Skip to content

· What would Wikileaks do with a murdered schoolgirl’s personal messages?

By RICHARD NORTHEDGE [Director of Finance Online] – How could part of an international publishing organisation hack into the phone of schoolgirl Millie Dowler? Easily – and justifying the ethics was even easier than mastering the technology. Despite the outcry now we know she was murdered, there is no clear moral code of what newspapers can do.

The consequences of the News of the World’s hacking are now commercial with Ford leading an advertisers’ boycott, executive heads likely to roll and News International’s bid for BSkyB in danger.

But unless you would never consider looking at the documents being read your neighbour on the train or never pass on a piece of gossip, the ethics of using information are unclear to most of us.

Politicians regard leaking letters as fair game; parliamentarians use their privilege to break high-court injunctions to reveal the names of bankers and footballers. Newspapers that denounce the Murdoch press for phone hacking happily sign exclusive deals to disseminate Wikileaks’ stolen documents on world affairs or to print details of MPs expenses that were obtained by theft.

Using a long lens to spy on folders being carried into Downing Street by MPs or policemen is regarded as good journalism. The Freedom of Information Act permits papers to demand information such as salaries or convictions at public bodies and the use of company or court documents is seen as transparent disclosure rather than prying into private matters.

So we condone a culture of entitlement to see secret information. The legal limit of acceptability may be clear (to a lawyer) but there is no obvious moral line. It is thus hardly surprising if some journalists go the short further distance to looking at the contents of dustbins of listening into phone calls.

Continued at The Edge/Director of Finance Online | More Chronicle & Notices.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x