Ethics is always a blurred line. In some cases however there is a clear cut example of an ethical breach within a company. This was the case with the recent phone hacking scandal by News of the World* newspaper. The scandal arouse when it was made known to the public that N.o.W. was hacking the phone of a murdered teenager, Milly Dowler, in addition families of other murder victims, British soldiers and celebrities**. What are the costs of such actions? From an ethical standpoint it is not hard to determine the many issues that arouse from the scandal. First N.o.W. was in heinous violation of privacy rights. Furthermore they had no moral opposition to further disheveling families that is already under extreme distress. Apart from being highly unethical what N.o.W. did was illegal and caused the 168 year reign of the N.o.W. newspaper to come to a sudden end and was followed up by several arrests. It raises the question, what means can you use to gain the best story? This is a question of ethics that each media organization must answer for itself***.
*From now on referred to as N.o.W.
**Source: BBC news
— Video link: information on Milly Dowler Case and Media Ethics
