Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

News’ Australian Story Of Ethics And Self-Regulation: A Cautionary Tale, Rhonda Breit, Matthew Ricketson

Graduate School of Media and Communications

I know the newsrooms, I know how cultures develop, and I’m hugely confident that there is no improper or unethical behaviour in our newsrooms.

(ABC 2011, 14 July)
This is how News Limited Chairman and Chief Executive John Hartigan publicly defended the ethical culture of News’ Australian operations in the week following News of the World’s (NoW’s) closure. Speaking during an interview on ABC’s 7.30 Report, Hartigan continued in his defence of Rupert Murdoch’s Australian stable, following shock revelations that NoW had hacked into the phone messages of murdered teenager Milly Dowler:

We’re a company of values, like most companies, …