Phone Hacking Scandal
COMM101 Campbell Burke Student No. 4491002 1) * After the 2005 Royal phone hacking scandal another investigation was launched into phone hacking called operation Weeting. It was announced in January 2011 by the police that a new investigation would be conducted as a result new information. * In April 2011 News International stated that they would pay out compensation and give an official apology to eight cases that involved phone hacking and the breach of privacy, however they would contest all other petitions. After an uproar over the revealed hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone on July 4th 2011 a campaign was launched on social media sites to get advertises to drop the newspaper. During the following days News of the World would decide to stop being printed after the July 10th issue. 2) One party affected were the number of victims of the illegal phone hacking including celebrities, politicians, law enforcement officials, solicitors, and the general public. Victims ranged from British soldiers’ relatives who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and London terrorist attack victims.
Also a number of employees from the News of the World have been arrested, totaling nine at the present, it had also caused several resignations not just from the newspaper but also from the police. Because of the eventual closure of News of the World 200 employees have been laid off. The general public have also been impacted as they have lost the trust of media corporations due to the substantial unethical behaviour of members of a large media corporation. Also another party impacted are business who are involved in media who have gained a bad reputation from just being involved in the same industry as News of the World. 3)
I believe the most difficult sentence to write in the ‘Sorry’ advertisement is the line, “I realise that simply apologising is not enough. ” He realises that a simple apology will not solve the problem that drastic measures will have to be taken to resolve the problem and start to mend the ethical reputation of his businesses. That it will take not only time but will cost a lot to repair the damage like the closure of News of the World and the amounts paid for compensation to the victims and the legal costs. By adding that line he is announcing that he is willing to spend the money to repair the damage caused by the phone hacking scandal. ) When unethical behaviour is discovered in a business it is important that it is dealt with as quick as possible not only to minimise the damage it will cause to the reputation of the business but also to stakeholders. For example once the Enron scandal was revealed action should have been taken to protect investors, employees and all stakeholders involved in the business who would suffer from the unethical behaviour of a few people. The quicker you deal with unethical behaviour it demonstrates to the public that you are committed to ethical business, thus gaining the trust of the public.
