What would you expect someone to pay you for revealing your deepest, darkest secrets? At what point does journalism turn into harassment? These are issues being explored and debated in The Leveson Inquiry, an examination of the British media that has gripped the UK.

The explosive scandal hit the public’s TV screens over the summer when it was revealed that tabloid newspaper The News of the World had been gaining much of its ‘exclusive’ information by hacking into the phones of many celebrities, politicians and victims of crimes. Private investigators had even been tailing people embroiled in the most news-worthy stories.

In some cases, the phone hacking had led to email hacking and had even given journalists access to private passwords and PIN numbers. More and more victims of the hacking came forward, an outcry broke out, and the paper finally closed down on July 10 2011, publishing its last edition.

Many of its editors and employees, former editor Andy Coulson in particular, denied all knowledge of the phone hacking, and many were arrested. Founder and Chairman of News Corporation and owner of News of the World Rupert Murdoch was also put into a tricky situation, jeopardising his takeover of BSkyB.

So what is the outcome of this huge story? On July 13 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron announced a two-part inquiry chaired by Lord Justice Leveson to investigate the role of the press and police in the scandal. It will also examine the current culture, practices and ethics of the media and govern the future of press regulation.

The inquiry opened on Monday November 14, with an introduction from Lord Justice Leveson himself saying: “The press provides an essential check on all aspects of public life. That is why any failure within the media affects all of us. At the heart of this Inquiry, therefore, may be one simple question: who guards the guardians?”

Among the key hearings were: JK Rowling, Sienna Miller, Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan. Possibly the lowest of the low, parents of abducted children were targeted. When 13-year-old Milly Dowler was abducted and killed in 2002, her parents would continually call her phone, hoping for some response about their daughter’s disappearance.

Almost unbelievably, Milly’s phone was also hacked, voicemail messages deleted from her inbox. Mrs. Dowler recounted how elated she was when she realized something had changed: “I rang her phone. It clicked through onto her voicemail, so I heard her voice and it was just like, ‘she’s picked up her voicemail, she’s alive’.”

The inquiry also heard from young actress, Sienna Miller. She told of a closely-guarded secret being revealed, meaning she was led to accuse her family and closest friends after an anonymous journalist rang her saying he knew all about it.

Her run-ins with the paparazzi were possibly the most shocking: “I would often find myself — I was 21 — at midnight running down a dark street on my own with ten big men chasing me and the fact that they had cameras in their hands meant that that was legal, but if you take away the cameras, what have you got?”

Miss Miller’s statement raises a valid point – where is the line? Is Britain to maintain its freedom of the media, meaning tabloid journalists are able to hound celebrities to breaking point just for that photograph of them lashing out? Or will a new, stricter policy be put in place, meaning they can’t publish anything they want by any means necessary? And will this hinder freedom of speech if it is put in place?

Either way, it seems something must be done to prevent further incidents. JK Rowling highlighted: “The attitude seems to be…you’re famous, you’re asking for it.” Is this now an excuse that is wearing a little thin?

The article Leveson Inquiry: Culture, Practice and Ethics of The Press appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The FBI announced on Thursday that it will launch a probe into News Corporation, Fox News parent company, after the phone hacking scandal that has rocked the media world. Allegations have begun to surface that News Corp. hacked into private citizens’ voicemail including victims of 9/11. The public outrage has been loud and clear demanding an investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s giant media empire.

U.S. Senators Jay Rockefeller, Barbara Boxer, Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg (all Democrats) have called for various investigations. “My bet is we’ll find some criminal stuff,” Senator Rockefeller told CNN. “This is going to be a huge issue.”

Senator Frank Lautenberg wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and asked for the Department of Justice to investigate New Corp. for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA.) Senator Boxer has also requested the FCPA to investigate.

Even some Republicans are beginning to throw Murdoch under the proverbial bus. Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who is not known for his impartiality, wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller. In it, he compared Murdoch’s brand of “fair and balanced” journalism to a criminal enterprise. “According the recent reports, journalists working for the News of the World solicited a New York police officer to gain access to the content of private phone records of 9/11 victims,” wrote King. “It is revolting to imagine that members of the media would seek to compromise the integrity of a public official for financial gain in the pursuit of yellow journalism,” He also said the allegations, could merit “felony charges.”

News Corp. continues to do damage control. The company is no longer trying to acquire controlling interest in British Sky Broadcasting. In England, the public outcry over the hacking scandal was even more boisterous than in the United States. Parliament also voted unanimously to disapprove the takeover forcing News Corp. to abandon their bid. News Corp. will likely have to give up all of their U.K. newspapers now that most of their advertisers are jumping ship.

The article FBI Launches Investigation into News Corp. Scandal appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Current TV landed in Italy in May 2008 on channel 130 of Sky Italia platform, with the purpose of representing an alternative global network of independent information.

Italy is the first non English-speaking country where this channel has been launched, and it constitutes an actual alternative in the Italian scenario where media, especially television, can’t be defined really free and independent and the information’s flow is subjected to a strong conditioning.

Some weeks ago Sky Italia announced the intention of dropping Current TV in consequence of the decision taken in New York by News Corporation, the Rupert Murdoch’s company which owns Sky Italia. This decision was a “complete shock” for Al Gore, the co-founder and the chairman of Current.

After he had got the news he travelled to Italy to react and start a campaign in support of Current. He invited all the Italian Sky’s subscribers and Current viewers to press for the revocation of the measure in the name of independent and free information’s right. He also participated to Annozero, the political talk show conducted by Michele Santoro, an Italian journalist and anchorman who had been hosted by Current in 2010 for the program “Raiperunanotte” in reply to the interruption and the ban of the Italian public service broadcaster’s political talk shows imposed by the government in occasion of the regional elections.

“In this time of rapid political, economic and social transition, the future of healthy democracies depends on independent journalism that is untethered and unafraid. We at Current have dedicated our international media platform to unleash truth tellers, and there is no more critical time for truth telling than in Italy right now,” said Al Gore. “I came to Italy to personally ask Current’s loyal viewers here to tell Sky they want to keep Current.”

Gore upholds that the sudden decision of Sky Italia is due to a real abuse of power from News Corporation, and the reasons are totally political. The first point regards the discontent of Murdoch about the decision of Current to hire Keith Olbermann, a US leftwing journalist considered rather troublesome who has often been clearly critical of News Corporation.

A second point regards the “rapprochement” between Rupert Murdoch and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, “Sky Italia is in the midst of negotiations to enter the digital terrestrial television market and they need Berlusconi’s support,” said Gore.

Current TV has been often critical of Berlusconi and his government and it also broadcasted the documentary produced by PBS “Citizen Berlusconi” about his media’s empire and the conflict of interests, which had never been broadcasted in Italy.

News Corp and Sky Italia excuse their decision through only commercial motivations.

“The non-renewal of Current TV’s carriage agreement with Sky Italia is purely commercial. Current TV asked Sky Italia for double the carriage fee when prime-time viewing had fallen by 40% in the past year. Sky Italia’s offer was in line with the market and reflected the performance of the channel. It had nothing to do with politics”, told a News Corporation spokesman.

However the contradictions of the reasons of News Corp seem to be many and many are the unclear and discordant points especially in regard of the resolution of the contract, the offers of negotiation for a renewal and the data about the audience rating.

For sure the loss of Current TV in Italy would represent also the loss of a channel of independent, not partisan nor influenced information, which is rather uncommon in this country.

The article Sky Italia Dropped Al Gore’s Current TV Channel appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.