ACROSS the world, miles of column inches and hours of television and radio debate have been devoted to the closure of the News of the World. And yet the gravity of what occurred last week has not been grasped anywhere.
You don’t have to have been a fan of the News of the World, still less of its recent antics, to recognise that the moral crusade is likely to have a chilling effect on the British media.
The end result of the hysterical crusade against “evil” tabloids: a situation where the Murdoch press have to operate within the rule of law and actually tell the truth. This is a disaster for freedom of the press.
I’ll add two things.
First, the “proper press” has had no compunction about publishing Wikileaks therefore why can't Murdoch's newspapers break the law as well?
Second, what worries me is that News of the World was closed not by liberal campaigners disgusted by the paper’s culture, but possibly by News executives disgusted by it, too. These News executives need to harden up and get with the programme. There is no room for so-called "ethics" at News.
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