World news is a newspaper and broadcasting jargon term for news that focuses on a global subject. This is usually distinguished from national or domestic news, but there are exceptions (although war coverage tends to be both world and national, since the media of belligerent nations is normally concerned with their own people). The field can also be known as foreign journalism, although in reality there is often little or no distinction between it and general journalism, especially where international topics are involved.
The most significant event in the history of world news was probably the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World, a British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. In July 2011 it was revealed that staff at the paper had hacked into the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and relatives of victims of the 7/7 London bombings, among others. The Metropolitan Police investigation into these incidents became Operation Elveden, and led to the resignations of News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and editor Andy Coulson. It was also the inspiration for a new public inquiry into media ethics in Britain, the Leveson Inquiry.
A former BBC journalist, John Simpson, reported that Murdoch had sought to persuade the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to help him resist pressure from MPs and peers to investigate the allegations, in order to allow him to push ahead with plans to take over BSkyB. This is referred to as the “Gordon Brown affair”. The story prompted a series of full-page apologies from News International in its newspapers, and a reassurance that it would put things right.
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