NEWS 30

Sun publisher prompts staff concern with web-tracking app

SUMMARY:

The publisher of the Sun and the Times is working with a smartphone data security company that will monitor websites visited by “all staff” raising the possibility that journalists will be monitored. News UK said it is working with British company Wandera, which specialises in mobile data security and management, to roll out an app to control staff phone costs. Journalists were not expected to use the app, it said. However, an internal email sent to staff by the technical department at News UKhas raised concern among employees, with some Sun journalists even trialling the app. The email, which unveils a new mobile data monitoring system for “all staff”, said “all your traffic will pass through Wandera, whether you use the mobile for business or personal uses”.

FACTS:

• It continued: “The Wandera system will record every website address you visit … and the volume of traffic to and from that website. Usage reports will be provided to News UK.”
• News UK said there was nothing sinister about its use of Wandera and that it was an effort to cut down on “exceptionally large” mobile bills that have been run up by some staff using data-heavy streaming services such as YouTube, Netflix, and catchup and live TV apps.
• Staff with company phones have enjoyed unlimited data packages.

Section 40 threatens freedom of the press

SUMMARY

Steven Barnett and others (John Whittingdale and questions of press freedom, Letters, 16 April) argued that, far from threatening investigative journalism, Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act offered “unprecedented protection”. Section 40 would mean that newspapers could face paying both their own costs and the costs of a plaintiff even if they successfully defended a libel action. That would mean newspapers paying twice to inform the public. First, to cover the costs of collecting and publishing the facts and, second, to prove the truth of a story to the satisfaction of a court.

FACTS:

• If the press is to be truly free it should be free with neither carrot nor stick, to join or not join the royal charter system, join or not join the new Independent Press Standards Organisation or not to join any system at all – as the Guardian so chooses.