Britain: The Press Under Pressure | European Journal

2011-08-10 1

The news set off a scandal: For years, staff at the tabloid"News of the World"had been hacking into the phones of celebrities, politicians, and victims of terrorist attacks and other crimes. The list of potential targets now numbers 4,000. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns the paper, has come under increasing pressure."News of the World"also tampered with the cell phone of a young girl who had been murdered. Murdoch closed the paper, but the criticism has continued unabated. Meanwhile, police and politicians are faced with difficult questions, namely why they didn't snuff out the paper's wrongdoing before now. Britain's tabloid press is known to be aggressive when it comes to getting information - leaving many in doubt that"News of the World"is the only publication that broke the rules in the name of news-gathering.