The tabloid readership had been rather hypocritical. They accepted the use of phone hacking by journalists and their informants when the practice uncovered the indiscretions of celebrities and the match-fixing of international cricketers.
But it was the revelation that a private detective, working on behalf of The News of the World, had illegally accessed the mobile phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler (and those of the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, relatives of 7/7 bomb victims and families of casualties in Afghanistan) which ignited total public outrage. This resulted in the closing of the Sunday paper, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International, in July.
National life
The implications for our national life are enormous and still unfolding.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …