Stop the presses!

After 168 years, Rupert Murdoch’s popular British tabloid News of the World (NOTW) has stopped its presses amidst a frenzied controversy over routine phone-hacking to gather news.

The fall out resulting in the paper’s cessation has seen a news scandal unmatched by even the most sordid of stories that graced its own pages.

While reports that NOTW journalists used phone hacking as a method of gathering gossip on royals and celebrities have circulated for some time, it was recent revelations that pushed the paper’s reputation from that of condoning bad practice to being irrecoverably immoral.

The final straw came with the discovery that phone hacking had been used to gather information on murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The Guardian reported on 4 July, 2011 that NOTW journalists had “intercepted and deleted” messages in order to free up space for further messages to be left on Dowler’s phone. This misled Dowler’s family to believe she may still have been alive.

This news comes as a blow to British Prime Minister David Cameron who hired former NOTW editor Andy Coulson as his head of communications.

Coulson was the editor of NOTW between 2003 and 2007, before working for Cameron. Coulson resigned from the Prime Minister’s office in January this year due to pressure stemming from media reports on phone hacking that occurred during his NOTW editorship.

Until last week when news emerged that British police would arrest Coulson, Cameron had defended his decision to hire the former tabloid editor.

Many questions about media ethics have been raised as a result of the demise of NOTW.

A full inquiry into the incident has been confirmed by Cameron however questions too have been raised about the relationship between political leaders and the media owners.

British and Australian Prime Ministers, current and former, have engaged with media mogul Rupert Murdoch in both social and professional settings, while at the same time openly criticising the work of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Australian PM Julia Gillard has openly called Assange a criminal for his involvement with WikiLeaks, yet earlier this year she helped Murdoch celebrate his 80th birthday.

Murdoch’s stable of papers, which included NOTW, detail the lives of celebrities, footballers, and royals, while Assange uncovers the reality of war and diplomatic dealings.

As the debate continues around the morality of NOTW and more broadly that of journalists and their publishers, perhaps it is time for the people of the world to reconsider what truly constitutes “News of the World” – is it the tabloid fodder happily endorsed by our political leaders, or the leaked details they don’t want us to see?