Closure does not bring resolution

When allegations of phone-hacking first emerged in 2006 and the newspaper found itself in the news, owners News International dismissed the scandal as the work of a single rogue reporter. Each time further revelations emerged, the company sought to contain the reputational damage, with assurances that matters had been fully investigated and appropriate actions taken. There were similar reassurances from the Metropolitan Police.

Now we know that this was simply not the case. And though the title suffered only limited reputational damage when those who had had their privacy invaded were mainly politicians and celebrities, when it emerged this week that targets included the victims of terrible crimes and the families of Britain’s war dead, distaste turned to revulsion. By yesterday, it was revealed that 4000 people may be affected. Somewhere along the line, the News of the World lost its moral compass and in the dog-eats-dog world of tabloid journalism, it was a case of “anything goes”. This had nothing to do with the honourable tradition of journalists being prepared to break the law to expose corruption, hypocrisy and wrong-doing. It was about eavesdropping on the private conversations of innocent people, some of them is the midst of tragic situations, in the hope of a sensational story. This sort of conduct drags the whole of the British press into disrepute, including the very many titles, such as The Herald, that have never indulged in such tactics.

However, though the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World had grown into a tumour on a limb of News International, few could have anticipated the radical surgery announced by James Murdoch yesterday. He did his best to present the newspaper’s closure as a moral decision, as a proportionate response to the disgust expressed by the public, politicians and advertisers, who deserted the title in droves. In fact, he had little choice, particularly following the British Legion’s decision yesterday to pull its Help For Heroes campaign from the paper. The News of the World had become a toxic brand. The decision will come to be seen as a cynical ploy if, as many expect, News International move quickly to replace it with a Sunday edition of the Sun.

It is a move that has implications on a number of levels. Those journalists on the title who had nothing to do with this scandal, deserve sympathy. They too are innocent victims. Meanwhile some of those on whose watch these activities took place, remain on the payroll. Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of the News of the World at the time, and is now News International chief executive must surely consider her position.

There are also implications for the rest of News International. For years the loss-making Times newspaper has relied on a cross-subsidy from the extremely profitable News of the World, another reason why Mr Murdoch is likely to move quickly to re-invent it under another masthead.

This dramatic amputation must not be allowed to detract from the investigations that are now under way. Closing down the newspaper does not solve the problem. It would be naive to believe that either phone-hacking or paying corrupt police officers for information are activities that were confined to the News of the World, or even to News International, which is why any investigation must encompass the ethical behaviour of the press in general. We welcome the appointment of the Independent Police Complaints Commission to get to the bottom of the police involvement in this scandal. And we repeat our call for the Government’s inquiry to be a statutory one, chaired by a judge and with powers to subpoena witnesses and summon evidence before it disappears into a shredder. Anything less will be seen as a whitewash.

One interpretation of yesterday’s action was that Rupert Murdoch’s real objective is BSkyB and the closure of the News of the World is seen as a price worth paying. As the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt keeps saying that the only basis for his decision on the bid concerns media plurality, it could be argued that shedding a popular Sunday tabloid improves Mr Murdoch’s case. That would be outrageous. As Lord Prescott put it yesterday, this issue is less about plurality than morality. For four years, executives from News International have claimed that the phone-hacking scandal has been dealt with, while the cancer continued to spread. In many eyes, their mishandling of events at Wapping has clearly demonstrated that Mr Murdoch is not a “fit and proper” media proprietor. At the very least, the proposed take-over must be put on hold until all inquiries have been completed.

This is a watershed moment for how the British press operates, but let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The pressure created by 24-hour news, the viral spread of unsubstantiated and unattributed rumour via the internet and the erosion of the notion of privacy by social networking sites all challenge traditional journalism. In the current febrile atmosphere, there will be calls for privacy laws. Yet the central dilemma remains of how respect for privacy can be written into law without hampering the ability of investigative journalists to root out wrongdoers and hold those in authority to account. Let us not forget that this unsavoury scandal was itself exposed not by the police but by journalists patiently probing and asking questions.

Meanwhile, yesterday’s characteristically sensational news does not draw a line under anything. It is not even the end of the beginning.