FOR AllRoundBest Tutor

Name: Zeinab Ghandourh

Course Title: Business Ethics

Date : 22/11/16

Introduction

In the case study “A Loss of Privacy,” the British tabloid newspaper News of the World was forced to close after various phone-hacking scandal that involved journalists from the newspaper using private investigators to access cell phone voicemail accounts of celebrities and the British Royal Family as well as bribing members of the police force for information for “breaking news.” The owner of the News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, and other senior executives from the newspaper including: Rebekah Brooks, editor of The News of the World from 2000 to 2003; and Rupert Murdoch’s son, James Murdoch, deputy COO of News Corporation and other senior editors, denied having heard of such scandals when they appeared before a parliament committee. They denied all the claims despite being presented with video evidence collected by actor Hugh Grant from the newspaper’s former journalist who outlined how phone-hacking was conducted and supported by the editorial team.

The phone scandal issue and bribery of the police officers for information had begun in 2003 but it was made public in July 2009 when the division of News Corporation that was responsible for publishing News of the World, News Group Newspapers, paid more than 1 million Euros to settle claims of the journalists’ involvement in the phone-hacking scandal. This can be interpreted to mean that the owner of the News Corporation and other senior executives must have known about the illegal access of celebrities’ voicemails. The phone-scandal issue had existed for more than five years but it was brought to the publics’ attention in 2009. Additionally, the public became furious when news came out that the journalists had been involved in illegally accessing the cell phone of a murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl named Milly Dowler. She girl’s remains were found in 2002. But in July 2011, Dowler’s family lawyers revealed that police reports had shown that Milly’s voicemail messages were hacked allegedly by an investigator hired by The News of the World. The lawyers claimed that some messages were deliberately deleted so that the police and her family would think that Milly was still alive. The other fact of the case study is the resigning of Andy Coulson from his head of government’s media operations. He was once the editor of the newspaper when the illegal access of the voicemails by its journalists was taking place. Just like Murdoch, Coulson denied that he was unaware of the alleged phone hacking.

The Ethical Theories, their Strengths and Weaknesses

Ethical relativism, is an ethical theory that hold that there are “no moral absolutes or that there is no moral right or moral wrong (scu.edu). What someone considers to be true might not be considered by another person as the truth and what a person considers to be wrong or false might be considered to be the truth by another person. This theory is based on the view that different people have different points of view and that individuals are responsible for determining what is true or wrong relative to their point of view and their cultural practices. Additionally, ethical relativism also holds that “human moral positions change with time and social norms” (Hursthouse). This means that what a given society considered being wrong some time back might be considered to be right after some time.

In the case study, The News of the World was closed because the owners of News Corporation that the newspaper belongs to thought it was the best decision to make because of pressure from the public. Additionally, the journalist might have thought that hiring private investigators to illegally hack celebrities’ phones and the British Royal Family might be the easiest and fastest way to get information. The public was very furious about the behavior of the newspaper’s journalists for illegally accessing voicemails of celebrities and of the British Royal family as well as deleting of some messages from Milly’s phones to misled police and her family that she was still alive. However, according to my own perspective, the closing of the newspaper was not the right decision to make. The people at fault were the journalists involved in the phone-hacking scandal and not the newspaper that had existed since 1843.

Ethical relativism is strong because it allows different people in the society to resolve their moral disputes or crisis based on what they consider to be right or wrong. This is because different people or even companies have different cultural norms and perspectives that determine how they behave. For instance, The News of the World newspaper was closed because the owner thought that that was the best thing to do. However, ethical relativism theory is weak because it allows people to act based on what they think is right or wrong. This can mislead people to act in certain ways that are not universally acceptable. In other words, it only applies within moral practices of societies.

Utilitarianism theory is an ethical theory that supports moral action that produces the greatest good to the greatest number of people. In other words, the moral rightness or wrongness of an action depends on the results that they produce. If the act results to good then the act is morally right and vice versa. Additionally, people who support Utilitarianism claim that the main purpose of the theory is to make life better by “increasing the amount of goodness in the world through happiness and pleasure and to reduce or prevent the amount of badness such as unhappiness and pain” (wofford.edu).The closing of The News of the World took place after the parent News Corporation succumbed to increasing pressure from the public due to the phone-hacking scandal that interfered with the privacy of celebrities and the British Royal family. This decision is supported by utilitarianism because the existence of the newspaper caused the public to feel pain or to be unhappy with the behavior of the journalist involved in the phone-hacking scandal. The closing resulted to good and the revealing of the truth that had been hidden for more than five years. Additionally, more than 80 people were arrested in connection to the News Corporation phone-hacking scandal plus use of $315 million for settlement of legal fees and civil statements.

Utilitarianism is strong because it takes into account the end result of an action. If an action will result to happiness to the greatest number of people then the action is morally right. But is the action leads to suffering and pain to the greatest number of people the action is morally wrong. For example, the closing of the News of the World led to the arresting of more than 80 people connected to the illegal accessing of voicemails. This action led to the suffering of a few people compared to the many individuals whose phones were hacked for information. In this case, the decision made was morally right. However, utilitarianism theory is weak because it never takes into consideration the outcome or consequence of an action. When the phone-hacking scandal was revealed to the public, News Corporation did not know how the public would react. The public’s outcry and pressure later led to the closing of The News of the World and loss of money for settlement of legal cases.

Aristotle’s virtue ethics emphasizes the character of an individual as the key element in moral ethics rather than acting based on rules or duty or good consequences of an action. Aristotle described a “virtuous person as a person with ideal character traits” (utm.edu). A person is born with the traits but they need to be nurtured in order to be established and hence become stable. A person who has a virtue like mercy will always show mercy to people in their lifetime because that is who they are. They do not show mercy to people to maximize gain or as part of fulfillment of their duty. In the case study, The News of the World journalists who got involved in illegal access of celebrities’ and The British Royal Family cell phone voicemails and also Milly’s phone, did not respect their privacy but instead acted based on self-interests. Their actions were also supported and condoned by the newspaper editors and senior executives of the parent company, News Corporation. Therefore, Aristotle’s virtue ethics does not support the actions that led to the closing of The News of the World. The decision was only made after increased pressure and outcry from the public.

Aristotle’s virtue ethics is strong because it does not aim at identifying universal principles that can be applied in all ethical or moral situations. It focuses on an individual’s character and how they can use that character in moral situations. In other words, when a person is faced with a moral or ethical challenge they have to make decision based on their character traits. In the case study, the journalists failed to respect the privacy of their sources of information. Their actions were not based on any moral character but in immoral character. However, Aristotle’s virtue ethics is weak because it does not give guiding principles on how people should act. It only emphasizes on “acting like a virtuous person would act” (utm.edu) in a given moral situation. This can be very difficult for people whose character traits cannot help solve a moral dilemma.

Universal ethics explains that human beings should act based on principles that apply to all human beings regardless of religion, cultural or social background, or perspective. In other words, human beings ought to act in “ways that would be approved and applied by other human beings” (Colero). According to Universal ethics when deciding whether an action is right, consideration should be placed on universal benefit if all people were to behave in the same manner. Therefore, universal ethics does not support the actions of the journalist and the support that they received from the newspaper’s editors and executives because if all journalist in the world were to disrespect personal cell phone privacy by hacking other people’s voicemail messages, then the world would be a worst place to live.

Universal ethics is strong because it provides a moral guideline on how people should act when faced with a moral dilemma. It emphasizes on taking actions that would be beneficial to all human beings. For instance, when the public got wind of phone-scandal that included the hacking of a murdered girl’s phone, the News Corporation was forced to close The News of the World due to increased pressure from the public. However, Universal ethics is weak because in some situations a person is forced to act based on their social norms or what they think is right. For instance, the Murdoch closed The News of the World because that is what he thought would reduce or stop the public outcry.

Chosen Theory: Universal Ethics

I choose universal ethics to apply to the case study of “Loss of Privacy”. This is because the theory advocates for acting in ways that would be approved universally or by all human beings. Additionally, universal ethics supports behaviors that benefits all human beings and rebukes behaviors that interfere with the comfort of people. For instance, in the case study the actions of the journalists were rebuked by the public when it was revealed that they got involved in phone-hacking to retrieve important and private information from the cell phone of the murdered girl that misled the police and the girl’s parent to think that she was still alive. The increased pressure from the public made Rupert Murdoch to close The News of the World. Additionally, more than 80 people involved in the phone-hacking scandal were arrested. The News Corporation also lost $315 million in settlement of legal and civil fees. This means that it is universally unacceptable to access a person’s private information from their phones without their permission.

Resolution

The best way to resolve this conflict is to look at it from the perspective of truth versus loyalty. The illegal access of cell phone voicemail messages by The News of the World journalists was wrong. Rupert Murdoch and other News Corporation officials claimed that they did not know of the phone-hacking scandal. Based on the evidence presented by actor Hugh Grant from former journalists of the newspaper, the officials knew and even supported the phone-hacking issue. Since the newspaper benefitted from the information retrieved from the hacked phones, no one was willing to come out and say the truth. Instead, the newspaper team decided to be loyal to the parent company, News Corporation. This later led to the scandal that pushed the public to compel Murdoch to close The News of the World. Therefore, the best that the company could have handled the scandal was to tell the truth and let those involved in the scandal face the full force of their action’s consequences. There was no need of closing The News of the World newspaper that had existed since 1843.

Conclusion

Ethical theories are the guiding principles that enable people to make moral or ethical decisions based on the theory that they prefer. The four ethical theories have different perspectives that provide different ways of looking at an ethical issue. For instance, in the case study some theories support the actions that led the News Corporation to close The News of the World while other disagrees. Aristotle’s virtue ethics rebukes the actions of the journalist that led to interference of personal phone privacy because they did not act based any moral character. However, ethical relativism supports the actions of the journalists because they thought it was the best and easy way to acquire information. Additionally, Murdoch chose to close The News of the World because he thought it was the best way the deal with the increasing pressure from the public.

Work Cited

Colero, Larry. "Colero | The W. Maurice Young Centre For Applied Ethics". Ethics.ubc.ca. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

"Dr. Charles Kay » Utilitarianism". Sites.wofford.edu. N.P., 2016. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.

Hursthouse, Rosalind. "Virtue Ethics". Plato.stanford.edu. N.P., 2003. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

Santa Clara University. "Ethical Relativism - Ethical Decision Making - Ethics Resources - Markkula Center for Applied Ethics - Santa Clara University". Scu.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

"Virtue Ethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Iep.utm.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.