As James Murdoch is recalled to appear before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, it is hard to believe it is already over two months since his now infamous first appearance with Murdoch senior in July. Particularly as the issue simply refuses to go away, and fresh phone hacking allegations continue to make their way into the public domain.
I was in London in July, and found myself in the midst of a nation gripped by one of the biggest stories from the UK in years – the News of the World phone hacking scandal had gone all the way to the top of News Corp. As I enjoyed a gloriously sunny London, Rupert Murdoch was across town suffering “the most humbling day of [his] life”.
It is difficult to convey just how omnipresent this story was in the UK. Academics, students and practitioners of communications will likely debate the effectiveness of the mitigation strategies deployed by News International in the wake of the scandal for years to come. The reputation of News Corp will take a long time to recover, if it can be revived at all.
It is arguable the Murdochs, and News Corporation, could have saved themselves a lot of pain and suffering if they had been quicker to act in response to the deepening crisis, or acted with greater humility. However, if one thing became clear as the story unfolded, it is that the issues appeared to be so deeply rooted, so institutionalised within News of the World culture, that the leadership and actions required to avoid a crisis of such epic proportions was years overdue, not merely days or weeks.
The true legacy of the scandal will reach far beyond the impact it has on News Corp, the Murdochs or even the lives of the key players in the saga that have since been arrested. The events of 2011 will have profound and far reaching consequences for the wider media, and not just in the UK. The public’s view of, and trust in, the media has been changed by the phone hacking scandal. And politicians are now seizing their opportunity to rein the media in, even here in Australia, which is about as far away in distance from the British Parliament as you can get.
At the heart of the issue is the right to privacy and how it should be balanced with the public interest. A free press is a fundamental pillar of a democratic society. The journalists I contact on a daily basis are extremely professional and, as far as I am aware, act ethically. For the record, as a trained journalist I believe for that institution to function properly, the anonymity of a journalist’s sources must remain sacrosanct. But whatever reforms are implemented as the ultimate result of these horrendous and illegal acts, I hope they are primarily designed to restore the public’s trust in the media, and not an attempt to exact some form of punitive revenge for the actions of a few.
