Hacking cell phones news of the world

Phone hacking was a technique used to listen to people's mobile voicemail. Reporters and a private investigator working for the News of the World used it to target people in the news - celebrities, politicians and crime victims - so they could find angles on stories that would get them ahead of the competition. They would listen to private messages left on voicemail, make a recording of them, and use the information to help write stories.

The News of the World was closed down in after its owners, Rupert Murdoch's News International, admitted the scale of hacking that had been going on, dating back many years. The company had battled against growing allegations for two years - one of its private investigators and the News of the World's royal editor were jailed in over a story gleaned from hacking. The paper's original position - that rogue staff had acted alone - could not stand.

Eventually Rupert Murdoch decided he had no choice but to close the newspaper down after it emerged Milly Dowler, a teenager who was abducted and murdered, had her voicemails hacked. The Crown Prosecution Service charged two former editors - Rebekah Brooks and her successor Andy Coulson with conspiracy to intercept mobile voicemails alongside others connected to the newspaper.

Five others had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hack phones before the trial began: private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, news editors James Weatherup and Greg Miskiw and reporters Neville Thurlbeck and Dan Evans. Mulcaire performed thousands of hacks for the newspaper under the instruction of news editors.

The newspaper's former royal editor Clive Goodman was also charged with illegal payments to public officials - as was Rebekah Brooks and Coulson. Brooks' husband Charlie Brooks, her former personal assistant Cheryl Carter and News International's head of security Mark Hanna were accused of a conspiracy to hide material from the police.

The jury was discharged after failing to reach verdicts on charges that Coulson and Goodman conspired to commit misconduct in a public office by paying police officers for two royal directories. Edmand Dester Thipursian — Edmand. The world is growing rapidly with various technologies, and accordingly, illegal activities are being increased in adopting these new technologies.

Every country has its own laws and regulations. In the UK, people are convicted under the Computer Misuse Act for illegal activities which are done with the help of technologies, and there are evidences that many people have been sentenced under this law Turner, M. Apart from that, there are few regulations, such as RIPA , which gives power to certain authorities in the UK to carry out surveillance or intercept the communications against a person for a specific reason.

The question is, are these laws being used effectively and reasonably? Gaining information illegally or by misusing the power of rights is against the law, and publishing this information is unethical and against media regulations. The News of the World phone hacking scandal is an ongoing case, which created massive concern on those laws, which led to set up an inquiry on media regulation. This paper will be discussing the issues and analyzing how the News of the World came to its demise for illegal activities like hacking the personal phones of many people to seek out inside information and the legal issues involved in it.

According to Feng, X. The above listed powers for covert affairs were introduced to govern the nation and for the safety of the citizens against terrorism, immigration issues, to control disorder and for the stability of the UK economy The Parliament Publication UK, RIPA as said above is only meant for public authorities such as the police and any legal investigatory organization.

It must be done with an approved warrant from the secretary of the state in section 41 of RIPA with the list members of the authority that can be given approval with proper application, and such warrants can only be granted in cases of national security or serious crime The Guardian, and Telegraph, The following figure shows the structure of the UK Judicial system.

The UK legal system is almost a 1, year evaluation of the legal system. The UK Judicial System lies on three pillars:. The separation of law is that a certain degree of independence power to the functions, which are legislative House of Lord , executive Cabinet and judicial Judges functions of government Rivlin, The Rule of Law is defined as the legal relationship between the citizens and state of the government. Apart from the principal source of UK law, there are various lawmaking institutions such as The European Union Law making institutions, the Courts, Regulatory bodies and International institutions.

There is a great need for the freedom of expression of society, which is independent, and it should be just. The media uses this right to inquire about any influential body or story. It is self-regulating and runs free of any statutory rules. The Press Complaint Commission PCC was formed by the Press industry itself and it provides a guideline for media professionals rather than laws. PCC has its own code of practice containing 16 articles, which cover a wide range of issues including harassment, intrusion, children, privacy, accuracy, listening devices, confidential sources, discrimination payment for articles PCC, The balance of this action cannot be maintained just by self-regulation and it has failed to.

Other systems seem to be working well enough for the different industries and different authorities. After the news of a murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, whose phone had been hacked by the News of the World, Prime Minister David Cameron set up a public inquiry about the press ethics.

A new system of press regulation was called for after Leveson published a 1, page report in November The report also mentioned that the press made a lot of people to face hardship and also caused chaos for some innocent people, and they have been looked down on their rights and freedom Castella, T.

To find out if a regulation is good enough, we need to take a look at the UK Better Regulation Task Force of in which is laid out five principles of good regulation, which are used by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills still today, saying that the regulation must be:.

RIPA section 1 1 describes that unlawful interception of any communication such as a public postal service or public telecommunication service is an offense. Section 1 7 a and b clearly indicates that a person who does that will be punished with up to 2 years sentence or fine or both. RIPA part 3 section 53 introduced that failure to comply with a notice to disclose the key for protecting information is an offense and a person or organization who does that will be punished under this act up to a maximum sentence.

Where there is no authorization to perform covert affairs with regards to the right to human privacy, under article 8 of the European convention of human rights it is considered unlawful by virtue of section 6 of the Human Rights Act Telegraph, Local authorities are strongly recommended to obtain authorization under the Power Act where the surveillance is likely to interfere with human rights.

There are several press reports about public authorities performing covert surveillance affairs of individuals, with the misuse and implication of the power, and also the unlawful interference of human privacy Walsall Government UK, Several requests were forwarded to the councils concerning its affairs of covert surveillance, access to communication data, and the use of RIPA Walsall Government UK, A regular internal report for RIPA was considered by the councillors to make sure RIPA is consistently adhered to in accordance with the council policy to retain its purpose and no other further authorization beyond that Telegraph, It provides certain conditions to the local authorities and they must be followed when they carry out those surveillances under RIPA Dozens of journalists and activists in El Salvador say their cell phones were hacked.

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