HACKING SCANDAL CONTINUES TO SPREAD AT NEWS CORP

When Rupert Murdoch tweeted — seemingly from out of the blue — “I have nothing to do with Sky News” in February, one of his “followers” asked him to explain, given the fact that Sky News’s parent is News Corp-controlled BSkyB. Murdoch never did. But he may be compelled to do some explaining if, as expected, he is called to testify once again before the Leveson committee that is investigating journalistic ethics in the wake of the U.K. telephone hacking scandal that has threatened Murdoch’s media empire. On Thursday, Sky News admitted that Simon Cole, the managing editor of the 24-hour British news service, authorized a correspondent to hack into the email accounts of two suspects in criminal cases. John Ryley, head of Sky News, said on Thursday that the hacking in each case was “justified and in the public interest.” However, Britain’s Computer Misuse Act allows no such exemption to the press. In an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, which has been at the forefront in exposing News Corp’s hacking activities, Danvers Baillieu, a lawyer specializing in Internet matters, said that “the difficulty for news organizations is the question of where do you draw the [public interest] line: would it be legitimate to break into somebody’s house who is suspected of committing a crime?”