Rupert Murdoch's arrogant empire must be reined in

[kster]

Henry Porter The Observer, Sunday 23 January 2011

News International executives may hope that the departure of Andy Coulson will take the heat out of the phone-hacking story, but it has almost certainly come too late. Although the interception of perhaps thousands of public figures' messages took place during his editorship, it has recently become clear that Coulson was simply a prominent distraction.

Of course, the Labour leadership seems satisfied with the scalp because it allows Ed Miliband to make predictably disparaging remarks about David Cameron's judgment, but the real case against News International is being made by the former Labour deputy prime minister, Lord Prescott, who has cast doubt on the investigation by the Metropolitan Police and the follow-up by the Crown Prosecution Service. The apparent failure of both organisations, together with the cover-up by News International, are the radioactive elements of the story. They are what Ed Miliband should be focusing on.

What is so striking about this affair is that we know so much. There is a long list of well-known people who are suing News International, which has already spent millions of pounds to prevent the issue being aired in court. Despite Murdoch's insistence that News International has zero tolerance of criminal activity and will do everything in its power to comply with police investigations, the company is still paying the legal costs of Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective who ran the hacking operation and is the one man who knows the identities of all the executives who were aware of his activities. Names are surfacing: first it was Ian Edmondson, the news editor of the News of the World who was suspended before Christmas, and now Greg Miskiw, a former assistant editor.

The gossip mill is throwing up more names, and quite by chance last week I met a well-known person whose phone was hacked but who decided on balance that News International was just too powerful and vindictive to take on. When a company is so influential that it skews the legitimate means of redress in a civil society, that society should take note, ask if it serves the people's best interests and question whether it should be allowed to increase that power, in this instance through a merger with BSkyB.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/23/rupert-murdoch-empire-news-international

[jwirr]

1. I hope that the UK can do it because it is certain that we will not.