Ethical Issues of News Corporation - Al Jazeera - Case Study Example

Name ----------------------- Professor ------------------ Course name -------------- Date ------------------------- Business Ethics and Sustainability News Corporation and Al Jazeera Introduction The global society in recent years has witnessed unprecedented and rapid changes in economy, polity, and society. These changes have led to widespread transformations in the mass media system throughout the world. While there has been remarkable growth in its influence, reach and scale, there has not been corresponding sensitivity towards media's non-market and non-commercial dimensions. With regard to media companies this is of utmost importance as media in a democracy holds the privilege of being the fourth estate. It is a key component in a society that has been vested with the duties of keeping the public informed and thus shaping perceptions through its reportage and allied activities. Technological revolution and increased literacy levels during the last two decades has furthermore enhanced its centrality and thereby the impact on consumption, processing, dissemination and generation of news (Ansari). Today media devices and platforms that are consumed vary between experimental, non-conventional and traditional instruments and they span digital modes, traditional print and audio-visual modes. Through the incorporation of technology across these platforms and convergence between telecom, entertainment and media has led to an erosion of the demarcation that set all the three apart. This is one reason why ethical issues confront media more than anything today as they did in the past. Earlier media was simply meant to inform 4Ws (Who, Where, When, and Why) and H (How) to the public, but now it has assumed the soft power aspect of organizations, businesses and even nations. This is termed as media entrepreneurship which is considered as an important tool for any individual, political party or a growing enterprise bent upon generating private gain by leveraging public influence. On the global media scene two companies that have gained considerable public attention in as far as ethical issues are concerned are News Corporation and Al Jazeera. Ethical issues of News Corporation News Corporation is a New York-based diversified mass media corporation which is known for creating and disseminating top-quality general and sports news and entertainment throughout the world. News Corporation is the number two media group in the world in terms of revenue and stands at third number as an entertainment company according to a 2009 report. Walt Disney stands at the first number in terms of revenue. Rupert Murdoch and members of his family control the company, which is publicly traded and listed on NASDAQ. Some of its popular holdings include The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and Twentieth Century Fox, News Limited, Fox Broadcasting Company, News International, HarperCollins Publishers, and the Dow Jones & Company and its subsidiary. News Corporation has been facing many challenges particularly since 2011 which, say critics, are to some extent their own in the making either through deliberate but wrong actions or through specific inactions involving potential legal and ethical issues. Bloom (2011), a media critic, has argued that most of News Corporation's problems stem from its code of ethics titled Standards of Business Conduct, a 60-page booklet, littered with warning signs specifically for those who have an ability to see. The lid off its ethical issues was blown last year and as soon as it did, its stock prices nose-dived thus affecting the conglomerate in the short term. The illegal and unethical behaviour was pertaining to News of the World, its British publication. The publication was alleged to have been involved in a hacking scandal. The allegation had first been made in 2009 but not pursued seriously. Following the 2011 investigation, even as the stocks plummeted and then rebounded back, News Corporation's leadership stood being questioned. The ethical issues behind the phone-hacking incidents gained political overtures when it was found that News Corporation had attempted to access Gordon Brown – the former Prime Minister’s – voice mail and obtain other crucial information as medical records of the family, bank account details, and even private legal files. The allegations were also linked to hacking attempts at the Royal Family and the Prime Minister Tony Blair. The phone-hacking row by News of the World finally led to the newspaper's closure, ending the saga of a very popular and an old Sunday newspaper, selling 2.8 million copies per week. The investigations revealed that towards its voluntary demise initiated by Rupert Murdoch the number of people whose phones had been hacking had risen to 4000 and was still counting (BBC News, 2012). Allegations of more ethical issues emerged when the phone-hacking scandal was still hot. It came under fire for ethical breaches, which involved what was termed as a circulation deal that was "unusual" at the Wall Street Journal Europe. These allegations were leveled against the group months after News of the World was closed. With second scandal involving ethical issues in a row, New Corporation's ethical integrity came heavily under fire. The allegation was reported by The Guardian, the British newspaper, revealing how The Wall Street Journal Europe struck the deal with Executive Learning Partnership (ELP), a Dutch company. As part of the deal, ELP was to buy at discounted price thousands of Wall Street Journal Europe copies intended for circulation among students. Guardian reported that as part of the deal, company was featured in two articles written by Journal staffers. The intention was to use a cheap tactics to show thet Journal's sales in Europe had risen. When critics snubbed the Journal for using unethical practices to boost circulation figures, a claim refuted by Dow Jones, Journal's publishers; they could not, however, defend the allegation that the Journal by carrying two articles about the company had actually twisted editorial policy to meet its commercial interests. This led to the resignation of Andrew Langhoff, publisher of Wall Street Journal Europe's. A scapegoat in the making, News Corporation attributed his resignation to "perceived breach of editorial integrity" and not to the circulation issues (Linn, 2011). While the 2011 scandals had still not ebbed out completely, News Datacom Systems (NDS), a News Corporation subsidiary had to face an ethical allegation of another kind. A BBC Panorama report said that NDS, in a deliberate attempt to undermine pay TV competitors throughout the world, used hackers to accomplish the task. In a move that is considered to be smart by analysts, it is these "hacked victims", one of which was Austar, which were later taken over by the News Corporation. One more company, which went bust after the hacking incident, was Ondigital. This year UK police were working with Australian Federal police to investigate this type of hacking by New Corporation (Tingle, Laura & Daley, 2012). In all, following the 2011 debacle, News Corporation has, every now and then, been subjected to one or more types of allegations; some not as popular or widely covered in the world media as the phone-hacking issue. Some of these were previous unethical trespasses by News Corporation trials into which were catalyzed by the 2011 issue. A division of the News Corporation called News America Marketing was alleged to have stolen a competitor's – Floorgraphics – crucial information by hacking into its computers. The dispute, before it would spiral into a widely-reported controversy was settled out-of-court in a deal under which Floorgraphic's assets were bought by News Corporation for $29.5 million (Isikoff, 2011). Key stakeholders involved In all News Corporation ethical issues it has been either News Corporation directly or its arms/ subsidiaries that have been involved in the acts of unlawful actions. The shareholding equations of the News Corporation have been smartly executed by Rupert Murdoch, who had 29 percent of the voting shares in the company. When Murdoch had exemplary control over the company, he realised that Liberty Media's John Malone had built a larger asset base; a fact that led News Corporation divert managing interest of 38.5 percent from its DirecTV Group to Liberty Media. Simultaneously 16.3 percent shares of Liberty Media were bought by News Corporation, which already had 29 percent shares. This led Murdoch to have greater control over News Corporation. Of the total pool class A shares of 17.5 million were sold by Murdoch in 2007 December. Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Company owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud has a stake of 10 percent in News Corporation. That means the second largest shareholder in News Corporation is Kingdom Holdings (Kenneth, 2010). Ethical issues of Al Jazeera The State of Qatar owns Al Jazeera through Qatar Media Corporation and is based in Doha, Qatar. Initially it was launched as a satellite TV channel that telecast Arabic news, but the channel saw such an exponential growth that as on date it has a huge network in multiple languages that also includes specialty TV channels and the Internet, being accessible in multiple regions across the globe. Al Jazeera was the only network that covered Afghanistan war live from its Afghanistan-based office. Even though recipient of a number of awards in the short course of its inception, controversies involving ethical issues have been associated with it have been as old as its history. One of its greatest milestones has been the launch of its English version on 01 August, 2011 which reaches a mammoth 2 million subscribers through cable in New York, apart from Washington and Houston, where it was launched in 2006. Media critics and political analysts, however, have snubbed Al Jazeera for being double-faced. They allege that there is a gulf that separates Al Jazeera English from its Arabic version which promotes anti-Americanism, Islamism and Sunni sectarianism. Al Jazeera Arabic has been blamed for fanning the flames of the three traits mentioned above which was evident from 9/11 World Trade Center and other terrorist attacks in United States when Al Jazeera Arabic wrote, and what appeared later in The New York Times, as "What the Muslim World is Watching."In other words Al Jazeera Arabic feeds and shares the political bitterness of the Arab world while concurrently it portrays Arab world in a different light to American audiences. It has been held that the Arabic version deliberately fans the Muslim outrage and the greatest proof cited for the same in the incessant broadcast of now-slain Al Qaeda's Osama bin laden tapes, who had become an unchallenged star of Al Jazeera and, in fact, Al Jazeera a wide-reaching, potent, and contagious instrument of propagation for him. The idea was to portray him as Arab world's brave knight, a strong warrior fighting Americans sometimes on the horseback, sometimes through deep ravines and so on (Ajmani, 2001). Ajmani, when he visited Qatar after 9/11, reported that Osama's life-size silhouette graced the main studio set's background. Al Jazeera's style of reporting during war in Afghanistan or even Iraq has been dubbed as one that is devoid of ethics. What the rest of world would term “terror” or “terrorists”, Al Jazeera would term the same as "struggle" or "resistance". Those who are waging a war on terror are termed a "foreign invaders". Clearly Al Jazeera does not seem to care a bit about journalistic ethics and is least bothered if it breaches the same, which it often does. For example, Al Jazeera branded Gaza offensive of 2008-2009 as "War on Gaza". The ironic part was that it did so in both English and Arabic versions. Instances as these led the then defense secretary of the United States Donald Rumsfeld term Al Jazeera coverage as "vicious", "inexcusably biased", and "propagandist" (Associated Press, 2004). Ostensibly, Al Jazeera, wherever its reach is, has been critiqued mainly on controversies arising out of ethical principles related to media. Ricchiardi (2011) remarked in his opinion in American Journalism Review that Al Jazeera critics have assailed its channels with anti-American bias and with anti-Semitic nature. The Review quotes a number of examples to prove the point – one important one being reference made to Sharia and Life show by Yusuf Qaradawi, a cleric from Egypt, who argues that Islam sanctions consistently and clearly hatred towards Jews and Israelis. The opinion has been seconded by Bill O'Reilly, Fox News commentator, who labels the channel as "anti-American and "anti-Semitic". A Ohio State University professor, E. Nisbet, has remarked that Al Jazeera's Arabic reporting is wed to snit-Semitism and anti-Americanism. A number of countries have raised ethical issues against Al Jazeera at any given point of time. Bahrain banned Al Jazeera for what it believed was the channel's pro-Israel and anti-Bahrain reporting. The ban stayed from 2002 until 2004 when Al Jazeera correspondents were allowed to return only to be banned again in 2010. Bahrain's Information Ministry argued that the channel flouted Bahrain's publishing and press laws. In Egypt Al Jazeera has been blamed for destroying the nation’s image, a claim made by Egypt that was contested as "wholly deceptive" by Al Jazeera. Israel, on the other hand, sought apology from the channel for airing from Lebanon a glorifying program on a Lebanese militant named Samir Kuntar, imprisoned by Lebanon for mass murders during Palestine Liberation Front. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in Libya blamed Al Jazeera for being a mouthpiece of Gulf Cooperation Council and Western nations to promote anti-Libya policies. Syria argued that the channel's coverage of armed conflict there, which began a year ago, was not ethical and fair since Al Jazeera staff coerced Syrian witnesses to fabricate the truth and say that Syrian government was oppressive in nature. The ethical issues of the channel have also been highlighted under more serious allegations of the channel not only fomenting Muslim outrage but also supporting terror. In 2003 Spain arrested one of the Al Jazeera reporters on charge of providing al-Qaeda members tactical support. The reporter was sentenced to seven years imprisonment as it was proved that al-Qaeda was using him as a courier. Key stakeholders involved Al Jazeera is an independent network owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani through Qatar Media Corporation. The Sheikh is also its Chairman. A satellite television network is thus owned by the State of Qatar. He is also President of the Board of Administration and Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of Qatar Media Corporation. Ethical dilemmas: comparison and contrast The ethical issues that have surrounded the News Corporation for more than a year now seem to be posing an ethical dilemma to the company through its shares. For three months ending June this year, the company reported $1.6 billion net loss. This loss was inclusive of the charge of $244 million towards the costs and other expenses related to the investigation and closure of the News of the World. This agony is compounded for the company by the fact that Church of England dumped it, which sold its shareholding of GBP 1.9 million since it was not sure the company either has or would show any reform at the corporate governance level (Irish Times, 2012). Al Jazeera, on the contrary, is buried by the very load of code of ethics that it has developed for itself, but does just the opposite. Its code of ethic promises to adhere to the true journalistic values of balance, credibility, honesty, fairness, courage and diversity. It says it is endeavoured to bring out the truth in reportage leaving no scope for either bias or inaccuracy (Al Jazeera, n.d.). But it is complaints of bias that have piled up against the channel till date. Its code of ethics says it would not be after the favourite "scoops" yet it has made plentiful of them in Osama bin Ladens and Al Qaedas. Time and again the channel, here English version than the Arabic one, has, despite its ethical proclamations, come under fire for using alternative approaches in bringing to the viewers the gory side of human suffering to the extent that it excites passion among the viewers. For Al Jazeera this might not be an ethical dilemma, but it definitely has been indulging in something that drags it into one, say, by its reportage in Sichuan and Gaza conflicts. In its report covering these conflicts it has been seen dramatizing death by zooming in into the dead, personalizing agony of those around, politicizing and glorifying the gory images. Clearly, despite both – News Corporation and Al Jazeera – being media companies with wide access, their ethical dilemmas differ as much from each other as do the ethical issues that have dogged the former recently and the later since its existence. News Corporation has, by and large, indulged in unethical practices in order to emerge as a stronger media conglomerate with greater grip on the media market. Al Jazeera, on the contrary, has ripped the journalistic ethics off by indulging in propagation of news with bad intentions of spreading hatred or creating contempt with one and sympathy with another group. While News Corporation is attempting to undo what was wrongly done or at best trying to avoid the reoccurrence of the same, for Al Jazeera breaching the ethics has become a favourite pastime and controversies its forte. Al Jazeera, in this regard, has to understand that the game of business is subject to the same moral standards as do apply to rest of the society (Crane and Matten, 2004). Works cited Ajmani, F. (2001). What the Muslim World Is Watching. Retrieved http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/18/magazine/18ALJAZEERA.html?pagewanted=all. Accessed October 01, 2012. Ansari, M.H. (2011). Retrieved http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2230638.ece. Accessed October 01, 2012. Associated Press. (2004). Rumsfeld: Al-Jazeera Is Causing Deaths. Retrieved http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110643,00.html. Accessed October 01, 2012. Al Jazeera. (n.d.). Code of Ethics. Retrieved http://www.aljazeera.com/aboutus/2006/11/2008525185733692771.html. Accessed October 01, 2012. Bloom, L. (2011). News Corporation’s problems are reflected in its code of ethics. Retrieved http://www.thebusinessethicsblog.com/news-corporations-problems-are-reflected-in-its-code-of-ethics. Accessed October 01, 2012. BBC News. (2012). Q&A: News of the World phone-hacking scandal. Retrieved http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11195407. Accessed October 01, 2012. Crane, A. and Matten D (2004) Business Ethics: A European Perspective, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Isikoff, M. (2011). US looks into alleged hacking by News Corp.'s ad arm. Retrieved http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43847056/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/us-looks-alleged-hacking-news-corps-ad-arm/#.UG3WEphazgw. Accessed October 01, 2012. Irish Times. (2012). News Corporation shares pose an ethical dilemma. Retrieved http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0810/1224321890203.html. Accessed October 01, 2012. Kenneth, L. (2010). "Alwaleed backs James Murdoch". Financial Times (Pearson PLC). Linn, A. (2011). News Corp. hit with more allegations of ethical problems. Retrieved http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/10/13/8292097-news-corp-hit-with-more-allegations-of-ethical-problems?lite. Accessed October 01, 2012. Ricchiardi, S. (2011). "The Al Jazeera Effect". American Journalism Review. Retrieved http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=5077. Accessed October 01, 2012. Tingle, Laura & Daley, (2012). Gemma Federal Police Join News Probe, The Financial Review 28 March 2012. Read More