Voicemail interception: journalism's darkest hour?

Well seeing as everybody in blogosphere is giving their two-pence worth on the News of The World, I thought I'd might join in too. This week we in Britain have been waking up to a kind of Groundhog Day news-wise, except that the allegations of voicemail interception get considerably worse every day. The wolves are pacing outside the doors at News International in Wapping.

When the accusations of voicemail interception (I personally HATE the term 'phone-hacking', it is louche and lazy) arose, we sneered at the likes of Sienna Miller and other famous celebrities who it happened to. Hell, we even cracked a grin when we heard former editor Rebekah Brooks' may have been a victim of it. But that all changed faster than a Coalition U-turn when it emerged that the PI working for NOTW had allegedly been accessing the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, and DELETING messages left by frantic friends and relatives, who still believed her to be alive. Only then did the proverbial **** hit the fan.

In addition to Milly's case, it transpired later that other notorious cases of child abduction and murder have been become connected to the interception allegations.
Sarah Payne, Holly Wells, Jessica Chapman, Madeleine McCann - the parents of those children will now be forced to confront yet another ugly possibility. That the newspaper campaigning for Sarah's Law and tougher sentencing for offenders was the very same that was paying a PI to listen to their private voice messages. Then, the UK started baying for Rebekah Brooks' (to resign from her CEO role of News International. Resolute and stubborn, she is not going anywhere. By choice, anyway.

Then came the accusations that the relatives of 7/7 victims may have had their voicemails accessed, on the 6th anniversary of the terrorist atrocity. And now, the families of soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan. There are literally no words left. This week, the words 'appalled', shocked and disgusting have been bandied about by politicians needing to be seen to be making a tough stand on these developments. Yet it took three days for Cameron to bow into public pressure to announce a public enquiry. Yup, that old chestnut. Whenever the proverbial news napalm is thrown near Downing Street, they always announce an enquiry. Lessons will be learned, blah blah BLAH.

Some of these advertisers now abandoning NOTW do smack of a quick easy-fix to safeguard their public image. Obviously with the exception of the British Legion, who support British soldiers and their families, would find itself in an absurd position to associate itself with a newspaper who may have betrayed the families of those it supports.

As soon as Ford pulled out its ace card and announced it was pulling its advertising from the paper, they followed in droves, panicking at public sentiment on social media. But when it all dies down and the outcome of these 'enquiries' have been released, will these advertisers still be boycotting the paper? Or will they, one by one as from next week return quietly with an 1/8th page advert instead of the usual full-page spread? Either way, I don't fancy the chances of the ad sales team making their bonus for a while.

And finally, the so-called 'journalists' who have admitted to paying off senior police officers (you lot aren't off the hook either), hiring private eyes etc, what the hell happened to investigative journalism? I was under the impression that the journalist did the investigating, not some private dick paid by the newspaper. Is it bone-idle laziness? Or was it a desire to distance themselves from said person if/when they finally got caught?

I am a qualified journalist, albeit not working for a news outlet at the moment. It makes me ashamed that some reporters out there may have resorted to underhand tactics and just sheer inhumanity of using these ill-gotten voicemail messages, something we automatically assume is private, to source their stories. If they expose the ones that practiced this method of 'newsgathering', they should immediately hand their NUJ card in and be prosecuted without delay. And then banned from working in any news organisation again, not even in the post room.

Image courtesy of French News Online