Ofcom investigating Sky over email hacking
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - The national media regulator said on Monday it had launched an investigation into Sky News, the influential news channel of Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, which has admitted twice hacking into emails to generate a story.
Sky News has said it sanctioned the practice because it believed the story was in the public interest, but the announcement by regulator Ofcom is likely to revive the issue, on the day the head of the channel goes before a judicial inquiry into media standards.
"Ofcom is investigating the fairness and privacy issues raised by Sky News' statement that it had accessed without prior authorisation private email accounts during the course of its news investigations," a spokesman said.
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Ofcom said it would examine the Sky News email hacking under rule 8.1 of the broadcasting code which deals with privacy issues. However, the code does state that any broadcaster wishing to justify an infringement of privacy must demonstrate why it would be warranted.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/23/uk-bskyb-ofcom-idUKBRE83M0DS20120423
This was one of the two cases :
Sky News admits hacking emails of 'canoe man' : http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/apr/05/sky-news-hacking-emails-canoe-man The second case concerned a woman who killed her own children.
Sky News chief apologises to Leveson for previous denial of hacking.
The head of Sky News has apologised to the Leveson inquiry after the broadcaster previously said that it had not engaged in any hacking, when executives knew that a reporter had accessed emails without permission on several occasions.
John Ryley told Lord Justice Leveson on Monday that it was "very regrettable" that a lawyer representing Sky News had written to the inquiry last September stating: "Sky News editorial and reporting staff to whom we have spoken have never intercepted communications."
When the letter was sent, Ryley and other senior Sky News staff were aware that reporter Gerard Tubb had hacked into emails belonging to "canoe man" John Darwin and a woman who had killed her own children – because they had authorised the email accesses.
Hacking emails is a breach of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, to which there is no prima facie public interest defence. Intercepting somebody's communications, whether phone calls or emails, breaches the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which again has no explicit public interest defence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/apr/23/sky-news-leveson-apology-hacking
