In The newspaper that has been in existence for last 168 years is now on its way to fading into oblivion. Yesterday, James Murdoch, the chairman of News International, which controls the News Of The World, released a statement saying that the final edition of the newspaper will be published this weekend.
His statement said, The News Of The World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself. Hundreds of staff who used to work at The News of the World now face an uncertain future. As the news broke out last night, there were angry scenes at the newspapers office.
The Murdoch family was forced to take the drastic action of closing down one of their most profitable media ventures, after it was confirmed that the newspaper had hacked into the voice-mail account of a British schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, who went missing in 2002 and whose murdered body was discovered six months later. The hacking was done because the journalists employed by The News of the World were looking for a scoop.
To make matters worse, the journalists also deleted some of the older messages after the voice mailbox became full. This was done with the intention of making space available for new ones, and listening to them in turn. This confused investigators and gave false hope to Millys relatives, who believed it showed she was still alive and deleting the messages herself.
There was heightened pressure on the newspaper after the British prime minister David Cameron decided to comment on the issue. He called the allegations serious and said, If they are true, this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation. James Murdoch has conceded that he and other executives had made serious mistakes in their handling of the crisis.
This phone tapping scandal came at a bad time for News Corp., which had been trying to win government approval for the acquisition of satellite-TV provider British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. (BSY). The growing public outcry over the illegal phone tapping has created an atmosphere where such an approval might be difficult to come.
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