The Sun Page One headline on Wednesday – not, however, in its Irish edition – suggested that the paper had not got the message. At least, if it had got the message, it was going to brazen it out and pretend all was well. Plus ça change ... "Victory for redtops", it screamed, alluding inimitably to the acquittal of its former editor Rebekah Brooks. Not to the landmark conviction after an eight-month trial of former No 10 director of communications, former editor of sister paper the News of the World (RIP), Andy Coulson, for conspiracy to hack phones of celebrities, politicians, royalty, and murder victims ... 6,000 targets in all.
The verdict is the culmination of an affair that has done much to discredit the Murdoch news empire, not to mention, by association, the whole British press , closed one of the largest selling titles in the world, severely undermined the credibility of prime minister David Cameron who hired Coulson despite repeated warnings. Moreover, it exposed serious complacency and criminality in the police, cast the servile relationship between politics and media barons in an appalling light, and forced the recasting of press regulation. After all that, the Sun says the story is Ms Brooks's acquittal.
Perhaps it could do nothing else. The truth is subversive – that the court’s decision was not only an indictment of Coulson. Critically, in answering the lie that the hacking and other egregious misconduct were the work of one “rogue reporter”, in showing that it was systemic and went to the leadership of the organisation, it was a demonstration of profound criminality at the heart of a media organisation that thought itself above sanction. Dozens of journalists now still face consequent charges.
The trial has been important in breaking the culture of impunity, a major step forward. Yet much remains unresolved. There has been a fudge on press self-regulation with most of the press sidestepping the far-reaching recommendations of the Leveson inquiry. And no beginning to tackling the media ownership elephant in the room – the concentration of power of monopoly ownership that corrupts absolutely.
Reports that the Obama administration has backed down in response to EU pressure to extend data privacy rights to EU citizens are also welcome. The US has agreed to extend to Europeans most of the same rights enjoyed by US citizens over data transfers to the US of personal details that, according to the US, relate mostly to international crime and terrorism investigations. The issue had become a particular grievance in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations of widespread US surveillance in Europe. And the US Supreme Court has now added its tuppence by insisting that the police must obtain warrants to search the contents of the mobile phones of those they have arrested.
All told, not a bad couple of days for much-spied-upon citizens.