Phone Hacking Scandle

Abstract

The first time that phone hacking scandal caught the attention from the general public was in November 2005, when Prince William’s knee injury, which was only known to few cronies, was exposed as news by News of the World. Former NOtW royal editor Clive Goodman was accused of hiring private detective Glenn Mulcaire for phone hacking activities. The major victims were celebrities, politicians, and members of the British Royal family. Later in 2006, both Goodman and Mulcaire were sentenced. The chief editor Andy Coulson then resigned from the newspaper.

However, in July 2011, it was revealed that the phone of missing school girl Milly Dowler had also been hacked by a journalist from the News of the World. The messages in the voice mail box had been erased, which gave false hope survival to police and the girl’s family and potentially destroyed valuable evidences about the girl’s abduction and murderer. Within more and more , resulted in a public outcry against the News International. On the 8th of July, after the British Parliament’s urgent debate regarding the affair, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that a public inquiry would look in to the scandal and that further investigations needed to be conducted. Due to advertisement boycotts and unrelenting public pressure, News of the World ended its 168 years publication on 10th of July. Eight days later, former News of the World reporter Sean Hoare was found dead. He was the first to allege phone hacking at the publication.

News of the World (this part is replaced by fiona’s new similarity reduced edition)

The News of the World (NoTW) was at one time one of the biggest-selling English language newspapers in the world. It was first published in 1843 and at the time of the closure in 2011, its circulation was around 8.4m issues per week, which showed that it still had one of the highest circulations among English language newspapers.

The company was initially established as a broadsheet by John Browne Bell in 1843 and was later sold to Henry Lascelles Carr in 1891 and was finally bought by Rupert Murdoch's media firm--News Limited.

Back to the very beginning, when News of the World’s first edition was announced in 1843, the newspaper’s practice was defined as “fearless and persistent to find out the truth… never seek for the financial support from any party and hide neither the achievements nor the mistake of any… dedicate in delivering good service to old England by maintaining her honourable reputation and safety, the prosperity of all classes of the people” (Hinton 2011). This powerful and explicit mission statement was regarded as the company’s founding motto.

NoTW was transformed into a tabloid after it merged into the News International. News International was a subsidiary of News Corporation,