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Info chief's broadside at press over data crimes
15 December 2006
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has revealed that hundreds of journalists may have illegally bought private information and named a list of newspapers and magazines using one particular information agency.
The Daily Mail, which is at the top of Thomas' list, has condemned the exercise as "uttlerly meaningless" and pointed out that it uses search agencies to find legitimate information such as births, marriages and deaths.
In a report to Parliament - entitled What Price Privacy Now? - Thomas also defended proposals to jail journalists for up to two years who illegally buy and sell information.
He said: "Freedom of speech is not freedom to break the law by bribery or deception where there is no public interest justification.
"It is difficult to imagine a prosecution - let alone a conviction of any journalist able to show that he or she was pursuing a story to prevent or detect crime, to expose public impropriety, or was otherwise acting in the public interest.
"There is already prospect of a criminal conviction and an unlimited fine facing those who fish for tittle-tattle about public and private figures or who otherwise cannot justify their activities, but these deterrents clearly have not worked.
"It must be stressed that the proposals do not call for the creation of a new offence and will not make criminal any activity by the press or other media that is not already criminal.
"A further safeguard is that only the Commissioner or the Director of Public Prosecutions may bring a prosecution."
He added: "There is still further work to be done to reduce the demand for illegally obtained confidential information. This work will be ongoing.
"We will continue to track down and prosecute offenders. We will continue to press the Government to introduce the option of a prison sentence and see this progress report as supporting that goal. We will continue to raise awareness and we will encourage and work with any organisation that wants to raise standards or produce clear guidance on data protection obligations.
"In particular we will be work closely with the media on the development of relevant guidance and standards for journalists."
Thomas has also published a league table revealing which media organisations had used the services of one particular inquiry agency to buy data.
The Daily Mail is top of the table - with 58 of its journalists using the agency and making 952 seperate transactions.
The list was compiled after investigatons from the Information Commissioner's Office in Operation Motorman in 2002 which discovered numerous invoices addressed to newspapers and magazines which detailed prices for providing the journalists with personal information.
The raid led to 305 journalists being identified as having been the recipients of a wide range of information.
The Commissioner released the information following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Daily Mail's publisher said in a statement: "Associated Newspapers, in common with all newspapers and broadcasters - and many other organisations, including lawyers - use search agencies to obtain information entirely legitimately from a range of public sources including company records, electoral rolls, registers of births, marriages and deaths, and the Land Registry.
"In addition, the law specifically makes provision for journalists making inquiries in the public interest.
"The Information Commissioner's data appears to come from an inquiry into the activities of one particular agency four years ago which resulted in four people, not journalists, receiving conditional discharges.
"It is worth stressing that as the 'league table' is a snapshot based on the activities of just one agency its figures are utterly meaningless.
"Since the Information Commissioner first raised his concerns Associated Newspapers has repeatedly stressed to all its journalists that they must observe the law when seeking information."
Here is the table listing the title followed by number of pieces of data paid for and the the number of journalists involved.
Daily Mail: 952; 58 .
Sunday People: 802; 50.
Daily Mirror: 681; 45.
Mail on Sunday: 266; 33.
News of the World: 182; 19.
Sunday Mirror: 143; 25.
Best Magazine: 134; 20.
Evening Standard: 130 ; 1.
The Observer: 103; 4 .
Daily Sport : 62; 4.
Sunday Times: 52; 7.
The People: 37; 19.
Daily Express : 36; 7.
Weekend Magazine (Daily Mail): 30; 4.
Sunday Express: 29 ; 8.
The Sun: 24; 4.
Closer Magazine: 22; 5.
Sunday Sport:15; 1.
Night and Day (Mail on Sunday): 9; 2.
Sunday Business News: 8; 1.
Daily Record: 7; 2.
Saturday (Express) : 7; 1.
Sunday Mirror Magazine: 6; 1.
Real Magazine: 4 ; 1.
Woman's Own: 4; 2.
Daily Mirror Magazine: 3; 2 .
Mail in Ireland: 3, 1.
Daily Star: 2; 4.
Marie Claire: 2; 1.
Personal Magazine: 1; 1.
