A shameful episode | 4 July 2011

Even by the standards of what has been a particularly shameful episode in British media history, the latest phone-hacking revelations are disgraceful stuff. According to the Guardian, private investigators hired by the News of the World targeted the phones of the then-missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family, in 2002, to listen into their voicemails. And, worse, the paper is said to have deleted voicemails from Milly Dowler’s phone to make room for more — an act which it thought to have given the police, and her parents, hope that she was still alive. There is much more detail here, including news that the Dowlers are now pursuing a damages claim against the News of the World.

We cannot yet be completely certain about the truth of these new claims. But there’s no doubting that they will increase the pressure all-round, particularly on Rebekah Brooks who was News of the World editor at the time. for its part, the paper has admitted that, “This particular case is clearly a development of great concern and we will be conducting our own inquiries as a result.” Until now, it has been easy to dismiss the phone-hacking scandal as a preoccupation of the media class. Now, its implications are far more sordid and significant.