The British police are investigation one of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper subsidiaries over allegation of wiretapping of public figures. The Guardian has reported that Murdoch’s company paid $1.6 million to settle court cases involving hacking into cellphones.
Mr. Murdoch insists that no such payments were made to cover up criminal activities, stating “if that had happened, I would know about it.”
The Guardian says that the targets included a prominent lawmaker for the Liberal Democrats.”
For the full story, click here.
But hey! There’s always civil court.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8143552.stm
“The original phone hacking investigation resulted in News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glen Mulcaire being jailed for four and six months respectively in January 2007.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8143120.stm
Yeah.
I should have known this whole thing was a joke. Way to go, England! You just keep sucking worse every day.
Mike S.: “Notice I said “private” as opposed to the Bush/Cheney Crime Family that held public office.”
Translation:
Look, diagonally!
Pretty sneaky sis!
Bob,
Notice I said “private” as opposed to the Bush/Cheney Crime Family that held public office.
“Rupert Murdoch personally has visited more bad things on this world than any other private individual.”
More than Bush and Cheney? Bugliosi can make a case for murder against them; can’t say he can do it for Murdoch.
I’m not an expert on EU law, but from what I know of the Data Protection Act of 1998, there isn’t really a lot of teeth in the penalty end of the laws, leaving that to the member states to determine on an ad hoc basis. In addition, the enforcement and inspection procedures are similarly all over the map because of that same deference to the locals. Denmark has assessed fines (like that’ll hurt Murdoch) but no one has ever been sent to prison for it from what I’ve read although it seems to be an option.
Maybe it’s time to change that and send Rupe to prison, Great Britain.
Rupert Murdoch personally has visited more bad things on this world than any other private individual. He has destroyed and trivialized accurate news reporting by newspapers and broadcast media, ruined sports reporting and has been operating virtual media monopolies in many of the world’s major cities. He is the single greatest threat to democratic/humane government of any private individual.
Hi Indentured Servant,
I agree that punishment would be justified, but the thing that really gets to me is the hypocrisy of my government. The fact that they’re complaining about being spied on when we live in a surveillance society in the UK just makes me angry!
Karen
The media and private corporations are only following our government’s lead. Break the law now, make as much money as you can along the way, and deal with the consequences later. Frankly, they probably factor in damages and fines in the amount they know they’ll make from selling a lot of issues filled with this juicy, hacked gossip.
Everyone here knows that there is no such thing as unbreakable encryption, right?
Only a limited number of phones provide true security. -End to end encryption.
AY,
Do you use your BB with a Blackberry Encryption Server?
Why hasn’t the State Department removed this threat to our national security? Why has law enforcement turned it’s cheek on Murdoch’s subversive, destructive broadcasting?
Why? How much damage can America absorb from the prique and his totalitarian mob?
http://www.light-to-dark.com/ruperts_brains.html
Hand over your abused U.S. Citizenship, Murdoch.
Why take the risk of wiretapping your political enemies if you can have your corporate lickspittle do it for you? (Similar themes come up in Confessions of an Economic Hitman.)
Uh oh … this may give new meaning to “protecting your sources” …
If a corporation gets caught wiretapping, they should have their charter revoked. Out of business. End of story.
I guess these are not private citzens:
The Guardian article, citing those sources, said that the targets of the hacking included John Prescott, who was deputy to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and a cabinet member, Tessa Jowell, as well as lawmakers from all three of Britain’s major political parties. Accessing stored phone messages covertly is illegal in Britain, except for the police or intelligence agencies acting with a warrant.
Sounds like the government does not like competition, yet again.
Karen:
A corporation should not be wiretapping private citizens phones. If they get caught they should pay a price.
One can only presume that with the Blackberry now having a security code encryption that would block this from happening makes me rethink my recent blackberry purchase.
Oh and did the CIA utilize blackberry which is a UL based company for that lil ole covert operation down in South America? You bet.
Does it surprise me that Murdoch found someone will to sell him the codes to tap into these phones, not at all.
Busted, eh, Rupe?
So it’s OK for the government to spy on normal citizens (for example using the thousands of needless “security” cameras) but if a newspaper spies on a politician or a celebrity there’s a problem? Typical Labour hypocrisy.