Ayoon Wa Azan (Anguish As We See the Freedoms Enjoyed by Others)

The most important story in the British press, for a year now, has not been the ongoing global financial crisis, the uprisings of the Arab spring, or the Iranian nuclear program; rather, it has been the Leveson Inquiry, or the judge Lord Leveson’s public inquiry into the violations of the media group owns by Rupert Murdoch - originally an Australian who stopped over in London and ended up in America, and who owns some of many prominent newspapers and television companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Throughout last week alone, the coverage of the Inquiry in London’s newspapers overshadowed all other major stories, in tandem with daily coverage of the proceedings in U.S. newspapers. The scandal began when it was discovered that the phone of the poor girl Milly Dowler had been hacked. Milly disappeared on her way home from school on 21/3/2002, and her body was found seven months later; the murderer was convicted last year. The reporters of News of the World (NoW) hacked her voicemail, and after this was exposed, all the subsequent scandals we heard about followed. The ongoing judicial investigation showed journalistic practices that ranged anywhere from spying and corruption to lies, handouts and bribery – words that have littered the headlines for a while now. But perhaps the most important part in the investigation last week was the accrued information on the role of the Liberal-Conservative coalition government, particularly the Secretary of State for Culture Jeremy Hunt, in facilitating Murdoch’s News Corp’s takeover bid for BSkyB – an attempt that ultimately failed following the other scandals that erupted. Then recently, members of the British Parliament ruled that Murdoch is not fit to run a major company. A special adviser to the Secretary resigned when a massive amount of communications were discovered to have been made between the Secretary’s office and the Murdoch group. However, the Secretary himself is under pressure now, and calls for his resignation are in fact not confined to within the opposition, but are also coming from some members of the Coalition itself, along with lawyers and journalists (Hunt has earned the nickname ‘Murdoch’s Minister’). The Milly Dowler case revealed that the Murdoch group had bribed a number of policemen, in return for confidential information on dozens of politicians, artists and other public figures. In some cases, policemen even went to work for the group. (Many Arabs think Murdoch is Jewish, but he belongs to a Protestant church and his grandfather was a priest). The group ended up paying huge compensations to a large number of victims. Actually, Gordon Taylor, an official at the Professional Footballers' Association, received 720,000 pounds as an out-of-court settlement. At present, there are attempts to bring similar legal actions in phone hacking cases before the U.S. courts, although this will be much more difficult to see through than it has been with the British courts. So what did Rupert Murdoch say in his defense before the Inquiry last week? Well, he said that he was not aware of what was happening, and that his son James, the CEO of the company, had little experience. Murdoch also claimed that the media group he heads has helped the police in earnest and that News Corp has now become a new company altogether. Personally, I do not believe a word of Murdoch’s defense, but I will let the investigators and magistrates issue their verdict on this. In the meantime, I want to say that Murdoch has made a terrible mistake as he defended himself. Indeed, he accused the lawyers for NoW, which he has closed down, of covering up the hacking scandal, along with Colin Myler, the last serving editor of NoW – who reacted by stating that Murdoch’s claim was a ‘shameful lie’. In truth, this is a lie that could well make its way to court should the accused decide to defend themselves. More importantly, more important than all of the above, is the fact that a press group can control ruling politicians and their policies in democratic countries. If we take The Sun as an example, this paper has been on the side of the winner in the parliamentary elections in Britain ever since Margaret Thatcher in the late seventies. After John Major, the Sun defected to Labour who went on to win the elections, and then endorsed David Cameron, who then also won. Will the Arab media ever hold even half of the sway that the Murdoch group has held, or even one percent? I don’t think so. For one thing, the absence of freedoms in our countries means that using something that does not exist in the first place cannot be used to this end, let alone be abused or misused. Naturally, not everyone in the Western press is like the Murdoch group. The press mostly exercises its freedoms under the law, unlike News Corp, which has perhaps believed itself above the law or outside its scope, given its influence on the politicians in power. I wish for the Arab media more freedoms that can make or break governments, although I do not expect to see a day when our press would have any sway like the Murdoch group. Instead, what I expect is more of the same, i.e. anguish as we see the freedoms enjoyed by others.