Lessons of Dowler hacking scandal

Sir, We need to come to terms with the fact that the media has become so intrusive, not least thanks to improved communications, and that we have let the policing of its activities slip.

No longer can we allow self-regulation. We need a Royal Commission on the standards and workings of the media.

Stephen Williams
Saffron Walden, Essex

Sir, The latest phone-hacking scandal should be seen against the media’s determination to feed the voracious public appetite for the detail of murder cases. It is not just newspapers — where we can choose what we want to read — but it is a rare television news bulletin that does not feature a murder. The doorstep, the bloodstain, the woodland clearing, the family photograph, the shocked neighbour, the premature question, the reporter with nothing to add — the whole weary round visited and revisited throughout the criminal process — adds up to a morbidity that shames our society. There is little respect for personal tragedy when the details are paraded for the voyeur and become a tempting object of investigative greed.