The News of the World has suspended royal editor Clive Goodman after he was charged with nine counts of mobile phone hacking.

Nothing has been proved – these are just allegations until any court case – but comments about the case suggest Britain’s media think themselves beyond the law. Roy Greenslade suggested in his Guardian blog that:

"Unless a journalist already has pretty good prior evidence that a
person is guilty of some malfeasance, then the bugging or intercepting
of phone calls is unwarranted (and, of course, prohibited by the
editors’ code of practice)."

No, Roy. The media never have the right to bug people’s phones, whatever the cause. There is a place for investigative journalism but it has to be within the law. The media are far too inclined to believe they should have unlimited power. A 1980s television comedy, Hot Metal, brilliantly captured this notion. It featured a tabloid hack who persuaded reluctant eye-witnesses to cooperate by warning them they would otherwise be charged with ‘obstructing Her Majesty’s press in the course of its duties’.