Sky News admits it gave reporters permission to hack computers

April 5th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Reporters hacked emails belonging to ‘canoe couple’ Anne and John Darwin
Sky News claimed the hacks were authorised as ‘in the public interest’

By
Damien Gayle

PUBLISHED:

09:33 EST, 5 April 2012

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UPDATED:

09:53 EST, 5 April 2012

Rupert Murdoch’s news channel Sky News
has admitted twice authorising its reporters to hack into computers in a
statement released today.

The potentially embarrassing
revelation is a fresh blow to the media tycoon and risks shattering his
hopes acquiring full control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Sky News said that in one case it broke into emails belonging to Anne and John Darwin, the so-called ‘canoe couple’.

Revelation: Sky News has admitted that it twice authorised journalists to hack phones while they were researching stories they believed to be in the public interest

Darwin, 61, faked his own death in a
canoeing accident in 2002 so his wife, 60, could claim hundreds of
thousands of pounds from insurance policies and pension schemes.

The case drew a surge of media interest after he walked into a police station in 2007 and said: ‘I think I am a missing person.’

Former Sky News managing editor Simon
Cole agreed that North of England correspondent Gerard Tubb could hack
into Darwin’s Yahoo! email account, believing it was in the ‘public interest’.

Mr Tubb uncovered messages which cast
doubt on Mrs Darwin’s claim during her criminal trial that her
‘domineering’ husband forced her to go through with the fraud plan.

Sky News didn’t identify which story
was the result of hacking. However, an article dated July 21, 2008, said
the channel had uncovered documentary evidence showing that Darwin had
decided to come back to England because he was having trouble staying in
Panama.

Anne Darwin

John Darwin

Canoe couple: Anne and John Darwin were the target of one of Sky News’s hacks

‘We discovered an email,’ the article
begins, without giving any explanation of how the message was obtained.
Sky News said the emails were later handed to police.

The Darwins, from Seaton Carew, near
Hartlepool, were jailed at Teesside Crown Court in 2008 for the swindle,
which deceived the police, a coroner, financial institutions and even
their sons Mark and Anthony.

In a separate case, Mr Tubb was
authorised to access the emails of a suspected paedophile and his wife,
although this investigation did not result in any material being
published or broadcast.

Headache for Murdoch: The tycoon's Sky News channel has admitted authorising reporters to hack emails

Headache for Murdoch: The tycoon’s Sky News channel has admitted authorising reporters to hack emails

John Ryley, the head of Sky News, said in a statement: ‘Sky News is committed to the highest editorial standards.

‘Like other news organisations, we are
acutely aware of the tensions that can arise between the law and
responsible investigative journalism.

‘On two occasions, we have authorised a journalist to access the email of individuals suspected of criminal activity.

‘In the 2008 case of Anne Darwin, Sky
News met with Cleveland Police and provided them with emails offering
new information relevant to Mrs Darwin’s defence.

‘Material provided by Sky News was
used in the successful prosecution and the police made clear after the
trial that this information was pivotal to the case.

‘We stand by these actions as
editorially justified and in the public interest. We do not take such
decisions lightly or frequently.

‘They require finely balanced judgment
based on individual circumstances and must always be subjected to the
proper editorial controls.’

The public interest defence immediately drew scepticism from legal experts.

LONDON WASPS OWNER IS NOW A HACKING SUSPECT

The millionaire owner of Wasps rugby club is a suspect in Scotland Yard’s computer-hacking investigation.

Steve Hayes remains on bail after being arrested in Hertfordshire in February by detectives from Operation Tuleta, an offshoot of the force’s Weeting investigation into illegal activities at News International.

The investigation into Mr Hayes, 50, is not linked to any news organisation or the activities of journalists, sources said.

The businessman, who made millions of pounds selling an internet loans business, was detained on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act

There have been 46 arrests surrounding inquiries into hacking and corruption under Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘On 24 February 2012, officers from Operation Tuleta arrested a man at his home in Hertfordshire, and a man at an address in Surrey, on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000.

‘These arrests are not directly linked to any news organisation or the activities of journalists.

‘They were taken to London police stations and later bailed to return in June and July 2012 pending further enquiries.’

David Allen Green, media lawyer at
Preiskel Co, said that there was no such thing as a public
interest defense as far as Britain’s Computer Misuse Act was concerned.

‘It is not possible for the editor of
any news organization to authorize criminal acts,’ said Mr Green, who
has frequently criticised Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Sky News is part of BSkyB, which is 39 per cent owned by Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation.

The revelation, first reported in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, is a further headache for Mr Murdoch

His international media empire has
spent the better part of a year in the spotlight over widespread illegal
behaviour at his now-defunct Sunday tabloid the News of the World.

Mr Murdoch was forced to abandon a potentially lucrative bid for full control of BSkyB after the scandal boiled over in July.

It is not the firs time that a email hacking has been uncovered at a News Corporation business.

The Leveson Inquiry into press
standards has heard that former Times reporter Patrick Foster hacked
into the emails of Lancashire detective Richard Horton in 2009 to unmask
him as the author of the anonymous NightJack blog.

James Harding, editor of the Times,
which is owned by Mr Murdoch, told the inquiry in February that he
‘sorely regretted’ the intrusion and ‘expected better’ of his paper.

Mr Murdoch’s son James stepped down on Tuesday as BSkyB’s chairman.