Question for Advanced Accounting Assignment: Analysis Of Ethics In News Of The World Phone Hacking Scandal
Introduction:
In growing world huge changes has occupied with the improvement of technology illegal Advanced Accounting Assignment activities also increase to use these technologies. In every country, several laws protect people from illegal activities. In recent time one of the most illegal activities has been seen in hacking. In the UK there are several laws for stop illegal activities in hacking such as computer Misuse Act 199, RIPA 2000, Communication Act 2003, Human rights Act 1998, Privacy and electronic communication Regulations 2003, Police and Justice Act 2006, Regulation of investigatory Power Act 2000 etc (Paine, 2009). Gaining data and information illegally from known or unknown sources is one types of hacking.
News of the world phone hacking scandal is discussing the issues how the News of the world came to its demise its illegal activities. They hacked personal phones to seek out the personal information. In this Advanced Accounting Assignment Help Study, one of the questions arrives in this Advanced Accounting Assignment that is personal phone hacking follows ethics or not. After the case study of News of the World phone-hacking scandal, it shows what type of illegal activities had done by news of the world. Ethics include moral, values, rules, laws and regulations. Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was arrested for phone hacking. That phone hacking scandal had involved police (De and Trenbrunsel, 2011).
Overview of the Rules and laws in UK to protect personal phone hacking:
There are several rules and regulations for protecting illegal activities in UK. In UK there are many types of rules and regulation for protecting UK people. These rules and regulations are discussed below
Communication Act 2003– this act provides more power to office of the communication to properly regulate communication and media services providers. If the communication and media service provider use any types of illegal activity then that is punishable by this act. This act also introducer that if any of the media and communication service provider uses Wi-Fi broadband without permission of the owner then it also comes under this act. That is also punishable (Garsten and Hernes, 2009).
Human rights act 1998-according to this law any person in UK have the rights to express their own ideas and vies throughout the article, and the person can communicate with another person though over the internet. But any person has not any rights to use any types of offensive through over the internet or other media. According to this law any of the people cannot use any types of offensive languages to insult others person. Journalists and any other media groups have rights to express criticise the government and political parties. But it is punishable who interact others personal life. This had been seen in the case of News of the World. They hacked many more than 1000 people without permission of the person. So that is offensive according to this act (www.ethicsmonitor.co.za, 2014).
Privacy and Electronic Communication regulations 2003– according to this act any types of automated recorded voice or text sent through over the telephone or mobile without the permission of the user is illegal. It is also prohibited to marketing any product throughout the telephone or mobile without the permission of the user.
Computer Misuse Act 1990-accordanc to this act it is illegal to hack any person’s computer without permission of the data. It is also illegal to introduce virus to others computer or nay other devices. It is offensive to unauthorised access to computer material of other person; it may be data or program (Stevens and Brownell, 2009). It is also offensive to modification of computer material without permission of the people. Broken of this act could be jail for six month to five years and pay fine up to £5000.
Data protection act 2008-according to this act individual data are kept by the organisation who are liable to handle individuals data. It also protects the individual data and Advanced Accounting Assignment which are handled by another person. Linkage of data is one of the offensive activities according to this law.
Police and justice act 2006– police act 2006 is included the act of the Computer Misuse Act 1990. According to this act any types of computer offences such as attract on the system by viruses. According to this act police has the power to take immediate action against the guilty person.
Regulation of investigatory Power Act 2000– it is one of the important acts in UK to protect personal data and information from hackers. This act supports the human rights act 1998. This act covers a range of activities such as interception of communication, interception of data, encrypted data acquiring, using human covert intelligence, covert surveillance on citizens and intrusive surveillance when require (McAlinden, 2009). This act also protects the nation against terrorism, immigration issues.
Figure: Overview of the Rules and laws in UK to protect personal phone hacking
(Sources: www.findlaw.co.uk, 2014, pp-99)
About the News of the World:
News of the World was one of the largest selling news papers in UK. It was the oldest news papers in the world their time period was from 1843 to 2001.News of the World was the famous by publishing celebrity scandal. Throughout the years they expose many celebrity scandals that were national and local celebrity (Carroll, 2009). They had interacted their personal life and published that in front of the people, which news related with celebrities sinful sexual acts, criminal activities and drug abuse. This process was done through video evidence, photographic and phone hacking.
Since 2006 they were continuously lost their battle. They their hacking was not limited within celebrity they also hacked phone of ordinary people in UK. They did more over 1000 phone hacking all over the UK (www.scu.edu, 2014). That cause was of lost their goodwill due to public outrages. They charged under the act Computer Misuse Act 1990 and Data Protecting and Privacy act. In 2011 the News of the world was closed.
Case scenario of News of the World:
The News of the World allegedly hacked more over 1000 phone. That not only involved celebrity that was included several businessman, British royal family, well-known public figure, and politician. Prince William’s phone was hacked by private investigator of News of the World. After that police investigated the case and arrested private investigator of News of the World. The News of the World hacked phone of relatives of the British soldiers who already died. They also hacked phone of relatives who died in 7/7 bombing and school girl Milly Dowler’s phone who murdered (Kimber and Lipton, 2009). Then the scandals were disclosed after investigation the Advanced Accounting Assignment and it had been seen that many of the employees of the News of the World were involved in phone hacking scandal. They have been arrested and few of them convicted, but the case is still in court.
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Details of the case history:
Police of UK has been actively investigated after the licked of Prince William and Bradby meeting. That was the very secret meeting which was known by the two of them, but News of the World’s employee’s hacked phone of Prince William and licked the meeting in front of the public. Prince William had appointed his knee surgeon, but that was also licked by the News of the World. After licked some of the incidents they realize that their phone might be hacked by someone and their voice mail and messages were intercepted by someone. After investigation by police of UK they found that editors and private investigator was hacked prince William’s phone. Then royal editor Clive Goodman and a private investigator Glenn Mulcaire of the News of the World were arrested. Investigation with the case of Prince William it had been found that they also hacked well-known public figure in UK (Lawton and Lasthuizen, 2011). It includes supermodel Elle Macpherson, Max Clifford, MP Simon Hughes, Skylet Andrew, Gordon Taylor. After let out the secret of News of the World, Editor Andy Coulson resigned. The case resolved with the imprisonment of the Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire throughout continuously investigates by the police, support of newspaper and parliament. They showed the evidence of the phone hacking against the News of the World. One of the newspapers showed a report that was very confidential. The News of the World had settlement three of the case with paid those £1 million who was attracting by the phone hacking scandal.
Critique the Ethics of the case:
Phone hacking is one of the criminal offences in UK. According to regulation of investigatory Powers Act 2000 those who are involved in Advanced Accounting Assignment and phone hacking they either receive fine or imprisonment up to five years. In case of legal reason for investigation about the security services of the country or some police may conduct phone hacking for specific purpose are exempted from the act of regulation of investigatory Powers Act 2000. In this case the News of the World used to hack well-known person’s phone (Griseri and Seppala, 2010). It was fully illegal. So it is beyond the ethics. Ethics follow all of the rules, regulations and values in a work culture. In case of the News of the World employees of the company used to break rules and regulations of the Country. So it was the fully unethical for them which route they followed. In UK one of the laws is called privacy act which has right all of the people to keep secret their privacy. If any of the people try to break their privacy without the permission of the people then it will punishable according to the privacy act in UK.
In case of the News of the World brake this laws which is beyond the ethics code. They have interfered personal life of the well-known people. It is offensive for them. Hacking some one’s phone and disclose that information to other people without the knowledge of the person is fully unethical. The newspaper must follow some moral and ethical issues. In case of the Milly Dowler in 2002, the 13 years girl was missing from London (www.carnegiecouncil.org, 2014). The private investigator Glenn Mulcaire of the News of the World was appointed for investigating the case study help. Glenn Mulcaire checked voice mail of Milly Dowler by hacking the phone, till this process was ethical because it was helps Milly’s family to finds her. But after the process of Glenn was unethical, he deleted some of the messages and voice mail from the phone and showing that she alive. This unethical act was leading investigation in wrong way.
Analysis how News Ltd could use ethics in their operation:
In case of the Milly Dowler 2002 they could follow ethics. In that case private investigator Glenn Mulcaire of the News of the World, investigate the operation through hacking the phone of Milly. Glenn interception all of the messages and voice mail of Milly which are sending from his phone. Then important messages were deleted by Glen and got a false hope that she is still alive (Paine, 2009). It was unethical but in this case Glenn could helps police for investigation the case and that could helps to suspect murderer. Deleted messages could be potential evidence for police to suspect the murderer. The News of the World could follow the ethics in case of let out phone hacking scandals. They used phone hacking in many types of operations in UK.
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But most of the cases their operation were limited between some of the well-known people, basically their operation were focused on celebrities life. If they focused on the criminal cases and helped police to investigate the case with provide the proper evidence then it could be called ethical hacking or white hat hacker. If the used phone hacking to helped the police by provide evidence in case of 2005 terrorist attract then could be ethical operation. They forecasted secret communication and meeting in front of the public which is not followed by ethics. If they used ethics in that operation and did not disclose this information to the public then it could not break code of ethics. Meeting between Prince William and Bradby disclose by the news of the World in front of public (The Telegraph, 2011). If they maintain code of ethics and could not disclose that secrete information in front of the people then it could not broke the laws and ethics in UK.
How ethics incorporate in the organization and change the corporate governance:
Corporate governance is dealing with control and accountability of the companies and pursuit the objectives of the company. Good corporate governance can be build through using ethics in the business. Business ethics is the one of the key tools for the business in changing corporate governance in the business (www.academia.edu, 2014). Business ethics deal with moral and rules of the organization. In case of News of the World they could changed their corporate governance in their organization by using business ethics. So they could build good reputation in front of public and they could increase their profitability. Using ethics in the changing governance stakeholders of the company benefited mostly.
In case of incorporate ethics in changing governance helps the organization to develop organizational behavior. Ethics mainly focus on moral and values of the organization. Using ethics in changing corporate governance can change the core value of any of the organization. Corporate governance helps the company to achieve the long term and short term objectives of the organization (www.ico.org.uk, 2014). Incorporate ethics in the organization helps them to achieve its goal in ethically. The company can provide good governance using ethics in terms of practices of business, which helps both investors of the company and customers of the company.
In long run ethical behavior have positive impact upon the performance of the business. In a commercial context business ethics is applied to examine rules of ethics and principles in a business (Carroll, 2009). Business ethics increase the individual’s responsibility and developing accountability which helps to improve corporate governance within the company. Ethics helps to create a work environment where employees can act in ways consistent with their values.
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Conclusion:
In the above study it is discussed about the case study of News of the World. In this study is discussed about the ethical issues of the company. They had done many operations through hacking phone. Their process was unethical. For that reason public outrages increase against them. So their business stopped in 2011. In this study there are several rules and regulations are discussed which are related with the ethics of the phone hacking. One of the cases Milly Dowler 2002 was done which operated by Glenn Mulcaire private investigator of the News of the World through followed by unethically process. Glenn Mulcaire deleted many messages and voicemail which were important for the investigation the case. Glenn Mulcaire private investigator of the News of the World could help police to investigate the case by providing sufficient evidence. In this study how ethics incorporated in the changes organization has been discussed and its impact also being discussed. The News of the World could use ethics in their organization which could help the people of the organization to dealing with moral complexity.