【案例】
British Broadcaster With Murdoch Link Admits to Hacking
[size=0.9em]Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press
The entrance of one of the British Sky Broadcasting Group headquarter buildings in London.
By
SARAH LYALL
and RAVI SOMAIYAPublished: April 5, 2012
LONDON — Sky News, a British satellite news broadcaster whose parent company is part-owned by
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, admitted Thursday that one of its reporters had hacked into e-mails on two occasions while pursuing news stories, the first time that
Britain’s hacking scandal has spilled into television news.
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The acknowledgment came just two days after Mr. Murdoch’s son
Jamesresigned as chairman of Sky’s parent company, British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB. Company officials said there was no link between the resignation and the hacking revelations, which were made public only as a result of a recent inquiry by the newspaper The Guardian. Sky said the hacking, while illegal, had been authorized by its executives for journalistic reasons — in pursuit of a story that benefited the public interest — and in one instance had helped a police investigation. And the company said that a continuing review of its e-mail records and accounts had so far turned up no evidence of impropriety in Sky’s reporting practices. “We stand by these actions as editorially justified and in the public interest,” the head of Sky News, John Ryley, said in a statement. “We do not take such decisions lightly or frequently.” The admission came after months of overlapping police, parliamentary and judicial inquiries into phone hacking, e-mail hacking and paying bribes to public officials at two Murdoch-owned tabloids, The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World. In general, broadcasters abide by higher standards of news gathering in Britain than newspapers do. Sky News operates separately from the Murdochs’ newspaper business and has asserted its independence by aggressively reporting on News Corporation’s troubles. Still, the disclosures of e-mail hacking come at an awkward time for BSkyB, which is 39.1 percent owned by News Corporation and which has suffered from its association with the Murdochs as the hacking scandal has unfolded. “This is nothing like the hacking at The News of the World,” said Roy Greenslade, a journalism professor at City University London. “But there’s an embarrassment in that it’s another News Corporation business, so people will be saying, ‘That’s just typical of Murdoch.’ ” Last summer, stung by sustained criticism in Parliament and across Britain, News Corporation withdrew one of Mr. Murdoch’s cherished goals: its $12 billion bid to take over the portion of BSkyB that he did not own already. On Tuesday, in announcing James Murdoch’s resignation from BSkyB, the company said the continuing phone hacking investigation was making him a lightning rod for dissatisfaction and proving distracting to the company. A report from a House of Commons select committee investigating phone hacking is scheduled to be released within the next few weeks, and is expected to criticize the younger Mr. Murdoch for what some members believe was incomplete and misleading testimony during hearings last summer. “I believe that my resignation will help to ensure that there is no false conflation with events at a separate organization,” Mr. Murdoch, 39, wrote in a letter to the BSkyB board, referring to News International, the British newspaper arm of his father’s media empire. He resigned as chief executive of News International five weeks ago. Mr. Ryley of Sky said Thursday that one of the e-mail hacking cases occurred in 2008 and concerned John Darwin, a Briton who staged his death in a fake canoeing accident in 2002 but actually moved to Panama and, in collusion with his wife, collected £500,000 in life insurance. The next year, a Sky News reporter pursuing the story sought permission to hack into e-mails he suspected had been used by the Darwins to communicate after Mr. Darwin’s fake death, Mr. Ryley said in
an online posting. “After careful consideration, Sky News granted permission because we believed the story was justified in the public interest,” Mr. Ryley said. “None of the material obtained was broadcast prior to the conviction and our coverage made clear that we had discovered and supplied e-mails to the police. There has been no attempt by Sky News to conceal these facts, which have been available on our Web site ever since.”
In a statement, the police department in Cleveland, which handled the Darwin case, said that it had “conducted an initial review into these matters and can confirm that inquiries are ongoing into how these e-mails were obtained.”
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A second case involved e-mails relating to a suspected pedophile, a spokeswoman for Sky News said. On both occasions, she said, the managing editor of Sky News, Simon Cole, authorized the hacking. The company likened the e-mail hacking to other instances in which journalists broke the law for the sake of journalism. In 2004, Sky News journalists bought an Uzi machine gun to highlight how easy it was to buy illegal weapons in Britain. The year before, a reporter penetrated airport security
to show how porous it was. BSkyB has suffered various upheavals in the last year. As a result of the allegations surrounding the Murdochs’ newspaper business in Britain, the broadcaster is being investigated by Ofcom, the British broadcast regulator, over whether it is “fit and proper” to hold a television license. Critics seized on Sky’s disclosures as evidence of impropriety at the company. “The chair of BSkyB has to say something on this and reassure viewers that this has not been going on more widely,” Tom Watson, a Labour Party member of Parliament and a persistent Murdoch critic, told the BBC. “There are cases where the public is best served with journalists breaking the law, but it has to be done in extremis, and I am not sure whether it was in these two cases.” But Clare Enders, the head of Enders Analysis, a media research firm in London, said she thought that the biggest potential obstacle to BSkyB’s retaining its broadcast license had been James Murdoch, and that his resignation had removed much of the problem. “We all spend our days shell-shocked because it’s been one thing after another,” Ms. Enders said in an interview, referring to the seemingly endless stream of disclosures about wrongdoing at News International. Still, compared with past revelations by other British media outlets, she said she did not consider Sky’s practices “that big a deal.” Rupert Murdoch, who is 81, has complained on Twitter recently that critics have been unfairly targeting News Corporation with false allegations. He was particularly incensed, it seems, by reports in the BBC, PBS and The Australian Financial Review charging that a section of his television operation hacked the encryption codes of its pay-television rivals in Britain and Australia, encouraging piracy to undermine their businesses in the late 1990s. “Seems every competitor and enemy piling on with lies and libels,” he wrote on Twitter last week. “So bad, easy to hit back hard, which preparing.”
Alan Cowell contributed reporting.
发表评论 最新评论
引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:24 Andrea HopePort Orchard, WA
FLAG
@John Schaffer, Houston : I'm offended by Yahoo and Google, et al, scanning and data mining every email message that passes through their servers. I'm offended by media and marketing companies taking personal information from communication devices and reselling it without permission. I'm offended by the gross attack on privacy in our society. Just because I am offended doesn't mean it isn't so.
April 6, 2012 at 4:57 a.m.RECOMMENDED9
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Alan GregoryWilliston VT
So Sky News is not covering the "news," it is the "news." Hah, hah.
April 6, 2012 at 4:57 a.m.RECOMMENDED8
BarryPalm Coast, FL
Ya just can't beat "friendly" competition at the expense of personal freedoms, can you?
April 6, 2012 at 4:57 a.m.RECOMMENDED14 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:24 nuevoretroCalifornia
US Justice Dept. needs to act on foreign criminals statute. Murdoch deserves to lose Fox, Wall Street Journal and the NY Post. Get on it FBI.
April 6, 2012 at 4:59 a.m.RECOMMENDED55
GarthMpls
When is this moving to Fox News? Isn't there enough foul play to assume it crossed the pond?
April 6, 2012 at 4:59 a.m.RECOMMENDED42
S. O'NeillMontreal, Qc
It crossed the pond long ago. Ask Governor Christie
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.
JimWhiting NJ
It is too easy to hack a telephone. When you buy a phone there is a code number that you can listen to your voice mail messages if out of the house. You just call the your phone number and when the voice mail picks up,put in your code and then listen to your voicemail. The companies that manufacter the phones use the same code for all their phone products. Read your phone instruction book on how to chage your code. It would be easy to access a phone by making a list of all the phone manufacturers codes, and call a persons number ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:23 JulieCa.
So they make the laws and then enforce them?
April 6, 2012 at 8:13 a.m.RECOMMENDED2
PatrickLong Island NY
The emails were encrypted. That makes it doubly a crime.
April 6, 2012 at 8:13 a.m.RECOMMENDED4
PatrickLong Island NY
One case involved a man named Darwin who was accused of "Deception"
Imagine that! What's in a name!
April 6, 2012 at 8:13 a.m.
M. FoutchVancouver, WA
Golly gee! Somehow I thought hacking into someone's mail, postal or email or telephonic, was illegal unless a judge granted a subpoena or am I wrong?
Whats the story with these low lifers at News Corp BSB? I suggest the US Govt cancel Rupert's little franchise after charging him and sonnyboy with criminal cartel activity.
April 6, 2012 at 8:13 a.m.RECOMMENDED13
KuperbergSwarthmore, PA
With respect to Mr. Ryley comment “We stand by these actions as editorially justified and in the public interest,” you need to realize that when a former News Corp reporter was asked during testimony to define "the public i ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:23 faceless criticNJ
Just as Linda Tripp taped Monica Lewinsky and brought a sitting U.S. President to impeachment. And THAT was both illegal, and entrapment.
And the Republicans led by New Gingrich pounced.
Yes. Let's be a little less strident here.
April 6, 2012 at 8:38 p.m.RECOMMENDED1
CBJCascades, Oregon
FLAG
Complex for you , but maybe not as you have no problem presenting something that would only be called false equivalency in an attempt to soften the blow to your post. Or are you suggesting that we consider the article as an abstract event with no connection to the incontestable character of Murdoch behavior around the globe.
Strident trident, have you no familiarity with the garbage quality of Murdoch's so called journalistic endeavors?
That Fox was not laughed off the air long ago is a concern for all Americans who value the distinction between outright deliberate misrepresentation and fact driven information.
How many shades of grey are you willing to permit an ongoing ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:22 James PorterCharleston SC
Maybe they can hack the email of an AMerican Hating company in Charleston SC called The Beach Co. These guys hate US Flags, Vets, our Country and the men and women who fight for our freedoms. Check out this story about their disrespect to our troops and our flag.
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120405/PC16/120409560/1165
April 6, 2012 at 8:23 a.m.RECOMMENDED1
AlexIN
FLAG
I think we need to be a little less strident here.
In a well known and often discussed case about 15 years ago, a Florida couple, the Martins, themselves Democratic activists, illegally taped a cell phone conversation (this was the days of analog cell phones) involving several members of the Republican leadership, including Newt Gingrich and John Boehner. The couple provided a copy of the tape to a Democratic congressman, and the tape found its way to the New York Times, which promptly published a story based on it.
Now, the Times did nothing illegal. Though the Times surely knew t ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:21 CBJCascades, Oregon
Sounds exactly right to me.
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.
PatrickLong Island NY
For the Public Good???
Look what Murdoch did to America. It seems everyone is ready to fight each other after being incited by the right wing gun toting holier than thou crowd pumped up by his media empire.
This stoiry just doesn't shock me. The bigger story is his political manipulations.
April 6, 2012 at 8:23 a.m.RECOMMENDED20
MaggieLos Gatos
Murdoch being arrested and thrown in jail would be in the public's interest.
April 6, 2012 at 8:23 a.m.RECOMMENDED34
Charles BrobstBinghamton, NY
Murdoch must have thought he was in America when he approved this crime. Shut them down.
April 6, 2012 at 8:23 a.m.RECOMMENDED13
OzzinnyDarien, NY
jr - suggest you contact Nick Davies at the Guardian or the journalists reporting on this imbroglio at the New York Times.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
April 6, 2012 at 8:23 a.m.RECOMMENDED4
jrnyc, ny
FLAG
Got to Nick Davies, said it would be a dis ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:21 RMN.Y.
FLAG
James Murdoch and his father clearly have no shame. Not only are these people shameless but they're so completely deluded that they actually think they can turn this around to their benefit. "We stand by these actions as editorially justified and in the public interest,” John Ryley, head of Sky News said. “We do not take such decisions lightly or frequently.”
Please. The Murdoch's and their organization have absolutely ZERO CREDIBILITY!
..and everyone knows it.
April 6, 2012 at 8:23 a.m.RECOMMENDED25
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Sally DeCapiteCleveland, oh.
Every time I read about Murdock, his clan and his entities (like Fox Cable News), I want to take a bath! I thought it was wrong to let him in the US but don't know what country would find him acceptable. What a legacy he will have. His grandchildren will probably want to change their name.
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED1
GreatWAPerth, Western Australia
The UK no longer want Rupert and fami ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:21 RLCChicopee MANYT Pick
FLAG
Man o' man! - sorry to say it, but a lot of folks here are just not getting it. The "doing it in the public interest" remark, with subtext "even if it be illegal" is not a defense, it is a shot across the decks to GOVERNMENTS (plural).
Murdoch (and we are ONLY talking Rupert here) plays a bigger (higher level) game than most of us are capable of thinking, he thinks Governments where we think companies, he thinks presidents where we think bookkeepers etc.
His son falling on the sword, first at NI, now at Sky can simply be likened to Saturn devouring his own son. ALL that matters to Murdoch, is Murdoch and his own sense of value, he sees only what he wishes to see in the mirror.
The time is coming when US interests are going to be OPENLY under investigation, he knows what will turn up, more of the same...
The "doing something in the public interest" defense is no such thing, it is simply the Murdoch way of saying... "Look Mr Pres., Congress et al, if you w ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:20 RandallEast Texas
FLAG
I wouldn't give a plugged nickel for anything Murdoch had anything to do with. I subscribe to the WSJ and it just cut out with no explanation and no notice, about 2/3 of the people that post there.
Exactly like when they fired "The Judge" from his program. He was there one day and the show was ended the next day; no explanation or one word was said about why his show was shut down!
I have never seen a company act like that.
The Fox News TV news has completely changed their content and believe it or not is more liberal now. Again not one word was said about any changes.
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED1
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SHARE THIS ON TWITTER 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:20 John TownsendMexico
FLAG
When one company amasses too much control over a nation's public discourse, democracy suffers and corruption spreads. It's clear that Murdoch and his News Corp. colleagues believed that their tremendous media power placed them above the law.
The journalistic quality of the WSJ has declined precipitously since the sale to Murdoch, as articles got shorter, more simple-minded, and tainted. The wall between news and editorial cracked, then broke.
FOX News, with its editorial banner masquerading as news, and its outright and deliberate misinformation, has proved deeply detrimental to American political culture. It may prove to be ultimately destructive. We can derive differing opinions, but everything gets corrupted when we can't operate from the same knowledge base. These ethical lapses (phone tapping, bribery) are part of that same pattern.
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED5
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jmNE Florida
“We stand by these act ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:20 lecoor0Toronto ON
FLAG
This declaration is truly hypocritical, as the accused has decided that their actions were in the best interests of the public, as their defense.
Wouldn't it be proper for the public to decide what is in their best interests rather that the defendant in an increasingly clear presentation of appalling journalism and jingoism which is under a legal microscope in several countries today.
Murdoch's son's departure also seems to remarkably coincidental with the heat being turned up in the UK and elsewhere. Is this fortuitous or an attempted escape from the investigation underway?
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going" perhaps.....
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED3
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flyfysherWestminster, CO
We live in a time where the ends justifies the means and the law has become irrelevant.
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED1
TbirdKS
The human race will best be served when Murdoch and Ailes shake their earthly coil ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:19 midnight12amrego park, n.y.
can anybody in my government explain to me the justification of allowimg this crew to purchase the ''wall st. journal'"?
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED6
John TownsendMexico
And even now surely people at the FCC should be concerned when it has been revealed that Murdoch has issued explicit directives to his WSJ executives to "destroy" the NYT. The journalistic quality of the WSJ has declined precipitously since the sale to Murdoch, as articles got shorter, more simple-minded, and tainted. The wall between news and editorial cracked, then broke.
And it´s clear that the Murdoch owned "fair and balanced" FOX news hasn´t been a stellar reponsible custodian of a TV news service in the publics interest either, with its editorial banner masquerading as news, and its outright and deliberate misinformation. It´s unrelenting extremely biased assault on the Obama presidency is proving deeply detrimental to American political culture. It may prove to be ulti ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:19 Jack ChicagoChicago
We hacked, we hacked, but only to protect you. It doesn't survive any test of credibility and merely confesses to immoral and perhaps illegal activity. Time we turned our attention to the Murdoch empires' activities in the US. The leopard will not have changed its spots merely by crossing the Atlantic.
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED6
Jeff DrakeNeenah, WI
FLAG
Has Murdoch's unethical leadership impacted the WSJ and Fox News? Do these Murdoch outlets cover his scandals? What do their readers/viewers think about the scandals?
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED5
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jmtaCt
Poor Mr Murdoch... "Seems very competitor and enemy piling on with lies and libels."
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED1
midnight12amrego park, n.y. 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:19 Leslie de QuillacqParis
We're getting all these stories about the nefarious goings on of the Mudoch group abroad. Surely they're up to the same things in the US. What about a story in the NYT talking about how much of the US media Murdoch controls seen in the light of what's going on in the UK. After all the group is just a vast propaganda machine in the US. Is everyone afraid to write about them in the US?
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED10
John TownsendMexico
FLAG
The best thing that coud happen to Murdoch is a Romney presidency, and by november it could happen none to soon.
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED1
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Mark CarverSt. Louis, MO
So media companies can commit illegal acts in the name of what they declare to be the public interest?
How arrogant! The US and the UK have laws against vigilantism. We have the police to contact for a reason.
April 6, 2012 at 10:47 p.m.RECOMMENDED1
77ads77Dana Point
Why have they not charged N ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:18 Joseph HubenUpstate New York
FLAG
This will be a test of the integrity of the Justice Department and Eric Holder. While the perpetrators of the financial meltdown were rescued and and now use taxpayer dollars to lobby Congress to eliminate regulation does not bode well for integrity. No it will be hard to prosecute the arm of the "conservative" party, the voice of the "tea party" the ministry of propaganda of the Republican Party.
We will be treated to the most vicious vitriol if Holder prosecutes Murdoch and News Corp. How can the Obama Administration stand up to this powerhouse of media manipulation?
April 7, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.RECOMMENDED3
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R.Upstate
It would be better for the British public to operate under the assumption that the Murdoch influence in communication is pure evil. That is the standard.
Exceptions? Yes, but not many.
April 7, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.RECOMMENDED1 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:18 Roy PizzarelloNew York City
FLAG
In the old days, before we could excuse anything, this would be crime. If the TV station thought they had a piece of evidence in about a criminal act they should have contacted the police to pursue this.
Unfortunately, the only contact between the News Corp and the police is a cozy financial relationship sometimes referred to as a bribe. The question now is squarekly before us here in the USA. Does Fox News also do this? I hope someone is trying to find this out.
April 7, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.RECOMMENDED3
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SusanNew York, NY
I cannot believe the arrogance of John Ryley....where does he get off deciding what "is in the public interest?" I hope I Iive to see the day the entire Murdoch empire crashes and burns.....especially the Faux News Channel. What then will the zombies on the right do?
April 7, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.RECOMMENDED5 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:18 A GrunNorway
FLAG
Whit all the corruption coursed by Murdoch’s British news media, how is it possible that the same Murdoch’s operations in the US are not investigated? Fox News has long been known to be pure propaganda and misinformation, and there is not even a mention of government investigating, what surely must be mass corruptions. Could it be that Murdoch is paying off the justice department, just like Bush paid off the Supreme Court, to be selected President?
April 7, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.RECOMMENDED4
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James HadleyOrleans, MA
I'm for tar and feathers, something good and old-fashioned. Nothing like TRADITIONAL VALUES.
April 7, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.RECOMMENDED3 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:17 John TownsendMexico
FLAG
It was quite revealing how Murdoch´s own "fair and balance" FOX news is quite unrevealing about the so-called Murdoch scandal. Mealymouthed O´Reilly (The No Spin Zone) poo-poohed the Murdoch matter in Britain dismissing it as "much ado about nothing", a "press battle" not affecting "average folk". He completely ignored the corruption and wide-spread hacking allegations involved. Even the comments of a guest News Corp reporter citing the fact that murder and terroist victims had been hacked, and that police and high govt officials were implicated as complicitous were countered by a lame "it´s no big deal" rebuttal.
Indeed, rather than delving into substance, O´Reilly launched into a ranting diatribe against NYT´s "vicious vicious" reporting on the issue, how it was all tainted by "liberal ideology". He called it dismissively a "witch hunt", and claimed none of these things affected Murdoch operations in america. Not even the fact that the newly appointed p ... 引用 Edit Delete admin 2012-4-7 18:17 RBWest Palm Beach, FLNYT Pick
FLAG
Ethical Journalism is rapidly disappearing. Sensationalism and the public appetite for junk creates a feeding frenzy. There are some news agencies that will dig deep into the muck to satisfy their hungry audiences. How low can they stoop? Neil Postman’s book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, written over 25 years ago, deeply resonates. Good public discourse is on the decline. What is most disturbing are the misinformation and lies that are being spoon fed to those who follow blindly like sheep's.
April 7, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.RECOMMENDED3
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PaulMiami
Rupert Murdoch's motivation isn't for the public good as he suggests, it's to put the few coins his rags cost into his pocket from yours.
Simply not buying anything he sells will devastate his worldwide empire in short measure, and the sooner the better.
April 7, 2012 at 12:27 a.m.RECOMMENDED4
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/world/europe/murdochs-sky-news-channel-discloses-email-hacking.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=media
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