Op-Ed: British tabloids trashed in phone hacking inquiry

London - This story has run and run, and now it is running some more as the names of more celebrities and more grieving parents are tossed into the frame along with the names of more newspapers.

The phone hacking inquiry now has its own website, it is called The Leveson Inquiry. Brian Leveson QC prosecuted serial killer Rosemary West, now a Lord Justice of Appeal, we can be certain he will leave no stone unturned, unsavoury though his task may be. The full remit of his investigation is to inquire into the “CULTURE, PRACTICE AND ETHICS OF THE PRESS”. We can though be thankful for the groundwork done by the likes of Hugh (James Bond) Grant. Today, the Leveson Inquiry heard that the number of victims whose phones were hacked could top 6,000. The revelation that the phone of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler was hacked led to the collapse of the News Of The World and a grovelling (but undoubtedly sincere) apology by head honcho Rupert Murdoch. Today, evidence or at the very least strong suspicion was presented that the paper had hacked the mobile phones of her parents as well. The parents of Madelaine McCann have also been named, nor are the wealthy exempted: the son of Formula 1 boss Max Mosley committed suicide partly, according to his father, because of the publicity of the bizarre sex stories that were spread about the businessman. As has been clear for some time, this is not and never has been about one newspaper; it is also clear that neither is it about one company. As the person right at the very top of the food chain, Rupert Murdoch has accepted responsibility, but the climate of fear and intimidation one journalist spoke of that existed at this time cannot be laid at the door of an elderly entrepreneur running a vast empire thousands of miles away, and that is before we mention other newspapers, outside the Murdoch sphere of influence.