Timothy Garton Ash hopeful after Murdoch's downfall

The exposure of the phone-hacking scandal in the UK augurs well for British journalism, the contemporary historian Timothy Garten Ash writes in the left-liberal daily El País: " I'd put it like this: the Murdoch debacle reveals a disease that has been slowly clogging up the heart of the British state for the last 30 years. This is the heart attack that warns you that you are sick, but also gives you the chance to emerge healthier than before. The root cause of this British disease has been overmighty, ruthless, out-of-control media power; its main symptom has been fear. ... Yet even if there are still worse revelations to come about the past, the future looks brighter. The best of British journalism has exposed the worst. In parliament, the worms have finally turned. Party leaders and ordinary MPs are, at long last, reasserting the supremacy of elected politicians over unelected media barons. The barrier of fear has been overcome."

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