Somebody had to sign off all the expense-related cheques to private investigators.
LONDON: This is with reference to Saleha Riaz’s article of July 23 titled “Has Rupert Murdoch lost the plot?”. Speaking as a liberal-minded human Englishman, I have deplored the activities of Murdoch in my country over the last 40 years, and I can only feel glee at his entirely self-inflicted wounds.
Only 10 days ago the BSkyB deal was a foregone conclusion, until The Guardian revealed that 13-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler’s voicemail had been hacked by the News of the World and messages deleted from it, giving her parents the impression that she might still be alive. They did not tell them what they had done. This is a press that often believes its journalists help the relatives of the victims of crime and the victims by their coverage, when the reality is quite to the contrary.
Such wickedness is to ordinary mortals beyond belief. Why bother to interview anyone if you could get their words at a moderate cost without ever leaving the newsroom. That Rupert Murdoch, his son James and former editor of News of the World Rebekah Brooks all say that they did not know their employees were up to is a bit hard to believe. Somebody had to sign off all the expense-related cheques to private investigators.
I would suggest that the Murdochs give up control of their UK operations and put their assets into a trust used to finance an independent press complaints commission and an ethics and training board for journalists.
Charles Norrie
Published in The Express Tribune, July 23rd, 2011.
