Rupert Murdoch's Journalists Accused Of Hacking Into Murdered Girl's Voicemails, Deleting Some
from the classy dept
Well, this is rather horrific. We've mentioned in the past the story about how reporters for Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, one of the many publications in his News Corp. empire, were accused of hacking into the voicemails of hundreds of people. Every few weeks, it seems, more reports surface of people who have had their voicemails hacked. But the latest may be the worst of the bunch. Apparently, after teenager Milly Dowler disappeared in 2002, but before her murdered body was found, reporters hacked into her voicemail. Not only that, but they deleted some messages in order to make more room for new messages. Apparently, the deletions were part of what gave her parents hope that Dowler was still alive, believing that perhaps she was checking her voicemail. Most of the earlier reports on Murdochs' journalists hacking into voicemail had focused on politicians and celebrities. But this sounds like they may have actually destroyed evidence and tampered with an actual police investigation. The company has been paying off some of the celebrities whose voicemail was hacked, but this takes things to an entirely different level.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: eavesdropping, milly dowler, news of the world, rupert murdoch, voicemails
Companies: news corp.
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Treat their privacy like they treat others.
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While it's a nice idea, there's a problem with it. Email involves the privacy of two people, not one. the sender and the recipient. After this sort of privacy violation, the 'reporters' involved don't deserve privacy, but the sources they are in contact with do.
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Shot_Liberty_Valance
the internet is very much Cowboy Land without law.
Law is coming but most will not like it as it.
As the internet is worldwide it will always be foreign law with foreign officials applying it by the simple means of extradition since that eliminates the pesky problem of domestic law 'a restrictions.
Everything is illegal somewhere thus everyone's action on the internet is illegal somewhere.
No people will like this and the only results will be to break the internet into regional or national nets.
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WTF?
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You get Rich by pleasing millions of dolts.
So while we can't lay this directly to Murdoch's charge, what's the obvious solution? -- TAX THE RICH until the profit motive is down to reasonable levels. (And for England, do away with the "monarchy" and seize all property of those who deem themselves "nobles".)
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Re: You get Rich by pleasing millions of dolts.
2) I'm firmly in the camp that heads should literally roll for this, especially given that News International initially led to the wrongful arrest of someone later found to be innocent;
3) This should also draw into question whether NewsCorp should be able top fully take over BSkyB, given the willingness they have shown to blatantly disregard the law;
4) I'm certain that NewsCorp will have a lot of dirt on some of the UK Cabinet members (especially Osborne);
5) This revelation has tainted every single high-profile investigation in the UK in the past ten years, from Milly Dowler to the MP Expenses. "Nice investigation. It would be a shame to lose vital info..."
I absolutely agree with you on the 'Lowest Common Denominator' mark. I would bar him and NewsCorp from ever holding a stake in media again, and fine him billions of pounds.
This is sickening and it destroys any trust in journalists that they could have built up. Nice work NewsInt.
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Re: You get Rich by pleasing millions of dolts.
Keep up the crazy!
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I'm sayin. Blue makes my tinfoil wizard hat look downright fashionable.
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Re: You get Rich by pleasing millions of dolts.
it also sounds amusingly communist.
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this comment sounds like it's trying to insinuate something to undermine someone's point... but it honestly doesn't make enough sense to do anything but make it look like you don't know what you're talking about.
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I would think the very least charges would be destroyed evidence and tampered with an actual police investigation. I could see the parents trying to sue for mental anquish or something else. In any case I hope they set an example of with News company and all those involved.
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An unlocked door is not an invitation.
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Let me put it this way if you change your voicemail password right now then burn your phone, just after that you are killed. How would I get your voice mail password?
The only ideas I have on doing that is:
1. Try entering all 10,000 combinations.
2. Try to have the password reset by the phone company.
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Rupert Murdoch's news empire is a bucket of snot, pus and vomit.
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Surprised that a journalist hacked in and listened to the voicemails? Absolutely no surprise there. I would be surprised to meet a journalist that *didn't* do that kind of thing.
But deleting vm's? It surprises the hell out of me that a journalist would cross that line. Setting aside any Heisenberg-esque discussions, and maybe I'm just naive about journalists today, but that crosses the line from observing the news to being the news, which is a line I thought journalists were very squeamish about crossing.
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Is it really a hack?
Doesn't overusing the H word just distract people from the solvable problem of securing these codes?
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To paraphrase Leona Helmsley
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Prison
Everyone associated with any of these incidents at News of the World should go to prison.
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It has now been revealed that they hacked the phones of the victims of the 7/7 London tube bombing and war widows.
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This is worse than the bankers' greed by far, and I suspect that bthe rot goes all the way through Newscorp.
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controlled media controlled government
protect criminals at all cost
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Irony?
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Tomorrow being Tuesday with her appearance at Parliament, I wonder what information will come out about that?
Is the resignation of Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, a precursor to this information.
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