Critique The Ethics Of Those Involved In The News Of The World Phone

Name:Professor:Subject:Date:News of the World phone hacking scandalThe News of the World Phone hacking scandal followed the 2005-2006 revelations of voicemail interceptions by the News of the World (NoW) targeting celebrities, relatives of dead UK soldiers, politicians, sports people and many more (BBC). The scandal has attracted a lot of interest into the media ethics and practices in the UK and across the world. It is evident that the media house went against the accepted norms of media practices in the quest to remain competitive in the highly competitive segment of the media in the UK. The people bearing the greatest responsibility for the scandal have defended themselves by observing that the practice is widespread in the media. However, against all the controversies surrounding the scandal it can be argued that those involved went against media ethical guidelines including the right to privacy and hence committed unlawful practices. Firstly, the practice contravened against Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 (Keightley and Punathambekar). Secondly, the fact that there were major efforts to cover up the scandal shows that the culprits were aware of its illegality. Consequently, it can be concluded that the NoW acted intentionally unethically in the quest to