Media under a cloud

There clearly are lessons to be learnt from the dignified manner in which the British Parliament conducted itself on the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the country and brought not only the government but also the media into doubt and disrepute.

Barring the ugly incident of a dish of white foam being thrown at the world’s biggest media baron Rupert Murdoch while he was appearing before the House of Commons media committee to answer questions on misdoings by his now-defunct tabloid News of the World, the proceedings were business-like and the quality of arguments weighty.

But that such a thing as a phone-hacking scandal occurred is testimony to the rot that has set in, encompassing even the media. With the tabloid’s former editor Andrew Coulson, who is also a former top aide to Prime Minister Cameron, being arrested, the scandal reached right at the British government’s doorstep. Yet, it deserves to be noted that the Opposition did not go berserk.

Amid a wave of allegations involving the hacking of celebrities, royals and politicians and targeting even victims of violent crimes and the July 2005 terrorist bombings, the sense of public outrage that led to the abrupt announcement by James Murdoch (son of Rupert and heir to the legacy) of the closure of the 130- year-old hot-selling tabloid, the Murdochs were forced to appear before Parliament lest they be arrested. What was unfortunate about their testimony was its self-serving nature, portraying them as innocent victims of their own journalists and executives. Rupert Murdoch’s explanation for why he lost sight of what was happening at the News of the World was that it was “just 1 per cent” of his global business. Another former Editor of the paper Rebekah Brooks defended hiring private detectives to dig up stories and payments to the police by saying that this was “common practice in Fleet Street.”
The scandal in Britain must provoke thinking on where the media is heading in a rat race in which the means to an end are typically disregarded and ethical standards compromised. Before the public at large begins to tar all media with the same brush of insensitivity, the responsible media, be it in Britain or India or any other country, must introspect and reform itself.