The Phone Hacking Scandal led to the closure of News of the World and resignations of Rupert Murdoch executives. In response, the Leveson Inquiry was established to investigate the culture and ethics of the British press. Over 6 months, Lord Justice Leveson heard 184 witnesses and accepted 42 written statements. His 2000-page report found that the existing Press Complaints Commission was insufficient and recommended establishing a new independent regulatory body with stronger powers like fines.

1. Phone Hacking Scandal
In July 2011, The Guardian newspaper in England broke the story that the News of
the World tabloid had hacked the cell phone of a murdered schoolgirl in 2002. There
was such an outcry that media leader Rupert Murdoch was forced to shut down the
News of the World. By the end of the year, many of his executives had resigned or been
forced out of their jobs.Also two high level law officers at Scotland Yard, who were
supposed to have failed to have appropriate follow-up investigations of phone hacking.
They supposedly had evidence in the Yard’s possession for at least five years.Also
News International had to agree to pay 3 million pounds to the family of Milly
Dowler, the murdered Surrey schoolgirl whose cell phone was hacked by the News of
the World.
The following enquiries had enough evidence to state that there was a culture of phone
hacking at the News of the World. Evidence was found that suggested that journalists
may have hacked into over 6,000 people at one time or another. In 2011 there was also
evidence that The Sun may have also been involved in phone hacking.
It is clear that there has been huge fallout, but the worst for the newspaper industry
may be yet to come. There is a rumour that there is an on-going investigation by Lord
Justice Levesonand a report to come from one parliamentary committee may recommend
much more in an effort to balance the freedom of the press with the responsibilities that
the media has.
It might be decided that the British press are not able to ‘police’ themselves in relation
to ethics, also that the Press Complaints Commission that was actually set up for that
purpose has not been effective and that the UK government needs to have tighter control
on all aspects of the press.
It is difficult to know what the press now should do in order to ‘police’ themselves and
look trustworthy. It maybe that the media will never regain the public’s trust and that
Parliamentwill have to give new restrictions on what newspapers are allowed to do or
not to do.

2. Leveson Inquiry
Leveson Inquiry is the inquiry by Lord Justice Leveson into ‘the culture, practices and
ethics of the press.’ In order to do this in an accurate and thorough way he heard 184
witnesses and accepted 42 written statements over a period of 6 months.
The inquiry was set up by David Cameron and Nicholas Clegg following the outrage
of the public upon hearing that the missing school girl Milly Dowler had had her phone
hacked by the News of the World. Following on from this it became evident that phone
hacking was far more widespread than ever believed possible. People also began to
question why the police, politicians and the Press Complaints Committee (PCC) had
failed to investigate phone hacking more comprehensively when concerns were first raised
about the News of the World.

3. The inquiry is looking at the whole press and not just News Corp’s newspapers. One
of its purposes is to look closely at the relationships between the press and the public,
politicians and police and to see how powerful the press was in relation to the other
groups.
Once the report has been completed then there will be recommendations made as to how
the press regulation should be reformed; should there be a statutory, external regulatory
body set up or should the existing ‘self-regulation’ be made more robust and
successful. Obviously the press is strongly against having an external regulatory body
set up because they believe this may stop the freedom of speech, with many truths being
unable to be publicised. But it is important that Leveson develops a system that will
cover the whole of the press.
Eventually a 2,000 page report was in November 2012. The report found that the
present PCC was not enough to ensure the privacy of the public. He recommended that
a new independent body should be set up that had many sanctions available including
fines.
Soon after the report David Cameron spoke in the House of Commons saying that the
report was welcomed but he had concerns about bringing about the changes. Talks began
in December 2012 between the press and politicians about putting changes in place and
these talks should be finished by the summer of 2013.