Who took the cake?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Who took the cake?

Recently, London-based newspaper The Guardian has led the way in exposing one alleged case of unethical and illegal behaviour after another at News of the World. Not only are the latter’s journalists and investigators accused of hacking the phones of celebrities and politicians, but also the phone of a 13 year-old murder victim, the phones of soldiers, and the phones of family members who lost relatives in the 7/7 London bombings of 2005.

It remains to be seen by courts of law which of the paper’s recently exposed activities were criminal, although former royal editor Clive Goodman and private detective Glenn Mulcaire already served months in prison after their 2007 convictions relating to the scandal.

What is not in question is that this was all deeply unethical and a disgrace to journalism. It cannot be stressed enough that as press freedom advocates, it makes it tougher for us to do our job defending the whole media when a handful stoop to these depths. The question is: should all journalists – including the News of the World staff - be punished because of a few bad apples? We, of course, would argue no.

- News of the World: What Suffers is the Fight for Press Freedom, FreeMedia.at, July 08, 2011.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.