Media intrusion isn’t something celebrities would want to cheer. With the UK government going by a policy of not standing by the victims of media intrusion and also shying away from taking stringent measures to curb such acts from the part of an unruly press, celebrities aren’t a happy lot.
Going by what celebrities of the likes of JK Rowling, Hugh Grant and others feel, the government is letting down the victims of media intrusion. They have called for measures to tackle the intrusive behavior of the press.
Meanwhile, the government is looking to set up a new press watchdog which will have the powers to penalize unruly behavior. The levy could be up to 1 million pounds ($1.5 million). However, the Prime Minister is against according a tougher legislation-backing to the proposed regulator.
Media intrusion has fallen to such lows such that Rowling and Grant were pushed to the limit due to abuse of media freedom and unethical behavior. Eavesdropping on voicemails, bribing officials for leaking out information and hacking of personal files on computers have been in vogue among tabloids ever since a long time. All these were done in the name of juicy scoops.
Such behavior had of late even killed Murdoch’s News of the World, and many arrested. Lawsuits against Murdoch are also being fought.
Now that a cap on such intrusive behavior being discussed, it looks like the government might have to take such occurrences seriously. Rogue newspapers might be taught to behave, at least now.
