Tabloid phone hacking scandal involving kidnapped girl roils Britain

[grumbler]

Is CNN run by UK journalists?

It has UK journalists.  The moron who posted the first new about CNN reporting just said that it was "Someone on CNN."  Kinda stupid to just say "someone," but it could easily have been "someone" from the UK. 

[Jacob]

I just hope that our own little Yakie doesn't get hurt. 

Thank you for your concern

[Gups]

Many people are hostile to the concept of freedom of speech, and to a certain extent, the legal frameworks in many European countries (UK notably among them) reflect that hostility.  What is interesting, and yet also predictable, is that stricter regulation of what the press can say has tended to make the press less responsible, not more.  When you allow the State to define what is news ("in the public interest") and what is not, you not only make a mockery of freedom of the press and speech, you relieve that particular buck from stopping at the doors of the editors.  As horrible and obnoxious as the US media often gets, it rarely reaches the depth of the Brit tabloids, or the likes of Bild.  No accident that, IMO

Certainly no accident. But IMO the market rather than the law. American papers by and large are local monopolies, European papers are not.

The common law on privacy is a developing field. There is no legislation as such save that the European Convention on Human Rights provides certain rights which can be interpreted as giving a right to privacy. These rights have been interpreted in an arguably too strong manner by high court judges in the UK but I would argue that is because of the excesses of the tabloids rather than the other way round. If the right to privacy is the cause of tabloid excesses (which is so counter-intuitive an argument  it should require a strong evidential base) then why do we not see such excesses elsewhere in Europe?

[CountDeMoney]

I didn't realize Rupert's chinaman girl wife had such high principles.

She befriends an American couple in China, who teach her English and sponsor her for a student visa.  She bangs the husband and marries him after he gets a divorce.  She stays married long enough to get a green card, then bangs another dude and divorces the first sap.  Gets an MBA at Yale, starts working at News Corp., and ditches the second sap to marry Rupert.

Sounds just like any other manipulative, sinister Asian chick.

[The Minsky Moment]

These rights have been interpreted in an arguably too strong manner by high court judges in the UK but I would argue that is because of the excesses of the tabloids rather than the other way round. If the right to privacy is the cause of tabloid excesses (which is so counter-intuitive an argument  it should require a strong evidential base) then why do we not see such excesses elsewhere in Europe?

Who said we don't?  I mentioned Bild in my post -- they are certainly the "equal" the British tabloids in terms of irresponsibility and least common denomimator reporting.  While I am not familiar with the European press in other countries due to lack of exposure, I would not accept the proposition that similar problems do not exist in the absence of any proof.  One exception  is France, where the level of de facto political control over the press is so deep that it operates as a prior restraint.

I don't think the argument is as counter-intuitive as you suggest - one sees this dynamic elsewhere.  Strict drug laws don't destroy the drug trade; they just make it more dangerous.   What happened at NOTW is illustrative.  In the face of strong privacy rule that threatened the tabloid's competitive position, reporters ratcheted their intrusive behavior up rather than down.  Intrusive tactics were hidden from view by the use of intermediaries to do dirty work and wink-wink, nod-nod between line reporters and immediate supervisors.  Meanwhile at the editorial and corporate levels, managers simultaneously put intense pressure on reporters to deliver juicy scoops, while choosing to remain in deliberate ignorance about the methods used to get those results.  But once this kind of activity gets pushed into the margins, it becomes entirely uncontrolled, and the worst abuses become possible.  Perhaps even probable.

[Gups]

Joan, just so we're clear what privacy rule are you taking about?

The phone hacking predates the Human Rights Act and the judicial interpretation of article 8 of the European Convention.

[derspiess]

I haven't followed this thing too closely and I haven't read all of this thread, but this thing seems to have been blown a bit out of proportion.  Am I missing something?

[HVC]

I haven't followed this thing too closely and I haven't read all of this thread, but this thing seems to have been blown a bit out of proportion.  Am I missing something?

The actual hacking thing seemed over blown to me (funnily enough overblown by competing tabloids lol) but all the top cops and politics attached to the murdoch empire seems to be the big thing now.

[Gups]

Nobody was that bothered about the hacking until the Millie Dowler revelation. I think that disgusted a lot of people.

[derspiess]

I haven't followed this thing too closely and I haven't read all of this thread, but this thing seems to have been blown a bit out of proportion.  Am I missing something?

The actual hacking thing seemed over blown to me (funnily enough overblown by competing tabloids lol) but all the top cops and politics attached to the murdoch empire seems to be the big thing now.

Is Murdoch reviled that much in the UK?

[The Minsky Moment]

Joan, just so we're clear what privacy rule are you taking about?

The phone hacking predates the Human Rights Act and the judicial interpretation of article 8 of the European Convention.

I haven't seen any references to hacking occuring prior to the Dowling case.

In any event, the common law tort of breach of confidence is of long vintage.  In the Mosely case, the Queens Bench acknowledged that the breach of confidence tort formed the basis of Mosely's claim and noted that the equitable reach of the tort had been judicially expanded prior to the HRA. 

The libel laws  canalso  be used (abused) to a similar purpose, in those cases where it can be contended that the matters revealed have not been reported in strict accuracy.

[Neil]

I haven't followed this thing too closely and I haven't read all of this thread, but this thing seems to have been blown a bit out of proportion.  Am I missing something?

The actual hacking thing seemed over blown to me (funnily enough overblown by competing tabloids lol) but all the top cops and politics attached to the murdoch empire seems to be the big thing now.

Is Murdoch reviled that much in the UK?

Imagine if Fox News was caught hacking into a dead white girl's phone.  Enough people would be repulsed that they would be less inclined to come to their defence when the political left showed up to legislate them out of existance and punish anyone who had anything to do with stories that they didn't like.

[CountDeMoney]

Imagine if Fox News was caught hacking into a dead white girl's phone.  Enough people would be repulsed that they would be less inclined to come to their defence when the political left showed up to legislate them out of existance and punish anyone who had anything to do with stories that they didn't like.

Are you kidding?  Think of the ratings!

[derspiess]

Is Murdoch reviled that much in the UK?

Imagine if Fox News was caught hacking into a dead white girl's phone.  Enough people would be repulsed that they would be less inclined to come to their defence when the political left showed up to legislate them out of existance and punish anyone who had anything to do with stories that they didn't like.

So they hate him, then? 

[Richard Hakluyt]

Murdoch is hated by the British left. A large part of the public is fairly disgusted with tabloid journalism in general. When one of his papers was revealed to have systematically broken the law and also hacked in to a murdered girl's voicemail, then there is nobody who will choose to defend him from his detractors.