UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from FaithWorld:
Irish Catholic Church concealed child abuse even after new prevention rules in 1990s
(Cloyne Cathedral, 7 May 2009/John Armagh)
A government-sponsored report said on Wednesday the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Ireland continued to conceal the sexual abuse of children by priests even after it introduced rules in the mid-1990s to protect minors.
Revelations of rape and beatings by members of religious orders and the priesthood in the past have shattered the dominant role of the Catholic Church in Ireland. But the latest report into the handling of sex abuse claims in the diocese of Cloyne, in County Cork, shows that senior-ranking clergy were still trying to cover up abuse allegations almost until the present day.
"This is not a catalogue of failure from a different era. This is not about an Ireland of 50 years ago. This is about Ireland now," Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald told a news conference.
The report, which focuses on 19 priests who allegedly abused children during a period from January 1996 to February 2009, lists how the diocese failed to report all sexual abuse complaints to the police and did not report any complaints to the health authorities between 1996 and 2008. The bishop formerly responsible for the diocese, John Magee, falsely told the authorities that he was reporting all abuse allegations to the police, the report said. He resigned in March last year after a Church investigation said his handling of abuse allegations had exposed children to risk.
from FaithWorld:
Catholic area riots after Protestant marches in Northern Ireland
(Nationalist youths and police in riot gear clash in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast July 12, 2011/Cathal McNaughton)
Police fired plastic bullets and water cannon at Catholic youths in Northern Ireland's provincial capital Belfast on Tuesday after rioting erupted when a Protestant parade passed their estate. Sporadic violence erupted across the British-ruled province on the culmination of a season of parades by pro-British Protestants to mark a 17th-century military victory, a tradition many Catholics say is provocative.
from Breakingviews:
James Murdoch should take a break from News Corp
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
James Murdoch should stage his own tactical retreat and resign from News Corporation. The heir apparent to his father Rupert’s media empire has lost authority. That may not be entirely his fault. Underlings seem to have let him down, and his father has undermined him by backing Rebekah Brooks, the head of the group’s scandal-ridden UK newspapers, who reports to James. The best way for Murdoch jnr to regain control of his own destiny is to leave.
from Felix Salmon:
What damage could Rebekah Brooks do to News Corp?
The implosion of the News of the World, and of News Corp's bluster surrounding hacking and bribery allegations, comes less than a week after the Bribery Act of 2010 finally became law in the UK. The Bribery Act had an unbelievably long gestation -- a distant relation of mine, Cyril Salmon, headed up the Salmon Commission on Standards in Public Life and put forward recommendations on the subject as long ago as 1976.
Today, the Bribery Act -- which finally came into force on July 1 -- is considered the toughest anti-corruption legislation in the world. And it's one of the few pieces of UK legislation under which a company itself can be convicted of criminal activity, as opposed merely to its executives individually. There's a new corporate offense now, of failure to prevent bribery, which is relatively easy to prove. If News International executives are ever found approving bribes to the UK police, then a conviction under the Bribery Act would be extremely easy.
from MediaFile:
News of the World hacking scandal: UK’s Miliband speaks out
UK opposition leader Ed Miliband called on the British media to clean up its image and emphasized the need for a speedy public inquiry into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. Watch clips of Miliband's comments at a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event below:
Miliband to British media: "Clean up your image"
Miliband calls for judge-led inquiry into phone-hacking scandal
Miliband wants media watchdog scrapped
Miliband calls for BSkyB referral
Miliband urges UK Prime Minister David Cameron to apologize
Follow our live coverage of the phone-hacking scandal below:
from FaithWorld:
FInancial crisis boosts European suicide rates, especially in Greece, Ireland
(Suicide hotline sign at telephone booth near Beachy Head, the chalk cliffs near Eastbourne, a leading UK suicide spot, 29 January 2009/Les Chatfield)
Suicides rates rose sharply in Europe in 2007 to 2009 as the financial crisis drove unemployment up and squeezed incomes, with the worst hit countries like Greece and Ireland seeing the most dramatic increases, researchers said on Friday. Rates of road deaths in the region fell during the same period, possibly because higher numbers of jobless people led to lower car use, according to an initial analysis of data from 10 European Union (EU) countries.
from MediaFile:
Rupert Murdoch’s global empire
A scandal rocking Rupert Murdoch's media empire deepened on Thursday with claims his best-selling News of the World paper hacked the phones of relatives of British soldiers killed in action. The latest allegations prompted News Corp to shut down the 168-year-old tabloid. Here's a look at the rest of the empire.
from Reuters Investigates:
The end of an era for British tabloids?
No sooner had our special report today on British tabloids hit the wire than Rupert Murdoch's News Corp shocked everybody by announcing it would close down the 168-year-old News of the World.
Steven Barnett, professor of communications at London's Westminster University, spoke for a lot of people when he said of the news:Â "Astonishing. I'm completely gobsmacked. Talk about a nuclear option."
from Newsmaker:
Send your questions for Seb Coe and Hugh Robertson
To mark the one year countdown to the London Olympics, Thomson Reuters will hold a Newsmaker on July 21 at 18:30 BST with four-time Olympic medalist and chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Sebastian Coe and Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP.
The event will begin with a speech by Coe, who won gold in the 1500m at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, followed by a Q&A session with both guests, moderated by me, Global Sports Editor Paul Radford. The Newsmaker will be streamed live to the Reuters website and we'll provide rolling coverage of the event as it happens.
from Breakingviews:
Murdoch’s UK crisis could bring big indirect costs
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
For News Corp shareholders, the penny has dropped. The phone hacking crisis engulfing the U.S. media group's UK Sunday tabloid comes with a price. The stock opened down 3.2 percent on July 6, erasing $2.3 billion of market value.
-
The Wall
