Barrister accuses The Age of behaviour ‘close to corruption’ over database access
A barrister whose personal information was accessed by The Age’s journalists has accused them of behaviour that is “very close to corruption and criminal conduct”.
The comments from criminal barrister and media commentator Peter Faris were in a column for News Limited’s The Australian.
News Limited’s sister company News International is at the centre of the furore over phone hacking by the News of the World tabloid in the UK. The tabloid has now been closed.
Faris’ complaints relate to an investigation carried out by The Age into a database held by the ALP which led to a story in the paper last November. The story reported that the ALP was keeping “a secret database of voters”. The paper made no secret of the fact that it had accessed the database as part of its investigation.
The Australian has previously reported on the investigation and with parent company News Corp under fire, returned to the topic today, suggesting The Age was guilty of “hacking hypocrisy” over its coverage of the British scandal.
The Age declined Mumbrella’s invitation to comment.
In the column Faris wrote:
“The gossip and scandal-mongering that feeds the press in Britain has had no appeal in Australia.
“The one exception to the general rule was the hacking last year by the Fairfax paper, The Age, of an ALP computer. Recently, when reading the Herald Sun, I discovered that I was one of the “victims” of this hacking.
“The hacking involved the reporters (and possibly management) searching the database for names, mine included. Obviously they were seeking dirt files or other confidential information.
“What dirt or information (if any) they downloaded we will never know. We have to trust them. What were they thinking? Why should I trust anybody who behaves like this?
“On a personal level, The Age can investigate me as much as they like. I am not complaining about their conduct towards me. But I am very concerned by their conduct. It is very close to corruption and criminal conduct.”
Meanwhile, Henry Tajer, president of media agency trade body the Media Federation, has predicted that the scandal in the UK will have little effect on his members’ trading relationships with News Limited in Australia.
Speaking on this week’s Mumbrellacast, Tajer said: “I think the relationship that the various agencies have with News here in Australia is pretty solid. News Limited are reputable and have titles and have a practice in the market that if there were any issues that any agencies had, they would have probably already been raised. I think it would be wrong of us to take a view on the Australian operation on something that is happening within the broader company in another part of the world. We don’t act that way for other companies. The marketplace didn’t change their views on Google when Google was having issues in China. The same sort of principles apply here.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Faris is marking himself out as feckless idiot. But then a barrister is wired to support flimsy arguments for enough money.
His former kindly defence of “all-round good-guys” Mokbel and Williams will no doubt galvanise that perception.
The Age story clearly has a large degree of “public interest” – it’s highlighting questionable widespread collection and storage of personal data by political parties, for political ends, of which those involved are unlikely aware of. This data is outside current legislation which makes it quite contentious, really. Notably it doesn’t reveal or leverage the actual information found.
Faris’ employer News on the other hand, accused of something entirely more sinister and revolting. A barrister can surely see the difference, unless the News shilling has blinded him to his 45 years of law. Or he’s throwing smoke around his employers…
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I wonder how Faris feels about the work of Wikileaks?
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I don’t think it’s fair to accuse News Limited of doing these things, is it? What was done is indeed revolting – but doesn’t happen here. Unless you have proof, yes?
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“I think it would be wrong of us to take a view on the Australian operation on something that is happening within the broader company in another part of the world”
All of the people implicated so far have been NOTW, Sun and Mirror editors. There is no evidence that any directive to “hack” voicemails has come from higher levels in the organisation, and definitely no evidence that the practice has occurred in Australia. And let’s not delve into the deeper reasons why this has all suddenly came to a head 7 years later in the BBC/Guardian just as Murdoch was about to get permission for the BSkyB purchase….
The Greens can have their enquiry if they want, but if they want to make this about media impartiality perhaps they should start with the ABC and SBS, which have held and unashamed left wing bias for decades. If you need proof of this then look no further than the shameful free ride Tony Jones gave Paul Keating to spout blatant falsehoods the other night on Lateline. I’m a fan of Paul, but even so I found myself yelling at the TV towards the end.
As far as I see it the Murdoch rags are just balancing the equation. And I think the Australian public is by-and-large capable of seeing through the crap and making up their own minds.
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Murdock owns newspapers globally + TV companies all over
But it seems that only Brits are capable of murky behaviour??
I think not.
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