DANISH HACKING

We all know the story of the News of the World, the Murdoch stable paper that had to close after revelations that it had systematically (and illegally) hacked the mobile telephones of well-known people. The criminal trial of a number of former NoW executives is currently taking place in London.

Now a similar story has broken in Denmark. It appears that an employee of Nets, the company that runs the ubiquitous Dankort card payment system, regularly sold to the weekly gossip magazine Se og Hør ("see and hear") details of the credit card transactions of rich and famous people. A team of journalists at the paper could then use the tip-offs to write about those transactions and/or investigate them.

As with the NoW story, it appears that the illegal practice was both widely known at the magazine and sanctioned by management. More details will doubtless emerge in the coming weeks as internal and police investigations continue apace. But the story has already had consequences, with the resignation of Henrik Qvortrup from his current job as political commentator on the national television channel TV2.

Qvortrup is one of the "big beasts" of the Danish political analysis scene, having been spin doctor for Anders Fogh Rasmussen before he became Prime Minister. He was then editor of Se og Hør from 2001-8, and is widely credited with giving it the high profile position it has today. He was also, allegedly, the first editor to approve the hacking policy.

As with the NoW, there is already speculation that Se og Hør will have to close. Watch this space.  

Walter Blotscher