Just when you thought the News of the World could
not get any more disgusting. . .
STEPHEN GI OVER
Much ink has been spilt concerning the News of the World's entrapment of the Countess of Wessex. But, so far as 1 can gather, only the Guardian, the Daily Express and the BBC's Woman's Hour have made any reference to another recent operation by the newspaper which in my view was even less defensible.
On 19 March Jenny Male appeared on Anne Robinson's egregious show The Weakest Link. Ms Male, an attractive 45year-old, described herself as a housewife. She managed to get through to the final round before being defeated. That should have been that. But in fact Ms Male was not just a housewife; she was also a parttime prostitute. The News of the World was tipped off, and a couple of days later a reporter called at Ms Male's flat seeking her services. After an agreement had been concluded, he made his excuses and left.
Ms Male, who is divorced, has three sons, aged 23, 21 and 17, and a daughter aged 14. According to her own account in the Guardian, none of her children knew about her extra-curricular activities to which, she says, she had been driven by a lack of money. After the News of the World appeared on 25 March her family was no longer in a state of ignorance. On its front page and inside, the paper revealed that housewife Jenny Male was a prostitute. She had pleaded with the paper not to run the story, but to no avail. Her children and other relatives were shocked. Her middle son told her that she had 'destroyed the family'.
Believing that the News of the World was planning to run a further story, Ms Male foolishly sought the advice of Max Clifford. The advice he gave was remarkably similar to the advice which, according to some authorities, was handed out by the Press Complaints Commission to the Countess of Wessex. Much better in such circumstances to cooperate with your persecutor. So on 1 April an altogether more sympathetic story about Ms Male appeared in the News of the World for which she was paid £1,000. Ms Male was quoted as saying that she numbered a doctor, a judge and a 60-year-old former Olympic athlete among her clients. In her subsequent account to the Guardian she explained what she had said in the following way: 'It was rubbish, but it kept the names closest to me out of the paper.'
Some people may doubt parts of Ms Male's account to the Guardian. It may seem odd that she should have given the News of the World its second piece which, though sympathetic, spared readers few details about her life as a prostitute. Is it possible that, having been outed by the News of the World, Ms Male began to enjoy some aspects of the publicity? Some of the things she told the paper for its follow-up story can have hardly increased the felicity of her already dismayed children. But there is no reason to doubt that her children had been shocked, and the family torn asunder, by the original revelations.
The News of the World's justification for its entrapment of the Countess of Wessex was that she was a public figure who was using her position as a member of the royal family to further her business interests. Actually, there was very little evidence that this was the case. But the Countess is indisputably a public figure, and her activities as a businesswomen are potentially a matter for legitimate inquiry. Ms Male is in a different camp. One appearance on The Weakest Link does not make her a public figure. Whatever one may think about her part-time prostitution, it is her private business, and the News of the World cannot conceivably produce a public-interest defence to justify its running of the story. Again and again the paper has ruined the lives of ordinary people who have suffered no criminal conviction. Rebekah Wade, its attractive new young editor who was supposed to be a new broom, is upholding the old traditions.
And so to the Independent on Sunday, which is parting company with its editor of two years, Janet Street-Porter. Even at the mention of the word 'Independent' I can sense the eyes of some of you glazing over. How different it was all those years ago, when readers of the Independent would proudly carry their copy of the paper in the street for all to see.
Ms Street-Porter's departure is in itself a matter of no great significance. If her appointment seemed an absurdity, her tenure has been somewhat more successful than might have been expected. Her going simply underlines the lack of direction that has afflicted the Independent on Sunday, and to a lesser extent its daily stablemate, for several years. The culprit is not Ms Street-Porter nor Simon Kelner, editor of the Independent, nor even Brendan Hopkins, the genial marketing man who presides over the two titles. It is Tony O'Reilly, chairman of Independent Newspapers plc of Ireland, who fought so hard for control of the two newspapers and now seems to be doing little with them.
One could, of course, make a case for Mr O'Reilly. He runs the two Independent titles at a loss, which might be interpreted as an act of philanthrophy. He has not, by all accounts, been in the best of health. Even so, the sense of drift is perplexing. Where is the vision? The Independent, though much improved, seems still to be shadowing the more professional, better written and more lively Guardian. The Independent on Sunday is a poor relation to the Observer, which it once hoped to overtake. Politically both titles have drifted far to the Left from their early days, and are so Blairite that they can scarcely any longer be described as independent. What is the point of doing less well what the Guardian and Observer already do, and have done, for many years? The two titles also both appear to have abandoned their earlier aspirations to be a cut above their rivals.
No doubt more investment is necessary, particularly in the underfunded Sunday title. But surely some strategic thinking is also in order. What is the point of these two papers? Where are they going? What should they be like in five years' time? My fear is that Mr O'Reilly is not addressing these questions, that a not very inspiring new editor will be appointed to the Sunday title, that he or she will last about as long as Ms Street-Porter, and that in two years' time we will be back where we are.
Readers should not think I have forgotten about the Daily News of Zimbabwe. I hope to write about it at greater length next week. Its editor, Geoffrey Nyarota, has recently been hauled up before Robert Mugabe's thugs, but I know him to be a strong man who will not buckle. Many thanks to those readers who have sent cheques to The Spectator for the Daily News appeal amounting to £1.455, and to others who have contributed to the fund set up by the Sunday Times.
Previous page
