UK: information commissioner reveals widespread unethical journalism
Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on December 14, 2006 at 11:32 AM
Information commissioner Richard Thomas released a league table of newspapers and magazines which hired privated detectives to obtain illegal information about their subjects – mostly celebrities.
The Daily Mail led the list. Other big names features in the table included the Sunday People, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Times and the Observer.
One private detective in particular, Stephen Whittamore, worked for several tabloids and people magazines. Until he was convicted in 2005, Whittamore obtained his information directly from the police national computer.
For the Daily Mail alone, allegedly 60 journalists ordered 982 pieces of information, just from Whittamore and his team. A spokesman for Associated Newspapers, the owners of the paper, dismissed the league table as “utterly meaningless.”
"It is difficult to imagine a prosecution - let alone a conviction - of any journalist able to show that he or she was pursuing a story to prevent or detect crime, to expose public impropriety or was otherwise acting in the public interest," said commissioner Thomas.
It’s highly unrealistic to believe that all of the reported frauds were performed in the “public interest.”
Only Roger Alton, editor of the Observer, admitted that "yes, the Observer has used the services of an outside agency in the past, and while there were strong public interest defences for most of those cases, it is possible that some of the inquiries did not sufficiently fit that criteria.”
The other newspapers concerned were either unavailable for comment, denied the allegations, or simply issued a statement to their staff on the importance of remaining within the law.
This new breakdown on fraudulent journalistic practices could set new standards for tabloids and celebrity publications. It could also lead these practices to be hidden deeper underground.
Source: Media Guardian
One private detective in particular, Stephen Whittamore, worked for several tabloids and people magazines. Until he was convicted in 2005, Whittamore obtained his information directly from the police national computer.
For the Daily Mail alone, allegedly 60 journalists ordered 982 pieces of information, just from Whittamore and his team. A spokesman for Associated Newspapers, the owners of the paper, dismissed the league table as “utterly meaningless.”
"It is difficult to imagine a prosecution - let alone a conviction - of any journalist able to show that he or she was pursuing a story to prevent or detect crime, to expose public impropriety or was otherwise acting in the public interest," said commissioner Thomas.
It’s highly unrealistic to believe that all of the reported frauds were performed in the “public interest.”
Only Roger Alton, editor of the Observer, admitted that "yes, the Observer has used the services of an outside agency in the past, and while there were strong public interest defences for most of those cases, it is possible that some of the inquiries did not sufficiently fit that criteria.”
The other newspapers concerned were either unavailable for comment, denied the allegations, or simply issued a statement to their staff on the importance of remaining within the law.
This new breakdown on fraudulent journalistic practices could set new standards for tabloids and celebrity publications. It could also lead these practices to be hidden deeper underground.
Source: Media Guardian
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