Leader: Risk of hot-headed decisions on press regulation

BARELY a week, the UK media empire that Rupert Murdoch built has been brought crashing to earth.

The announcement yesterday of the abandonment of his bid for the 39 per cent of BSkyB he does not own may have given him the fleeting pleasure of spiking the guns of a fiery House of Commons debate. But it has marked not just the end of a major expansion by takeover, but an era in which the Murdoch empire held sway over Britain's political class. The UK's biggest-selling newspaper, the News of the World, has been closed down. And what seemed a near-certain completion of the bid for BSkyB has collapsed: it is not so much the crushing of imperial expansion but of the power that fuelled it that marks this as one of the most swift and dramatic reversals of fortune even in the tumultuous history of media barons.

Nor does this dramatic story end here. News Corporation may be forced to disgorge even its minority stake in BSkyB if it is deemed not to be "fit and proper" after the conclusion of current police investigations.

Moreover, further revelations in the phone hacking scandal could blight the remaining newspaper operations if readers and advertisers feel that these are products that are toxic.

The behaviour of the police leaves many searching questions to be asked. But what has driven widespread political and public anger is the sense, not just of corporate over-reach but of a company in a major position of power and influence lacking a core sense of decency or values. The British press has always been fiercely competitive, and in the public perception ethical standards have often seemed to have taken second place to competitive advantage. But the recent revelations pointing to illegal activity on an industrial scale suggest an ethical vacuum at the heart of a media group never slow to lecture others on their shortcomings.

The biter has not just been bit. It has been disembowelled. And for this the management of News International must carry major responsibility.

So much for the immediate earthquake. Another may follow in due course with the separate inquiry set up by David Cameron in which Lord Justice Leveson has been asked to investigate wrongdoing in the press and the police, and a review of regulation of the press. This may have far-reaching consequences for the entire industry and the way in which newspapers and broadcast companies are to be regulated.

That is a very broad waterfront to cover and overseeing the myriad judgment calls made on a daily basis in newspaper offices and broadcasting stations will be a massive challenge. Getting this right is going to need time and care - and it also needs to be conducted away from the current atmosphere of bitter score-settling by politicians. This needs to be a dispassionate as well as independent inquiry to stand the test of time.