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British Buggers

It was a big day yesterday for Rupert Murdoch, according to latest reports from www.crikey.com.au.

The Australian site reckons that only hours after basking in the reflected glory of the announcement of his company's record $A5.1 billion profit, one of his ace reporters was charged by British police with plotting to “intercept communications, namely by agreeing to access individuals' telephone voicemail messages, in the course of their transmission by means of a public telecommunication system, contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977”.

Clive Goodman is the royal editor of Murdoch's Sunday tabloid News of the World. He was charged with nine offences after an eight-month investigation by Scotland Yard into allegations that mobile phone calls by members of the royal family had been intercepted. The investigation has now been widened to include intercepting voicemail messages on the phone of British cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, reports The Times (also Murdoch-owned).

The Goodman affair raises a delicate dilemma for the world's most powerful media proprietor. Not of an ethical kind, but of a precedent kind. Should he publicly denounce the practice of breaking the law to acquire information – which is precisely what you would expect from someone so eminent that The Bulletin recently dubbed him the "most influential Australian ever"? Or should he offer no comment, provide the money and resources to fight the case in court, and concentrate on continuing to build the circulation of the News of the World?

It's a conundrum, but just one of many conundrums that occur when you're running the news of the world. It will be interesting to see how this story is covered in New Zealand.