Murdoch reporters named in leaked 'Motorman' files

 

A blog on Tuesday published the contents of a notebook seized from a private detective who sold personal data to journalists working for Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper wing. The Guido Fawkes blog published details of 1,028 cases in which staff from News International titles, including the now-defunct News of the World, asked Steve Whittamore to provide data such as addresses and telephone numbers. The spreadsheet includes the names of around 300 News International journalists, the information they asked for and, in most cases, the names of the targets -- who include politicians, celebrities and crime victims. Investigators from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Britain's data protection agency, seized Whittamore's papers at his home in 2003 as part of Operation Motorman, a probe into the sale of private data to newspapers. An investigation by ITV News claimed last month that several newspaper groups collectively spent £1.2 million ($1.9 million, 1.5 million euros) on Whittamore's services, some of which may have been illegal. Prince William's wife Catherine and her sister Pippa Middleton were among those targeted by newspapers, according to ITV, which had access to around 17,000 entries made in Whittamore's notebooks. Whittamore was convicted of illegally accessing data in 2005 and received a conditional discharge. The ICO condemned Guido Fawkes' publication of the files, known as the "blue book" after Whittamore's colour-coded notebooks, as "irresponsible". "Putting these into the public domain in this way is a serious violation of many people's privacy and raises more questions than it answers," it said in a statement. But the blog's owner Paul Staines, who removed the responses Whittamore gave the journalists from the spreadsheet, claimed the leak was in the public interest. "It is only by bringing the evidence out into the open that justice will be done," he wrote. News International was forced to close its 168-year-old News of the World tabloid in July following revelations that journalists illegally accessed the voicemails of dozens of people, including a murdered teenager. Company accounts revealed last week that the fallout from the scandal, including damages paid to hacking victims and the costs of shutting down the News of the World, has already cost Murdoch more than £79 million.