The World Phone Hacking Scandal - Essay Example

Ethics and the UK Harking Scandal Name Course Instructor Institution Location Date Table of contents 1.0 The Executive summary.....................................................................................................iii 2.0 The introduction to the hacking scandal in United Kingdom..............................................4 3. 0 The acts of each party in the scandal and their ethical evaluation......................................4 3.1. Andy Cousion, Glen Mulcaire and David Cook’s privacy infringement................4 3.2. The Motorman operation (John Boyall and Steve Whitamore)..............................5 3.3. Dow Jones and Rebekah Brooks resignation..........................................................5 3.4 Rupert Murdoch’s probe and responses...................................................................6 3.5 How the hacking takes place in UK.........................................................................6 3.6. The compensation of the victims.............................................................................7 3.7. Mulcaire’s consultancy company............................................................................8 3.8 The telecommunication company............................................................................9 4 0 How corporate governance can apply ethics......................................................................9 5.0 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................9 6.0 Recommendations..............................................................................................................10 7.0 References..........................................................................................................................11 Executive summary Ethics entails acting on the basis of the standards of human definitions of right and wrong with respect to rights, obligations, societal benefits fairness and observation of some virtues. One must put effort to develop personal standards without paying attention to personal feelings and social norms that can appear unethical in order to act ethically. (Pojman & Fieser 2011).The phone hacking scandal in the United Kingdom faced criticism as it created a sense of infringement of people’s freedom of confidentiality. The essay commences with an introduction that reflects a brief overview of the hacking process. Analysis part introduces the participation of different individuals and the consequences that followed. Each of the acts undergoes ethical evaluation and there are endings of how the company could benefit if the parties could behaved responsibly. The next part contains the best way in which ethics can be applied in persons. The essay continues with the conclusion that gives the summary of the essay. The recommendations part evaluates the best approaches for issues of unethical behaviour by the persons and the references support the statements and arguments for the entire article. Introduction . The scandal involves a situation where the News international, a section of the News Corporation engages in hacking phones, bribing the police and working to influence and halt the follow-up of stories. The Company participates in transacting in confidential information by use of private investigators. Police claim that more than 4,000 people are possible victims of phone hacking. The alleged targets include actors, sports people, relatives of dead UK soldiers and the victims of 7/7 London bomb, celebrities, politicians and the Britain Royal family member and a phone of a murdered schoolgirl called that called Milly Dowler (Kellner 2012). There are incidences of emergence of organised trade for confidential personal information in Britain. This essay examines the behaviour of different individuals in the hacking scandal of mobile phones in the UK. 3.0 Analysis 3.1.There were reports from 'The Guardian' about the hacking of the handset belonging to murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler that led to jailing of Glenn Mulcaire for six months after pleading guilty to the same charge (Bennett & (Townsend 2012). Mulcaire, a private investigator, is found having David cook's address, payroll number, and date of birth and mortgage payment information and followed him physically. Cook was investigating Daniel Morgan's murder. There are attempts to hark into his voicemail account and post. The newspaper's editor Andy Coulson later took responsibility of the scandal and resigned. Mulcaire accepted taking part in hacking into the messages of sport and fashion personalities. It is a form of irresponsibility for the private investigators to posses private documents of another person as Mulcaire did, but there is a show of responsibility in resignation. If Mulcaire had not hacked into the accounts of Cook and other people, he could n have enhanced a good image for the company 3.2 The operation ‘Motorman’ searched the offices of private investigators such as John Boyall, Mulcaire’s boss and revealed personal information in unregistered computer databases. There were invoices addressed to newspapers and magazines that showed the costs of the private information and the journalists that participated in the purchase of private information from private investigators. Steve Whittamore's office had over 13000 requests for private information from newspapers and magazines. The case supported the idea of acquiring confidential information from telephone companies, licensing companies and the national police database. The clients were the local authorities chasing tax arrears, newspapers and insurance companies. Whitamore accessed the information from banks, offices, theatres, hotels and prisons. There was no publication of information from motorman operation. Despite the importance of the private information to the clients, Whittamorre is an immoral character that does not take the feelings of the victims into account. The institutions that sell the information also show lack of morality. If Whittamore had opted to use legal means of acquiring information, the company could be justified in doing legal business and could not face closure. On the other hand, if the institutions that gave him the information could opt for the otherwise, they could retain an attractive image and encourage trust for their clients. 3.3. The public boycotting against the company occurred leading to the resignations of the company’s prominent figures. The personalities include Dow Jones and Rebekah Brooks (CEOs), Les Hinton, the international legal manager and Sir Paul Stephenson, the police commissioner of London Metropolitan (Lisners 2012). Rebekah Brooks was a former spokesperson to David Cameron's former spokesman but faced charges (Duthel, H. (2011).Cameron was criticised because of the choice. There was an establishment of Leveson enquiry by the British Prime Minister; David Cameron in 2011 that led to the subsequent closure of the subsidiary in 2011 despite its one hundred and sixty-eight years of publication. The company closure is due to its failure to follow the ethics culture of newspaper writing in Britain. The closure decision is right because the company fails to honour the rights of privacy of the victims of the hacking. If the leaders had taken responsibility in honouring the rights of people, they could not allow their juniors to use illegal means in their efforts to probe into private lives of people. The boycotting experience came from the immoral conduct of the company’s workforce that was under her. 3.4 There were opinions for the entire replacement of the commission that addresses press complaints. The news Managing Editor, Andy Coulson was arrested and convicted (Nicoll 2011). While the owner of the corporation, Rupert Murdoch and his son were probed to give the facts of the occurrences. The entrepreneur accepted that there are cases of efforts to cover up publicity of the hacking scandal. The Parliamentary select committee that was examining the case asserts that Murdoch willingly cast a blind eye to the incidence. The probing committee called him an unfit and incompetent steward of the international media company because he claimed that the act is part of the culture of the paper (Mair 2013).The reference is right because Murdoch did not demonise the hacking act but claimed that the unauthorised search for private information is part of culture though constitutionally it is a crime. The entrepreneur could enhance continuation of the company’s long-lived attractive image by rejecting the hacking act. Murdoch and his son denied having the full knowledge of the allegations until evidence for the cases was requested in late 2010. The Two former executives later state they had informed him about the matter. The subsequent interrogation of James Murdoch by the media committee in November 2011 saw him reiterate on his unawareness of the extent of phone hacking. Finally, Rupert Murdoch apologised for the mistake on behalf of the company. It is not possible that the owner of the business could fail to know the activities of the business. Murdoch is definitely an irresponsible leader. If Murdoch had accepted the mistake early and apologised, he could show his desire to act as a responsible leader. 3.5 The private investigators demonstrated records of illegal acts such as child pornography, distributing drugs, stealing drugs and pervasion of the course of justice and suspicion in the murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator (Gillard & Flynn 2012). Sid Fillery faced charges of child pornography. The investigation of Rees is called 'Operation Nigeria’. The tracking Ree's telephone showed that he was purchasing private information from unauthorised sources such as former police and customs officers, tax inspectors bankers and cell phone companies. The information was sold to ‘The Sunday mirror’ and ‘Sunday times’. Tom Kingston and Duncan Hanrahan, a former constable also faced charges of hacking similar to Ree. After his release in 2005, Ree resumed to his private investigation post in the News of the world. Andy Coulson replaced Rebekah Brooks as the editor. It is irresponsible for the company to retain criminal suspects and reinstate the personality that had blurred the image of the company. The reinstatement also implied that the company supported Mulcaire’s probe into private lives that is unethical. If the company had refrained from the reinstatement and sacked the employees that were criminal suspects, it could have created an image of fighting against unethical characters hence attracting an attractive public image. 3.6 The Guardian newspaper reported that News International press had made individual settlements amounting to 1 million pounds to three victims of phone hacking (Fearn-Banks 2010). By September 2010, a string of prominent people sued amid claims of suspicions of widespread private phone hacking. The turning point came in Launching of ‘Operation Weeting’ by Metropolitan police in January 2011 looked at the original 2006 case afresh. The investigation slowly widened to encompass improper payments to public official allegations s and claims of computer hacking. It is unethical for the company to intrude private lives to spoil their reputation only to give material compensation after being found out. It the company had made public compensation to the victims of hacking, it could be a form of public apology to the act but doing it private was an indication of failure to recognise the weight of the matter. 3.7 The case was about grave, inexcusable and illegal invasion of privacy according to the judge. The prosecutor, David Perry QC said that Mulcaire and his colleague had used the cell phone numbers and secret codes used by network operators to hack into the voicemails (Watson & Hickman 2012). Mr Perry said that details of the tapping scheme, network passwords and voicemail secret pin code for Ms Macpherson were found in Mulcaire's notebooks. Mulcaire also hacked the phones of prominent people such as Max Clifford, MP Simon Hughes, Skylet Andrew and Gordon Taylor. Mr Perry, the prosecutor, said it was ironic for Mulcaire to run a company 'Nine Consultancy ' that offered media intrusion services to clients. Mulcaire was probably running the company to enhance an increased chance of accessing private information of the clients. He was acting contrary to the objectives of the organisation which is a sign of irresponsibility. If Mulcaire had followed the objectives of the company, there could be an assurance of moral character in him. 3.8 There is an exclusion of Telecommunication system from the misconduct of criminal liability under the law by allowing for consent of the person n to make the interception. News Corporation setup a unique process to compensate the victims of the hacking and has partially done it in the High Court for instance payment to Lord Justice Leveson. The access to voicemail messages came down to a simple security mistake by mobile subscribers. The phone manufacturers set default personal identification number that could enhance access to voicemail from other phones or abroad. Clients were required to change the Pin. That meant that if anyone could make unanswered call, the caller could use the PIN to contact the voicemail and other stored messages (Donner 2007). The exclusion is ethical because the company gave early warning to the subscribers about the issue of hacking. It was the customers’ responsibility to do according to the company’s opinion about secrecy. 4.0 How corporations can apply ethics Sustainable social and economic, ethical behaviour is one of the 21st century's fundamental values (Belz 2006). Ethics calls for a fair and caring society. Persons must put efforts to foster their relationships with the workforce, clients and business partners. Persons that maintain ethical behaviour create trust and loyalty. Lack of trust and loyalty has a detrimental effect on the business on the long run Persons that set good examples inspire trust and can enhance emulation. Moral people apply a common-sense approach, intelligence and intrinsic motivation to support a flourishing industry and a productive society. Persons that apply moral action have a decreased spending on protection against fraud and creating industrial relations to maintain morale and the common goal. Trust in corporate decision-making processes allows for product and service quality, customer satisfaction, simplicity in operation, consistency and trust. Persistent business success can only be accomplished by responsibility for society, nature and the environment amongst employees, business partners and suppliers. 5.0 Conclusion Mulcaire and his colleagues used illegal means to obtain confidential information through hacking the voicemail accounts for cell phones, accessing database computers, blackmailing and cell phone thefts. The executive of the News International Company did not show efforts to counter the malevolent behaviour. The state and private institutions acted irresponsibly when they disclosed the details of their clients to the News International Company investigators in exchange of money. However, the cell phone manufacturer acted ethically by briefing its customers on the benefits and ways of maintaining their confidentiality by adjusting the setting of the newly-bought handsets. Engagement of people and organizations in hacking and vending private information is not only illegal but also immoral because it infringes the rights of privacy of the victims. 6.0 Recommendations The institutions and people that disclose private information of their customers in exchange with money must bear the responsibility. Stringent laws that ensure appropriate punishment for vendors of illegally acquired private information must be e established. Policies that require public compensation for the damages for the victims of hacking can enhance certainty and examination of appropriateness. Companies that do not show effort of protecting peoples’ right of privacy must be grounded. The jail term for the parties that exchange illegal private information for money must be increased. There must be efficient education of the public on the best ways possible to detect and report private life intrusion such as hacking to the authorities. People entitled with leadership in the society that show irresponsibility must face joint legal penalty with their juniors that infringe other peoples right of privacy when executing the company’s activities References Belz, F. M. (2006). Marketing in the 21st century. Business Strategy and the Environment, 15(3), 139-144. Bennett, D., & Townend, J. (2012). Press ‘Omerta’: How Newspapers Fail to Report the Phone Hacking Scandal. Limitations of Media Accountability. Donner, J. (2007). The rules of beeping: messages exchange on mobile phones. Journal , 13(1), 1-22. Duthel, H. (2011). Rupert Murdoch: The Political Media Complex Mogul. Electronic republic. Gillard, M., & Flynn, L. (2012). Untouchables: How uncompetitive cops caused injustice in Scotland Yard. Bloomsbury Publishers. Fearn-Banks, K. (2010).The Crisis of communications: A casebook approach. Routledge. Kellner, D. (2012). The Murdoch reign and the foreseen Scandal. International Journal of Communication, 6, 32 Mair, J. (2013). The British tabloid press, Lord Justice Leveson, and lessons for elsewhere: regulation, ethics, accountability. Rhodes Journalism Review, (33), 69-72 Lisners, J. (2012). The Rise and Fall of the Murdoch Empire. John Blake Publishing. Morrison, J. (2011). Essential Public Affairs for Journalists. Oxford University Press. Nicoll, A. (2011). Liasing Dangerously for Survival, 53(5), 223-232. Pojman, L., & Fieser, J. (2011). Advantage Books: Ethics: How to Discover Right and Wrong. Cengage Learning Watson, T., & Hickman, M. (2012). Dial M for Murdoch: News Company and the corruption of Britain. Penguin UK. . Read More