MEDIA WATCH

Journalist’s phone records reported stolen in midst of libel suit

Nov. 12— Connecticut-based newspaper and magazine columnist Chris Byron says he is experiencing a “reckless attack” on his credibility and viability as a journalist.

Not only is he being sued for libel in a country that doesn’t recognize the same press freedoms as the United States, but just last week, his phone records — containing confidential sources — were stolen.

Byron claims his records were fraudulently obtained from his service provider, AT&T, by the plaintiffs in the defamation suit pending against him. But because the suit is in Canada and involves a former top US official, he said he feels powerless to do anything about it.

Byron’s troubles began with a column he wrote for the September 2002 issue of the business magazine Red Herring, alleging that a buyout bid for Imagis Technologies, a Vancouver-based facial-recognition software company run by former FBI chief of counter-terrorism Oliver “Buck” Revell, was probably a hoax to drive up the company’s stock price on the Vancouver penny stock market.

“This isn’t a market in which value, like cream, rises to the top,” Byron wrote. “It’s a world where prices tend to go up because someone is helping them up — and just because a company has someone like Mr. Revell on board hardly makes a stock a safer investment.”

Byron maintains that the column was factually accurate.

Five days after Byron’s column came out, Imagis sued Byron and Red Herring. The suit was filed in Canada, where libel law provides much less protection for media reports on public figures and corporations. In Canada, unlike in the United States, the court will presume that libel allegations are true, and it is the media defendant’s responsibility to prove otherwise. In addition, Canadian law does not provide special protection for statements about public figures.

Imagis was able to sue the US-based publication and reporter in Canada because Byron’s column was posted on Red Herring’s Web site, where anyone in the world could access it; therefore, the company was able get a Canadian court to hear the case.

But now the libel suit is second in importance to a new threat, to which Byron was alerted this fall.

Byron said AT&T informed him Oct. 16 that someone purporting to be either Byron or his wife called the phone company several times the previous day. The person or persons who allegedly impersonated Byron called AT&T claiming to have forgotten the password to access his account. Numerous requests for access without the password were denied by all but one AT&T representative, who was persuaded to read to the requester the names and numbers of all 94 people Byron called in July.

Byron did his research for the Red Herring column in July and said his phone records from that month contain the identities of several sources to whom he had promised confidentiality.

As soon as he found out about the breach, Byron said he contacted as many of his sources as he could reach to warn them.

One source told Byron that his own phone records have been obtained by similarly fraudulent means. The source, who had obtained a promise of confidentiality before talking to Byron, also has been subpoenaed since the breach to testify in the libel case against Byron and Red Herring.

AT&T is looking into the alleged breach. Michael Lamb, an attorney and AT&T’s chief privacy officer, said he is working with the company’s security staff to investigate how the breach occurred and who may have impersonated Byron. He said AT&T is “taking it very seriously.”

Byron also reported the incident to the FBI, whose spokesperson would not comment on an ongoing investigation.

Byron said he believes Imagis was involved in the phone records theft. Two days after the breach, he noted that his reasons for believing the company was involved were circumstantial, including the fact that his confidential source was subsequently subpoenaed. “And I can think of, among the six billion people on this earth, no one who wanted that information, except the plaintiffs in that case,” Byron said.

David Sutherland, the Canadian attorney who is defending Byron and Red Herring in the libel case, said there is a strong inference, under the circumstances, that someone at Imagis, or an “overenthusiastic private investigator” working for Imagis, is responsible for the breach.

Imagis’s Vancouver-based attorney, Howard Shapray, said his client has nothing to do with the stolen phone records. He said Byron has come up with “absolutely no evidence” to prove any connection between Imagis and the AT&T breach. He called any accusations against Imagis pure speculation.

Shapray said Imagis does not condone, sponsor or endorse any such conduct against journalists.

Source: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

MEDIA BRIEFS

Detroit alternative radio program
terminated

The management of Detroit-based radio station WDTR has terminated “Open Forum,” its only alternative radio program. The program, which was hosted by Malik Yakini and Titilayo Akanke, provided uncensored news and analyses relevant to the African community specifically and the public in general.

It addressed the need for self-organization among African peoples worldwide, the Bush administration’s “terror war,” the effects of “anti-terrorism” legislation on the African movement and the progressive struggle in general, the health care crisis in the African community, the burgeoning anti-war movement, the Palestinian struggle, and many other issues.

WDTR is owned by Detroit Public Schools and consequently subsidized by taxpayers. A letter-writing campaign has been called to demand that the show be reinstated. (Pan-African News Wire)

AT&T-Comcast merger raises
fears of internet monopoly

The FCC has approved a $29.2 billion buyout of AT&T by Comcast — the largest such merger in US history. Consumer advocacy groups, which lost a motion to delay the merger, say the reduced competition will lead to higher rates and restricted Internet and cable TV access. The new company would control 29 percent of the market and have twice as many customers as the next-largest company, AOL Time Warner.

“The sheer economic power created by this mega-combination and the opportunities for abuse that would accompany it outweigh the very limited public interest benefits,” said Commissioner Michael Copps in the only dissenting vote.

An access service agreement the two companies made with AOL earlier this year was rumored to contain significant limitations on AOL’s ability to compete. Consumer advocacy groups requested that these limitations be included in the FCC’s merger review, but the FCC ignored their requests, prompting accusations of undemocratic, “behind closed doors” proceedings. (Toronto Globe and Mail, Center for Digital Democracy)

Italy’s ex-PM found
guilty of ordering journalist’s murder

On Nov. 17 an appeals court in Perugia sentenced Giulio Andreotti, a former seven-time prime minister and one of the most influential political leaders in postwar Italy, to 24 years imprisonment for ordering the murder of a journalist.

The court ruled that Andreotti, 83, now a life senator, had conspired with the mafia to assassinate Mino Pecorelli, a magazine editor who was shot dead in a Rome street in March 1979. Tommaso Buscetta, the first big mafia figure to breach the code of silence, told prosecutors that Pecorelli had been planning to publish damaging revelations about Andreotti when he was killed. Pecorelli had close contacts with the Italian secret services. He frequently denounced cases of political corruption and had made a particular target of Andreotti.

Enormous political repercussions are likely, with Silvio Berlusconi, the present prime minister, currently on trial for corruption. (Guardian UK)

FCC: anti-drug ads must identify White House sponsorship

The Federal Communications Commission ruled on Nov. 8 that anti-drug public service announcements broadcast under the auspices of the White House must include taglines reading “sponsored by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.” Under federal law, public service announcements must identify the sponsor, but the Ad Council, which created many of the ads, had petitioned the agency to allow them to run without an identifying tagline. Ad Council President-CEO Peggy Conlon called the ruling “outrageous” and said it would “take away one of the most important tools that we have in keeping children off drugs.”

“This decision affirms that the Drug Czar’s office must abide by the same federal laws as everyone else,” said Keith Stroup, Director of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws. (Drug Reform Coalition Network)