not only contained in the UK, for the media giant is headquartered in the US and it also operates many of its Medias from there. The US Department of Justice also confirmed that it was following up efforts for an approved investigation into the corporation.
Due to the pain caused to people by the spread scandal, several resignations were declared by head executives in the company. Les Hinton, Chief Executive of the News Corp.'s Down Jones, announced his resignation on July 15, and was quoted by BBC saying, "I have seen hundreds of news reports of both actual and alleged misconduct during the time I was executive chairman of News International and responsible for the company. The pain caused to innocent people is unimaginable. That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant and in the circumstances I feel it is proper for me to resign from News Corp, and apologize to those hurt by the actions of the News of the World".
Cameron's Appointment of former News of the World Editor
On another hand, David Cameron was not personally involved in the phone-hacking scandal. However, in 2007, Cameron appointed former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his director of communications.
Coulson resigned back then from the paper after a reporter was convicted of being involved in the illegal phone-hacking scandal which erupted in 2006.
In January 2011, in light of the full coverage of the phone-hacking scandal, Coulson resigned from his post saying that this issue was making it hard for him to do his best in his job. During the peak of the scandal inquiry, in July 2011, Andy Coulson was arrested and questioned by the police, being charged with further involvement of illegal activities practiced by the News of the World. Coulson was later on released on bail.
On this level, the UK Prime Minister defended his choice of appointed Andy Coulson as his director. However later, in a special Parliamentary session held at the British House of Commons on July 20, arranged to tackle the phone-hacking scandal, Cameron stated that he regretted the disturbance which was caused by his appointment of Coulson, adding that "with hindsight" he wouldn't have appointed him.
The Murdochs under Oath of Questioning
The scandal is still being investigated by the British government, and the Parliament is holding closed and public hearings to question Rupert Murdoch, and his son James, who are the main headline of the scandal.
The British Parliament summoned Rupert and James Murdoch to account for the phone-hacking and bribery scandal of their company. Rupert Murdoch said he was ashamed of the scandal hiking on his corporation, however stressed that he would not accept any personal responsibility.
He reiterated that he was "at fault only for trusting the wrong people" to run the News of the World tabloid.
News Corps, or in specific it's CEO has lost so much of his revenues after the News of the World was forces to shut down after the scandal. Investigations are still taking part in the UK, and might be followed with other by the US into the company's media outlets based there.
Source: News Agencies