Rebekah Brooks: hero turned villain

Photo: screen grab from the youtube video

Rebekah Brooks, until a year ago, was one of the most powerful media executives in the world. She possessed the unflinching support of the media Moghul Rupert Murdoch and ran his News Corp’s UK subsidiary News International. She was elevated to the top position after proving her worth while she was the editor of the country’s best-selling tabloid daily, The Sun, and its best-selling Sunday tabloid, News of the World.

But now, time has changed. Soon she could be behind bars!

Dire Implications
On September 3, she appeared in the court to testify against charges of phone-hacking by her reporters that date back between 2001-2006 when she was the editor of the newspapers. 

The scandal had dire implications not only on her personal life but also in the fortunes of Murdoch’s: She was disgracefully ousted from the position, is standing a trial along with her six colleagues, News International had to close its 168-year-old Tabloid News of the World and Murdoch’s bid to purchase majority stake in Britain’s largest cable and DTH Provider BSkyB have gone awry.

The court has directed her to appear in the court again on September 26, not to contact any of the 6 others charged in the case and notify police if she wants to leave Britain.

What is Phone-hacking scandal?As Tabloid journalism implies, sensationalism is at the heart of it. Therefore, reporters use different methods to collect information to make the story as sensational as possible.

What is unfolding now is that Brooks and six other former News of the Worldstaff illegally intercepted voicemail messages on the mobile phones of more than 600 people between October 2000 and August 2006. This enabled them to get many personal information and schedules of the celebrities. They did good business out of it, but could not escape with the consequences any longer.

It will, however, take a little longer whether the court verifies the charges and sends them behind bars for breaching privacy and even for cyber crime.