British tabloid News of the World is going to close, James Murdoch, son of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, has announced.
It follows a series of revelations that the paper illegally hacked into phones. The paper received sharp criticism for hacking the phone of a missing girl in England in 2002. The scandal widened with the allegations that phones of relatives of British soldiers killed in battle were also hacked.
James Murdoch said the 168-year-old Sunday tabloid will cease to exist after this week.
Here is the statement from Statement from James Murdoch:
“I have important things to say about the News of the World and the steps we are taking to address the very serious problems that have occurred.
You do not need to be told that The News of the World is 168 years old. That it is read by more people than any other English language newspaper. That it has enjoyed support from Britain’s largest advertisers. And that it has a proud history of fighting crime, exposing wrong-doing and regularly setting the news agenda for the nation.
The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our Company.
The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.
In 2006, the police focused their investigations on two men. Both went to jail. But the News of the World and News International failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose.
Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.
As a result, the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter. We now have voluntarily given evidence to the police that I believe will prove that this was untrue and those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences.
This was not the only fault.
The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong."
