168 Year Old Newspaper closes

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.
It is only right that you as colleagues at News International are first to hear what I have to say and that you hear it directly from me.
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."

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Tory Prime Minister David Cameron has bowed to pressure to call a public inquriy.
Political and commercial pressure mounted on News International as more companies pulled adverts from the News of the World.
Energy giant npower became the latest firm to suspend its advertising in the paper, joining Halifax, the Co-operative Group, Ford, Vauxhall, Mitsubishi, Butlins and Virgin Holidays.
And Commons leader Sir George Young told MPs that the government was reviewing its advertising contracts with the NoW.

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BSkyB sale to News Corp in doubt:
More than 100,000 people and organisations made last minute submissions to the Government’s consultation on the proposed bid as the phone hacking scandal deepened, leaving the Department for Culture, Media and Sport with months of work ahead of them before Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, can reach a decision.
He was originally expected to deliver his final verdict on the proposed deal just before Parliament’s summer recess on July 18. It is now not expected to make a decision until at least September, according to sources, and it could be as late as 2012 if a way is not found to speed up the process.

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George Galloway comments:

It's worth reminding ourselves of some profound truths.

Because in an age of 24-hour rolling news we are already seeing moves to bury the full depravity of what went on at the News of the World and still does in Murdoch's empire under mutual backslapping, asinine comment and extraneous detail.

Murdoch and the rich and powerful whose interests he so assiduously promotes are desperate to cap this volcano of public outrage.

For all the righteous indignation and talk of inquiries, powerful interests way beyond Murdoch don't want us to examine the fundamental questions.

Here is the flagship paper of an overweening media empire which helped hurl this country into war after war and then hacked the phones of relatives grieving at the loss of the very soldiers it had done so much to put in harm's way.

And then, with a straight face, "campaigned" for the armed forces' covenant.

Here is a rag which took genuine public grief at horrific crimes against children, manipulated it into dangerous and cynical campaigns to sell more papers, and all the while spied on the parents of the very murdered child in whose name it said it was acting.

Here is a sewer which gushes forth filthy smears that disabled people and single parents are scroungers who refuse to take responsibility, while its gilded executives - the son placed in the top job by daddy - sack others to save their own.

No-one should be surprised, because this is an outfit that vilifies migrants and Muslims while remaining in the grip of a foreign billionaire who scarcely pays tax in this country.