Rupert Murdoch on the verge of empire

One of the most powerful media empires, News Corp, has its leader on the hot-spot for phone hacking. Rupert Murdoch used the illegal method to have access to information which were used on front pages of his newspapers. As those were exclusive materials, considering that other media producers were not hacking people, the technique provided more profit to his company than he should have received.

Lack Of Privacy

The method to hack the telephones consisted of invading people’s voice-mails and listening to the messages. Mainly, Murdoch’s corporation invaded celebrities’ privacy, which for most people might be considered a relatively normal activity. Names as Sienna Miller, Ryan Giggs, Jude Law, Elle MacPherson, Steve Coogan, Tony Blair, Prince William, Prince Harry, Kate Middleton, Eric Clapton, and others, represent the kind of public Murdoch was going after.

However, once news broke that such voice-mails were allegedly hacked, people who considered themselves victims began to press charges. When considered the amount of people that allegedly had their privacy broken, which add up to 38, questions about whether the media industry can afford that many lawsuits were raised.

Over The Limit

The main point for considering the seriousness of Murdoch’s invasion to people’s telephone lines is that not only celebrities are involved in the scandal. One of the names that are being used to accuse Murdoch is Milly Dowler’s, who was murdered at the age of 13. She went missing in 2002, and only months later it was confirmed that she was sexually assaulted and murdered.

Instead of just listening to what was recorded at the voicemail, Murdoch’s team also deleted messages when the mailbox was full. That categorizes as destroying evidence and gave false hope to the girl’s family. Once they realized the messages were missing, Milly’s relatives believed that she might have been alive.