MUMBAI: BSkyB-owned satellite news broadcaster Sky News has admitted to having hacked email ids of a criminal suspect on two occasions in 2008 over what it claims was done for the purpose of ?public interest?.

The shocking revelations come from John Ryley, head of Sky News, whose parent company BSkyB is partly owned by News Corp, which is already under investigation from UK authorities on phone hacking scandal surrounding now defunct ?News of the World?.

Ryley through a statement revealed that the channel had authorised its North of England correspondent, Gerard Tubb, to access emails of John Darwin, the ?canoe man? who faked his own death in 2002. The material thus gathered helped in the prosecution of accused, he claimed.

?On two occasions, we have authorised a journalist to access the email of individuals suspected of criminal activity. In the 2008 case of Anne Darwin, Sky News met with Cleveland Police and provided them with emails offering new information relevant to Mrs Darwin?s defence. Material provided by Sky News was used in the successful prosecution and the police made clear after the trial that this information was pivotal to the case,? Ryley said in a statement.

Ryley said such decisions were taken only in certain cases where public interest is at stake. He cited examples wherein Sky News journalist have done the unimaginable to drive home the point.

?We stand by these actions as editorially justified and in the public interest. We do not take such decisions lightly or frequently. They require finely balanced judgement based on individual circumstances and must always be subjected to the proper editorial controls,? Ryley added.

?In a separate investigation, a Sky News journalist bought an Uzi machine gun in 2004 to highlight the easy availability of illegal weapons in the UK. On another occasion, our reporter penetrated airside security at Heathrow in 2003 to highlight failings in the system. These investigations serve the public interest and are a legitimate part of responsible journalism.?

He also stressed that none of journalist were found to indulge in illegal activities following a review of email accounts and internal audit of payment records of its employees.

?Separate to the actions described above, as part of our ongoing commitment to acting responsibly and in light of the current, heightened interest in editorial practices, Sky commissioned both an external review of email records at Sky News and an internal audit of payment records,? Ryley asserted.

?While the email review is nearing its conclusion, no grounds for concern have been found. If evidence of impropriety was found, we would investigate immediately. We believe these pro-active steps, undertaken at our own initiative, form part of the good governance procedures to be expected of a responsible news organisation.?

Ryley said Sky News was committed highest standards of journalism, ?Sky News is committed to the highest editorial standards. Like other news organisations, we are acutely aware of the tensions that can arise between the law and responsible investigative journalism.?

The John Darwin disappearance case was an investigation into the faked death of former British teacher and prison officer John Darwin, who turned up alive in December 2007, five years after he was thought to have died in a canoeing accident. John , along with his wife Anne Darwin, was later convicted of fraud.

MUMBAI: Under fire over the phone hacking scandal, James Murdoch is likely to step down as the chairman of News Corp?s British sports broadcasting business unit, BSkyB, according to a report by Sky News.

Quoting unidentified sources, the news broadcaster said Murdoch was due to attend a board meeting on Tuesday and is expected to stand down from his position as chairman with immediate effect.

BSkyB?s senior non-executive director Nick Ferguson is tipped to replace Jr Murdoch, who will continue to remain on BSkyB?s board as a non-executive director.

It was only in February that the Jr Murdoch stepped down as executive chairman of News International that is being probed by UK authorities for phone hacking surrounding its now defunct News of the World paper. Jr. Murdoch, though, has denied any knowledge of wrongdoing by the News of the World staff, a claim that hasn?t cut much ice.

To firewall him from the likely impact of the scandal, News Corp had relocated him to New York headquarters as the deputy COO of the parent company.

Jr. Murdoch had last month further cut off all remaining ties with News International, the UK publishing business of News Corp, by resigning from the boards of Times Newspaper Holdings; News Corp Investments; and News International Publishers Limited.

More importantly, the decision to step down from BSkyB comes ahead of Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee?s report into allegations of phone hacking by the end of the month. James is also expected to appear before the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics with his father Rupert Murdoch at the end of the month.

The British media regulator Ofcom is already evaluating whether James Murdoch is ?fit and proper? to hold a broadcast license on behalf of BSkyB.

MUMBAI: Facing heat over alleged use of piracy to scuttle business of pay-TV rival ITV Digital, News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch vented his anger on social networking platform Twitter by terming the allegations as baseless.

"Seems every competitor and enemy piling on with lies and libels. So bad, easy to hit back hard, which preparing," Murdoch said on his Twitter handle @rupertmurdoch.

According to a BBC Panorama documentary, a company part-owned by News Corp carried out hacking by obtaining codes belonging to ITV Digital and posted them to allow viewers to watch for free which finally led to the demise of Sky?s main digital TV rival, ITV Digital.

NDS, which manufactured smartcards for all News Corp pay-TV companies across the world, said that Thoic was legitimately used to gather intelligence on hackers while Gibling worked as a consultant.

The publication of codes resulted in widespread piracy which finally resulted in the demise of ITV Digital, which had been set-up by Britain?s leading free-to-air commercial broadcaster, in 1998.

In a statement late on Wednesday, News Corp President Chase Carey said the BBC programme presented "manipulated and mischaracterised emails to produce unfair and baseless accusations", and he backed NDS?s call for the publicly owned British broadcaster to retract them.

The piracy scandal came as a second blow to the already beleagured News Corp as it had hardly recovered from the phone hacking scandal involving its UK publishing unit, News International.

The media conglomerate is under tremendous pressure as it is already under television regulator Ofcom?s scanner which is scrutinising whether James Murdoch and News Corporation are "fit and proper" persons to be in control of BSkyB, the company that runs Sky TV.

MUMBAI: Even as the dust on phone hacking controversy has hardly settled, another scandal is rocking Rupert Murdoch?s News Corporation that has put the company?s business operations in that country at risk.

According to a BBC documentary, a company part-owned by News Corporation carried out hacking by obtaining codes belonging to ITV Digital and posted them to allow viewers to watch for free which finally led to the demise of Sky?s main digital TV rivals ITV Digital.

Lee Gibling, who had set up a website The House of Ill-Compute or Thoic in 1990s, said News Corp-owned NDS had funded expansion of the Thoic site and later had him distribute the set-top pay-TV codes of rival ITV Digital.

ITV Digital?s former chief technical officer, Simon Dore, told the programme that piracy was the killer blow for the business. "The business had its issues aside from the piracy... but those issues I believe would have been solvable by careful and good management. The real killer, the hole beneath the water line, was the piracy. We couldn?t recover from that,? he stated.

NDS, which was recently acquired by Cisco for $5 billion, though denied the allegation by saying that Thoic was legitimately used to gather intelligence on hackers while Gibling worked as a consultant. NDS manufactures smartcards for all News Corp pay-TV companies across the world.

Incidentally, James Murdoch was the non-executive director of NDS when the scandal took place. However, BBC did not find any evidence of his involvement. The Junior Murdoch had recently stepped down from all posts of controversy-ridden News International, the UK publishing business of the company.

The company?s justification notwithstanding, Gibling has said that although Thoic was in his name the website actually belonged to NDS, which according to Gibling was also used to defeat the electronic countermeasures that the ITV used to try to stop the piracy.

Furthermore, the new codes created by ITV Digital were also sent out to other piracy websites so that consumers don?t buy even a single card.

"We wanted people to be able to update these cards themselves, we didn?t want them buying a single card and then finding they couldn?t get channels. We wanted them to stay and keep with On Digital, flogging it until it broke,? Gibling revealed further.

No sooner did the allegations surface calls for probe started growing louder with Tom Watson, a member of parliament and who has been examining the phone-hacking scandal, being the leading voice.

"Clearly allegations of TV hacking are far more serious than phone hacking," he said. "It seems inconceivable that they (Ofcom) would not want to look at these new allegations. Ofcom are now applying the fit and proper person test to Rupert and James Murdoch. It also seems inconceivable to me that if these allegations are true that Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch will pass that test."

Already, television regulator Ofcom is scrutinising whether James Murdoch and News Corporation are "fit and proper" persons to be in control of BSkyB, the company that runs Sky TV.

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of stepping down as the executive chairman of the News International, James Murdoch has further severed all remaining ties with the controversy-ridden British newspaper business.

James has resigned from three more boards: Times Newspaper Holdings, which was set up to guarantee the independence of the Times of London and the Sunday Times when News Corp acquired the titles in 1981; Newscorp Investments; and News International Publishers Limited.

Post his stepping down as the executive chairman of NI, the junior Murdoch has relocated to News Corp?s headquarters in New York as the deputy chief operating officer to focus on the broadcast business.

News International, the publisher of now defunct News of the World, is under investigation from authorities over phone and computer hacking and bribery.

James? future at BSkyB, the UK sports broadcasting arm of Newscorp, hinges on the Parliament committee?s report on the scandal for which he has been questioned twice, once with his father Rupert Murdoch.

The British media regulator Ofcom will take the parliamentary report into consideration when evaluating whether James is ?fit and proper? to hold a broadcast licence on behalf of BSkyB.