It has been revealed today by The Guardian newspaper that new evidence has emerged as part of Operation Weeting that journalists at a tabloid newspaper hacked the mobile phone of Milly Dowler. Milly disappeared in 2002 when she was 13 years old. Levi Bellfield was convicted of her murder two weeks ago.
The details of the allegations are that journalists hacked into and deleted messages on Milly's phone so that space could be freed up for other messages which they could listen in to. It is assumed that deletion of the messages led family and friends to believe that Milly had received and deleted the messages herself. It gave false hope to her family and significantly disrupted the police investigation.
This is the latest in a long line of instances of phone hacking and monitoring by the News of The World of people in the public eye, MPs and celebrities. This one is different though.
I can't get my head around the lack of morality and common decency which this whole sorry story reveals. Can you imagine being in the offices of the News of The World whilst the hacking plan was being hatched. Where were the dissenting voices? Why did nobody in that office stand up and point out the absolute callousness of the actions of the staff who hacked and the people higher up who allowed it to happen? Did they at any point consider that it could compromise the investigation into Milly's disappearance? Did any of them go home at night and sneak a peak at their own children, sound and safe and wonder if what they were doing was right? The News of The World did an exclusive feature with the family after her disappearance. Did any of the journalists who covered this or the editors who published it feel any shame, knowing what they had done?
The other question is why did they do it? They presumably did it to get the best story first in order to sell more copies of their newspaper, in order to be able to afford more expensive things, in order to impress their bosses and in order to further line the deep pockets of pay master Rupert Murdoch.
Why were they allowed to do it? Because the public buy The News of The World.
Why do the public buy The News of The World? No idea but I reckon it's most likely (beyond tradition or family allegiance) because of shock factor and because alongside it's sister paper The Sun it engages in the most lewd, libidinous, extreme, nosey and downright reprehensible form of lazy sensationalist journalism which appeals to the most lewd, libidinous, extreme, nosey and downright reprehensible side of human nature.
So now everyone wants a boycott of the News of the World. I am on Trendsmap as I write this and tweet after tweet is calling for a boycott not just of the NOTW but every company that advertises in it and the entire Murdoch media empire.
Can it happen? Try buying The Sun in Liverpool. So yes, it can.
Will it happen? I doubt it but I really hope so.
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