The Operation Motorman Case Study

The media is considered as one of the most powerful sectors in the United Kingdom due to the wide readability, complexity, maturity and mindset of the English readers. The number of weekly newspapers, Sunday titles, magazines and other informative publications are very large in UK and hence over a period of time, an unhealthy competition to enhance the readership has forced a part of the media to resort to illegal and unethical means to extract news or create news. The juicy stories thus created are used to invoke the curiosity of the public through which the circulation or subscription can be increased. The Audit Bureau of Circulation in a study has compared the circulation of newspapers from May to October 2004 and 2009 and found out that
Whittamore used bounded ledgers to write down the information and avoided using computers figuring that this can be hacked. (Harris, 2012). Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner at the time of Motorman Operation, approached the PCC to deal with these illegal activities since the Press was too big for him to control. But after several meetings with the PCC Chairman and Chair of the Editor’s Code Committee, he found out that the PCC lack commitment to take strong action or did not even move a pen to draft an advise note (Petley,
The decline in the readership and falling revenues is prompting the managements of the media to sit up and think of new ways to increase their readership both legally and illegally. The Leveson Inquiry has inquired this aspect in detail. The issue has been discussed thread bear in his enquiry reports submitted to the House of Commons. The lack of courage of the politicians to curb the excessive power of the media has contributed largely to the happening of such incidents by way of enacting legislations. The government ought to have passed stringent laws to protect the privacy of