Leveson inquiry: Guardian journalist justifies hacking if in the public interest

Source: Guardian


The Guardian's investigations editor, David Leigh, has told the Leveson inquiry into press standards that he had been right to hack into voicemail messages on one occasion in a successful attempt to stand up a story.

Asked about a 2006 Guardian article, in which Leigh wrote he had once accessed a mobile phone belonging to a businessman, the journalist told the inquiry on Tuesday: "I was trying to be as frank and candid as I could be. I don't hack phones, normally. I've never done anything like that since and I've never done anything like that before. On that particular occasion this minor incident did seem to me to be perfectly ethical, yes."

Leigh described in the article, published in December 2006, how he had listened to voicemails after the businessman inadvertently left the pin number needed to access them on a print out. "All that was needed was to dial straight into his voicemail," he wrote.

"There is certainly a voyeuristic thrill in hearing another person's private messages. But unlike Goodman, I was not interested in witless tittle-tattle about the royal family. I was looking for evidence of bribery and corruption. And unlike the News of the World, I was not paying a private detective to routinely help me with circulation-boosting snippets."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/06/leveson-inquiry-guardian-phone-hacking

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Well I never !