Sky News admits hacking emails
Source: Guardian UK
Sky News admits hacking emails of 'canoe man'
Broadcaster says accessing of emails of John Darwin, who faked own death, was authorised by executives and in public interest
Sky News has admitted that one of its senior executives authorised a journalist to conduct email hacking on two separate occasions that it said were "in the public interest" – even though intercepting emails is a prima facie breach of the Computer Misuse Act, to which there is no such defence written in law.
Gerard Tubb, the broadcaster's northern England correspondent, accessed emails belonging to John Darwin, the "canoe man" accused of faking his own death, when his wife, Anne, was due to stand trial for deception in July 2008. The reporter built up a database of emails that he believed would help defeat Anne Darwin's defence; her husband had pleaded guilty to seven charges of deception before her trial.
The same reporter accessed the email accounts of a suspected paedophile and his wife in an investigation that did not lead to any material being published or broadcast, according to a statement sent to the Guardian by Sky, which is part-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
Both instances of hacking were approved by Simon Cole, the managing editor of Sky News.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/apr/05/sky-news-hacking-emails-canoe-man
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How many innocents did the snoop on? I guess we probably won't hear about those.
