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| As the hacking trial proves, we lack moral purpose in public life | As the hacking trial proves, we lack moral purpose in public life |
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| In the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh television festival two years ago, Rupert Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth, spoke of the "unsettling dearth of integrity across so many of our institutions". Integrity had collapsed, she argued, because of a collective acceptance that the only "sorting mechanism" in society should be profit and the market. But "it's us, human beings, we the people who create the society we want, not profit". | In the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh television festival two years ago, Rupert Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth, spoke of the "unsettling dearth of integrity across so many of our institutions". Integrity had collapsed, she argued, because of a collective acceptance that the only "sorting mechanism" in society should be profit and the market. But "it's us, human beings, we the people who create the society we want, not profit". |
| Ramming her point home, she continued: "It's increasingly apparent that the absence of purpose, of a moral language within government, media or business could become one of the most dangerous own goals for capitalism and freedom." This same absence of moral purpose was wounding companies such as News International (as was), she thought, making it more likely that it would lose its way as it had with widespread illegal telephone hacking. | Ramming her point home, she continued: "It's increasingly apparent that the absence of purpose, of a moral language within government, media or business could become one of the most dangerous own goals for capitalism and freedom." This same absence of moral purpose was wounding companies such as News International (as was), she thought, making it more likely that it would lose its way as it had with widespread illegal telephone hacking. |
| As the hacking trial concludes – finding guilty one ex-editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, for conspiring to hack phones, and finding his predecessor, Rebekah Brooks, innocent of the same charge – the wider issue of dearth of integrity still stands. Journalists are known to have hacked the phones of up to 5,500 people. This is hacking on an industrial scale, as was acknowledged by Glenn Mulcaire, the man hired by the News of the World in 2001 to be the point person for phone hacking. Others await trial. This saga still unfolds. | As the hacking trial concludes – finding guilty one ex-editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, for conspiring to hack phones, and finding his predecessor, Rebekah Brooks, innocent of the same charge – the wider issue of dearth of integrity still stands. Journalists are known to have hacked the phones of up to 5,500 people. This is hacking on an industrial scale, as was acknowledged by Glenn Mulcaire, the man hired by the News of the World in 2001 to be the point person for phone hacking. Others await trial. This saga still unfolds. |
| In many respects, the dearth of moral purpose frames not only the fact of such widespread phone hacking but the terms on which the trial took place. One of the astonishing revelations was how little Rebekah Brooks knew of what went on in her newsroom, how little she thought to ask and the fact that she never inquired how the stories arrived. The pivot of her successful defence was that she knew nothing. | In many respects, the dearth of moral purpose frames not only the fact of such widespread phone hacking but the terms on which the trial took place. One of the astonishing revelations was how little Rebekah Brooks knew of what went on in her newsroom, how little she thought to ask and the fact that she never inquired how the stories arrived. The pivot of her successful defence was that she knew nothing. |
| In today's world, it has become normal that well-paid executives should not be accountable for what happens in the organisations that they run. Perhaps we should not be so surprised. For a generation, as Elisabeth Murdoch argues, the collective doctrine has been that the sorting mechanism of society should be profit. The words that have mattered are efficiency, flexibility, shareholder value, business-friendly, wealth generation, sales, impact and, in newspapers, circulation. Words relegated to the margin have been justice, fairness, tolerance, proportionality and accountability. | In today's world, it has become normal that well-paid executives should not be accountable for what happens in the organisations that they run. Perhaps we should not be so surprised. For a generation, as Elisabeth Murdoch argues, the collective doctrine has been that the sorting mechanism of society should be profit. The words that have mattered are efficiency, flexibility, shareholder value, business-friendly, wealth generation, sales, impact and, in newspapers, circulation. Words relegated to the margin have been justice, fairness, tolerance, proportionality and accountability. |
| The purpose of editing the News of the World under Rupert Murdoch was not to promote reader understanding, to be fair in what was written or to betray any common humanity. It was to ruin lives in the quest for circulation and impact. Ms Brooks may or may not have had suspicions about how her journalists got their stories, but she asked no questions, gave no instructions – nor received traceable, recorded answers. | The purpose of editing the News of the World under Rupert Murdoch was not to promote reader understanding, to be fair in what was written or to betray any common humanity. It was to ruin lives in the quest for circulation and impact. Ms Brooks may or may not have had suspicions about how her journalists got their stories, but she asked no questions, gave no instructions – nor received traceable, recorded answers. |
| The same eclipse of justice and moral purpose suffuses the public domain. The coalition government justifies its drive to reduce the state to the same proportional size as in 1948 because of the alleged immorality in burdening our children with debt. But no morality or sense of justice informs the character of the spending cuts made in the here and now, with the criminal justice system thus one of the principal sufferers. | The same eclipse of justice and moral purpose suffuses the public domain. The coalition government justifies its drive to reduce the state to the same proportional size as in 1948 because of the alleged immorality in burdening our children with debt. But no morality or sense of justice informs the character of the spending cuts made in the here and now, with the criminal justice system thus one of the principal sufferers. |
| Legal aid will have been cut by 30% between 2012 and 2015, with more to come. Seventy per cent of the cases dealt with by the probation service are to be contracted out privately, despite the evidence of how Serco and G4S have cut corners in their treatment of those in their custody. Prison costs are relentlessly driven down and privatised where possible. Spending cuts will further undermine the entire criminal justice's hard and soft infrastructure. | Legal aid will have been cut by 30% between 2012 and 2015, with more to come. Seventy per cent of the cases dealt with by the probation service are to be contracted out privately, despite the evidence of how Serco and G4S have cut corners in their treatment of those in their custody. Prison costs are relentlessly driven down and privatised where possible. Spending cuts will further undermine the entire criminal justice's hard and soft infrastructure. |
| Thus the Crown Prosecution Service, a key component of our public capacity to ensure justice, is increasingly a broken reed. Reeling from the cumulative 27% cuts in its budget since 2012, it is beset by high staff turnover, inadequate resources and rock-bottom morale. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism calculates the CPS has lost 23% of its barristers (202), 22% of its solicitors (518) and 27% (296) of its higher court advocates during this time. Police routinely privately complain that its lawyers turn up to cases without having had the time to read painstakingly assembled evidence. Judges criticise it for fielding barristers inadequate to the task or inability to disclose key papers in a timely way. | Thus the Crown Prosecution Service, a key component of our public capacity to ensure justice, is increasingly a broken reed. Reeling from the cumulative 27% cuts in its budget since 2012, it is beset by high staff turnover, inadequate resources and rock-bottom morale. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism calculates the CPS has lost 23% of its barristers (202), 22% of its solicitors (518) and 27% (296) of its higher court advocates during this time. Police routinely privately complain that its lawyers turn up to cases without having had the time to read painstakingly assembled evidence. Judges criticise it for fielding barristers inadequate to the task or inability to disclose key papers in a timely way. |
| This disparity of resource was glaring in the hacking trial. Rebekah Brooks's bills alone topped £5m, affordable only because of Rupert Murdoch and News UK. One of the most expensive and lethal QCs in the country, Jonathan Laidlaw, could muster a team of two supporting barristers, four junior solicitors, four paralegals and a team monitoring the news and social media. Against that, the CPS had Andrew Edis QC, one full-time solicitor and an administrative assistant. Understanding every detail of every dimension of the evidence and delivering rock-solid witness statements are central to courtroom success. In trials such as last week's, the CPS has simply not got the resources to do what is necessary. At one point, according to Guardian journalist Nick Davies, without whose indefatigable efforts there would have been no trial, Edis even offered to pay himself for a digital indexing of the evidence, better to help the jury. | This disparity of resource was glaring in the hacking trial. Rebekah Brooks's bills alone topped £5m, affordable only because of Rupert Murdoch and News UK. One of the most expensive and lethal QCs in the country, Jonathan Laidlaw, could muster a team of two supporting barristers, four junior solicitors, four paralegals and a team monitoring the news and social media. Against that, the CPS had Andrew Edis QC, one full-time solicitor and an administrative assistant. Understanding every detail of every dimension of the evidence and delivering rock-solid witness statements are central to courtroom success. In trials such as last week's, the CPS has simply not got the resources to do what is necessary. At one point, according to Guardian journalist Nick Davies, without whose indefatigable efforts there would have been no trial, Edis even offered to pay himself for a digital indexing of the evidence, better to help the jury. |
| There should be a long, hard stock-taking in the aftermath of this trial. If the dearth of integrity is allowed to go any further, our public realm and our business morality will become corroded to the point of no return. Companies in general, and media companies in particular, must put a sense of purpose at their heart. In the newspaper business, there should be an expectation that editors hold this in mind as they edit, ask questions that Rebekah Brooks never did and never act illegally, as Coulson did. The point of formalising the accountability of the press, as Leveson recommended, is not to constrain journalistic freedom; rather, it is to ensure that no paper is ever edited as Brooks edited the News of the World, so that independent journalistic freedom in future serves readers' interests rather than proprietors. | There should be a long, hard stock-taking in the aftermath of this trial. If the dearth of integrity is allowed to go any further, our public realm and our business morality will become corroded to the point of no return. Companies in general, and media companies in particular, must put a sense of purpose at their heart. In the newspaper business, there should be an expectation that editors hold this in mind as they edit, ask questions that Rebekah Brooks never did and never act illegally, as Coulson did. The point of formalising the accountability of the press, as Leveson recommended, is not to constrain journalistic freedom; rather, it is to ensure that no paper is ever edited as Brooks edited the News of the World, so that independent journalistic freedom in future serves readers' interests rather than proprietors. |
| Above all, justice and fairness need to rank alongside efficiency as public and private preoccupations. Legal aid, the condition of the prison service and the capability of the Crown Prosecution Service cannot be allowed to slip any further. Britain must be a rule-of-law society. It is obvious such a reappraisal of priorities is an imperative. | Above all, justice and fairness need to rank alongside efficiency as public and private preoccupations. Legal aid, the condition of the prison service and the capability of the Crown Prosecution Service cannot be allowed to slip any further. Britain must be a rule-of-law society. It is obvious such a reappraisal of priorities is an imperative. |
| Comments will not be open on this for legal reasons | Comments will not be open on this for legal reasons |
| • The following clarification will be published in the Observer on 6 July 2014: "As the hacking trial proves, we lack moral purpose in life" (Comment, last week, page 36) drew a comparison between the defence and prosecution teams in the hacking trial at the Old Bailey, claiming a disparity in resources. We have been asked to clarify that to prosecute all the defendants in the trial, the Crown Prosecution Service in fact had five barristers, a number of solicitors and paralegals and the resources of the Metropolitan police. |