Murdoch TV news staff hacked emails

LONDON – Rupert Murdoch’s British satellite news channel on Thursday became the latest branch of the mogul’s global media empire to acknowledge bending the rules in an effort to stay ahead.

Sky News admitted its reporters hacked emails on two separate occasions, insisting that it was done in the public interest.

But legal experts said that’s no defense, the police are investigating, and Murdoch’s goal of taking full control of Sky News’ profitable parent company, British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, may be at risk.

Sky chief John Ryley said in a statement released Thursday that his reporters had twice been authorized to hack into computers for stories. That included in the case of Anne and John Darwin, the so-called “canoe couple” who became notorious in Britain after the husband faked his own death in a boating accident as part of an elaborate insurance scam.

Ryley acknowledged that his organization had intercepted the couple’s emails, but said the material was later handed to police and insisted Sky had done nothing wrong.

Ryley was quick to point out other instances where journalists had pushed the limits, noting that in a 2004 investigation, a Sky News journalist had bought an Uzi submachine gun to illustrate the availability of banned weapons in Britain. In 2003, a reporter sneaked into a restricted area at London’s Heathrow Airport to highlight security failings, Ryley said.