Phone-hacking bombshell: News of the World to close

It is a bombshell in Britain’s media landscape – the tabloid newspaper “News of the World” is being shut down as a result of a growing phone-hacking scandal.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation says this Sunday’s edition of the paper, founded in 1843, will be the last.

The company told staff it was “in the business of holding others to account”, but it “failed when it came to itself”.

News Corporation had long denied that phone-hacking was a widespread problem.

But there have been mounting claims of hacking into the mobile phone messages of celebrities and politicians, but also the families of dead UK soldiers and missing children, including a teenager who was later found murdered.

Those caught up in the July 2005 London bombings are also said to have been targeted by the best-selling Sunday tabloid.

The government has been facing growing questions in light of the phone-hacking scandal about whether News Corporation should be allowed to take control of the satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB).

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