Democratic Political Communication Systems and the Transformative Power of Scandals: Phone Hacking at the News of the World as a Critical Juncture in the Regulation of the British Press

Abstract

On 4 July 2011, an ongoing British police investigation into the hacking of phones of prominent celebrities and politicians by the press revealed that a Sunday tabloid newspaper, the News of the World, had illegally accessed the voicemail on the mobile phone of a murdered London school girl, Milly Dowler. In the following days, public outrage grew as more revelations emerged that journalists at the News of the World had been listening to the voice messages of other members of the public, including the parents of missing child Madeleine McCann, the parents of murdered Soham school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, and some of the victims of the 7/7 bombings in London. The resulting opprobrium not only led Rupert Murdoch to close the News of the World, but also to the announcement of an inquiry into ‘the culture, practices and the ethics of the British Press’ led by Lord Justice Leveson. The inquiry lasted over a year, reporting in November 2012 with a range of significant recommendations for regulatory oversight of the press, which are currently in the process of being implemented.