|
April 20, 2011
In Rupert Murdoch's calculated bet he can end hacking saga Roy Greenslade outlines
News International's strategy to bring the News of the World phone-hacking scandal in the UK to an end.
They have decided to throw a lot of money at claimants who make out a decent case. Money will talk and close things down by gagging the claimants. Greenslade outlines the legal strategy to halt the series of damaging revelations.
If this strategy is successful, then it is up to the politicians to find the political courage to use the powers of Parliament to stand up to Murdoch by setting up a wide ranging public inquiry into phone hacking and the newspaper culture that would lead to the replacement of the current system of self-regulation.
You can imagine the traditional media's response to that--they'd fight greater regulation tooth and nail in the name of the freedom of the media. In many respects this is a looking backwards move because the media landscape is rapidly changing because the internet (a platform ln the same way that paper is) and streaming content online are resulting in a digital media world. The shift from print to web-only publication is well under way.
Newspapers, films, TV, music, radio are all produced and distributed in a tightly controlled way and with restricted access. The internet blows the doors off that concept because it's an environment where everyone can distribute with maximum efficiency to everyone else and to any platform. There is a space in this landscape in Australia for a consumer product/services/packages based around content, connectivity, and social TV---the Netflix recipe.
|
Hopefully, but Im not going to bet on it, the govt will wait until after our friend Rupert has paid umpteen millions to silence people and then compel the beans to be spilt so he gets hit with a double whammy.