News Corp, back at it

News Corp accused of sabotaging rivals

Media giant News Corp has been accused of sabotaging its rivals by distributing pirated pay-TV smart cards to millions of customers around the world, adding pressure to the Rupert Murdoch-owned empire already under fire over hacking claims in Britain. A four year investigation by Australia's Financial Review newspaper found that the company set up a secret unit to crack the codes of its competitors. The pirated cards were then sold on the black market, costing rival broadcasters tens of millions of dollars. The Australian government said on Wednesday allegations of any criminality should be investigated by police. "These are serious allegations, and any allegations of criminal activity should be referred to the AFP (Australian Federal police) for investigation," Stephen Conroy, a spokeswoman for Communications Minister, told Reuters news agency. Angus Grigg, one of the Financial Review reporters who investigated the story, said his newspaper had published 14,400 emails which gave a systematic account of the inner workings of a News Corp subsidiary who carried out the hacking. “What they are essentially showing is that there was a systematic campaign within News Corp to hack into the systems of its commercial rivals," Grigg told Al Jazeera. "They were encouraging and fostering hackers to crack the codes of smart cards for paid television, which allows viewers to receive a signal from satellite or cable television - to crack the codes of its rival pay TV companies for its own commercial gains." The Financial Review said the piracy was part of strategy by News Corp to financially cripple its competitors making them ripe for takeover of companies such as Direct TV and ITV digital. News Corp, already embattled in a messy hacking scandal in the UK, has denied the recent accusations. On March 14, British police arrested six people in the long-running saga that has shaken News Corp, which owns the now-defunct News of the World Sunday tabloid at the centre of the investigations. The scandal has also damaged police and politicians from all major political parties, revealing extremely close ties between the media and the upper elements of the establishment.  URL: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/03/20123282121547362.html 1.      What is the link to Crisis Management? It seems like News Corp just left headlines for the phone hacking scandal in the UK and is back in again ensuring it can take over the News Media World. It is interesting how the company always completely refutes any accusations but soon after creates settlements with the accusers. Rupert Murdoch, although a head of one of the biggest news agencies in the world, seems to be the news more often than not. 2.      What stage of Crisis Management does the system appear to be at?  It seems to be at a risk level. I say this because Rupert Murdoch is pretty much a repeated offender and it seems the tactics that it was using to subdue Australian media companies has become lower and lower in moral standards. If the media company was being hacked to ensure News Corp was always the media leader what else could it is doing? It was already accused of the UK phone scandal, there really seems to be no end to this scandal. 3.      How well does the system appear to be handling the situation?  The company is handling the situation as it always does, refusing to comment, and refuting all allegations as fanciful and with no factual background. So it really is not handling the situation at all. I'm sure it will end up giving a large payout to the Australian company and having them keep their mouth shut. 4.      What level of crisis preparedness does the system appear to have?  It seems like News Corp has a strategy to deal with these types of allegations and its pretty simple...deny, deny, deny. There really is nothing else that I can observe that News Corp does to show preparedness, oh maybe they have a lot of money to keep people's mouths shut, so I think that could count as preparedness. 5.      What personal reactions/feelings does the description trigger in you? This really triggers no feeling for me. It seems like this has been all done before. Also, it seems to feed the media frenzy for other companies as well as News Corp when their own leader seems to be in the news. Maybe it’s a marketing strategy to increase sales; everyone seems to want to have gossip these days. I'm sure a company that has no ethics would be able to get the most gossip for its viewers. 6.      What advice would you offer to those involved?  I really want to see other media outlets address the public and illustrate how they are not using the same schemes and tactic to get their information or to buyout other news moguls. It’s important that they show the public that they play on a fair playing field. Other than that, the other media outlets should also put pressure on News Corp to show them that these tactics are unethical to use.