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I say good riddance to the News of the World
Tom Watson MP
News International has decided to close the News of the World in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.
In an extraordinary statement issued to staff of the News of the World this afternoon, News Corporation's chairman James Murdoch said the News of the World had "failed" and that this Sunday's edition would be its last.
"When I tell people why I am proud to be part of News Corporation, I say that our commitment to journalism and a free press is one of the things that sets us apart. Your work is a credit to this.
"The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our Company."
He added: "The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself."
James Murdoch also admitted the paper had made statements to Parliament "without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong".
The tabloid came under pressure after it was exposed as having hacked into the voicemails of a series of politicians and celebrities. But the revelation that it had hacked into the phones of victims of crime, including murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, led advertisers to start shunning the paper.
Labour MP Tom Watson, who has long campaigned against the practise of phone hacking, said the decision was a "victory for decent people up and down the land".
"I say good riddance to the News of the World," he added. "I think they were forced into this decision by absolute fury from parents up and down the land".
But speaking on Sky News he said the News International chief executive still needed to "consider her position" and he said there were only two people who still supported the former editor of the tabloid, Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron.
"The anger will only subside when a very senior executive takes responsibility," he said.
The shock decision followed an emergency debate in the Commons yesterday when Watson and his fellow Labour MP Chris Bryant as well as the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper pressed for an immediate public inquiry.
Reacting to the news that the paper was to be shut, Bryant said News International was attempting to rescue a sinking ship.
He said: "As the ship sinks lower and lower into the water you throw more and more things out, earlier in the week it was Andy Coulson today it is the newspaper".
Article Comments
Unite has members who are involved in the production of the News of the World and its Sunday magazine.
We are in discussions with our Fathers of the Chapel (FoCs) at Prinovis in Liverpool, where the magazine is produced and at the contract printers in Dinnington in Yorkshire and Portsmouth.
Unite members who work at the NI printing plant at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire and other Unite members, who work for News International, where Unite is not recognised, and who may face employment loss will be supported by the union.
Steve Sibbald, national officer, Unite
8th Jul 2011 at 1:44 pm
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