Anthony Thai ’13
After reports of illegal press activity surfaced, prominent reporters from numerous British tabloids insisted that they were simply searching for the truth in the interest of the public. However, privacy is a right to be respected and handled with care. Last July, Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World came under fire after a widespread phone-hacking scandal was uncovered, inciting public outcry and resulting in the termination of the newspaper’s distribution. Numerous celebrities, including actor Hugh Grant, singer Charlotte Church, and author J.K. Rowling, have come forth to voice complaints about blackmailing, theft of private documents, and even car chases. As of December, according to Bloomberg News, 800 people claim to be victims of the phone-hacking and 18 people have been arrested. However, Paul McMullan, a former features editor for Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, has maintained that it is sometimes necessary to use illegal practices in order to give readers the truth. He openly admitted to searching celebrity garbage cans and setting up cameras outside their homes. “Phone hacking,” declared McMullan, “is a perfectly acceptable tool…if all we’re trying to do is get the truth.” Instead of justifying their criminal practices by citing the need for truth, however, McMullan and former tabloid reporters should admit that they were only trying to boost declining sales and apologize for their immoral activities. When it comes to printed newspapers, companies are always striving to boost sales in a market that is slowly being eaten away by the Internet. Rohan Gulati ’13 asserted, “Beyond a violation of the law, these actions are an insult to the personal dignity of the victims and to the morals of the reporters.” According to the Data Protection Act of 1998, passed by the British Parliament, “data must not be disclosed to other parties without the consent of the individual whom it is about” and that data cannot be “used in any way that may potentially cause damage or distress.” The tabloid reporters infringed on this law in every possible way, but more importantly, they currently express no regret for their actions. McMullan offered his own view of his job as a tabloids reporter when he stated, “I absolutely loved giving chase to celebrities. How many jobs can you have car chases in?” He even added that he liked taking off with exclusive sources “and hiding them from other journalists.” This depicts his lack of respect for privacy and belies his former statements in which he indicated that his actions were solely performed to inform the public. As a lawyer of 51 victims of tabloid abuse has noted, “It was done… to sell newspapers. Not to detect crime or to expose wrongdoing, not to protect society or for the public good.” Even more disturbing, tabloid reporters went as far as to hack the phone of a murder victim, Milly Dowler, giving her parents false hope that she was alive. The tabloids even secretly photographed Dowler’s parents when they were taking a private walk to retrace the steps of their lost daughter, which, to Sally Dowler, felt “like such an intrusion into a really, really private grief moment.” Such a violation of morals should not be tolerated, whether in Britain or elsewhere. As Hugh Grant said in recent testimony against the tabloids, “A free press is the cornerstone of democracy. I just think there has been a section of the press that has become toxic … and I think it’s time that this country found the courage to stand up to this bully now.” It indeed is time for Britain to enact stricter media laws and protect the private lives of its citizens.