Rupert Murdoch

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Rupert Murdoch
The scandal involving phone hacking came into limelight in 2011 where staffs of the News of the World were linked with hacking the voicemails of celebrities and politicians and that of the members of the British Royal family. Investigations also revealed that the employees had hacked the voicemails of relatives of deceased British soldiers, murder victim Milly Dowler, as well as victims who were involved in the London bombing which occurred in 2005. The News of the World newspaper had been publishing stories and information that was too personal. This situation led other newspapers to conduct investigations to discover the source of information used by this newspaper. Later, it was discovered that many employees working for this company were engaging in phone hacking, issuing bribes to the police and also exercising inappropriate influence in search of stories. Many of the employees and some executives resigned as a result of this scandal. Some of them were arrested and charged. Mr. Rupert Murdoch was also required to make a statement about the hacking since he was the director of News Corporation. Public outcry resulted in the closure of News of the World in 2011 and the cancellation of a takeover of BSkyB, a British satellite broadcaster (Crawford 1).
The owner of the company Mr. Murdoch claimed that he was not personally responsible for the phone hacking. He also claimed that he was not aware of the hacking activities that were going in his company.

According to him, his subordinates had covered up the hacking. According to the prime minister David Cameron is that Leveson inquiry would investigate into the matter. After this inquiry, many employees were arrested and convicted. The parliamentary committee finally concluded that Mr. Murdoch was unqualified leading such an international company since he exercised intentional blindness on what was happening to his company. The ethical dilemma facing this situation is the fact that Mr. Murdoch was facing difficulty in making choices between two options that are morally correct but are conflicting. Mr. Murdoch was the owner of the company, and it was difficult for him to accept that he knew what was going on since the confession would bring his company down and it would also tarnish his name. He was also faced with the dilemma of whether to disagree with the accusations leveled against him and his company. He finally made a decision of not admitting the ethical misconduct and therefore this protected him and his family (Freedman 18). His choice worked even though, investigations were carried out and found some of its employees guilty of hacking voicemail messages of some people. He was forced to close down the publishing of the newspaper due to public pressure.
There were various practices that were unethical in the phone scandal. These practices contributed to and also led to the ethical dilemma that this situation poses. Mr. Murdoch was a friend to the Prime Minister Mr. David Cameron. Mr. Murdoch was accused of using bribes as well as threats to silence public officials, and therefore this made him and his company immune to investigations. Investigations revealed that the company had hacked the voice mail messages and deleted some of them, MR. Murdoch agreed to pay some money to the family. This situation could have contributed to the dilemma. Some of his employees were found guilty of the phone scandal, and this contributed to the dilemma since he was confused on what side to support since his company was in trouble and obviously he did not want it to close down (Crawford 10). Mr. Murdoch had an intention of merging his company with another firm, and this means that he had good plans for his company.
The issue of phone hacking and involvement in bribery that were conducted by the employees of the News Corporation that were owned by Murdoch were by all means ethically unacceptable. Based on the facts that have been presented in the case. The employees had no right to hack into personal phones for information. Additionally, the involvement in bribery to some officials so as to solicit for information was not the right thing to do. News Corp was expected to maintain high levels of integrity because the news gathered are for the use by the public (Crawford 6). Therefore, involvement in activities such as phone hacking and bribery was one of the ways that the firm lost its reputation.
The outcome of the case in my view was good because the persons involved in the scandal were held accountable. Additionally, the creation of the Management and Standards Committee (MSC) by Rupert Murdoch was a clear indication that he never supported the actions of some of his employees who were involved in those unethical practices. Despite the criticism of the people regarding the effectiveness of MSC, he maintained that MSC was to cooperate fully with the civil and criminal investigation regarding the matter (Crawford 7).
The consequence of the case was fair because the investigation led to the arrest of five journalists who had been involved in the hacking practice. The continued legal suits directed to Murdoch and his employees were also justified because these practices were not good for the public. Murdoch, being a public figure and a respected personality, had an obligation to uphold high levels of integrity as well ensuring that his firms conducted business with high levels of professionalism and integrity. However, the scandal tarnished his name although he denied his involved with politicians. The act was also condemned by many people around the Globe. James Murdoch, who was the son of Rupert Murdoch has denied having knowledge of the doings of the employees. However, he later contradicted the statement and decided to resign which paved the way for further investigation (Freedman 17).
In my opinion, I feel that justice was served for everyone both the accused and the victim. The legal course of the matter and the public scrutiny which was present all had a common goal of making sure that the firm was accountable. The wrongdoers in the whole case also were treated fairly, and the case served as precedence for many other news corporations which have the tendency of violating the privacy right of the public to have the breaking news. The involvement of the government in the matter was also good and was a show of solidarity. It was clear that the government was very serious about the matter and did not want any more people to fall victims of similar unethical practices (Crawford 8).
The shutting down of The News of the World, as well as its British Sunday tabloid, was an important step that was taken because the form had tainted its name in public. The illegal search of stories by the journalists was uncalled for and was not the right thing to do. Hacking of voicemail is illegal undertaking and unlawful undertaking that is mentioned in Section 1 of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 laws of UK (Freedman 20). Finally, taking responsibility of apologizing on behalf of the News Corp by Rupert Murdoch was the right thing to do despite his claim that he was unaware of the phone hacking that was taking place.
Works Cited
Crawford, Robert J. “Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal.” INSEAD: The Business School for the World (2014): 1-16. Document.
Freedman, Des. “The Phone Hacking Scandal Implications for Regulation.” “Television & New Media 13.1 (2012): 17-20. Print.