Secrets

Sometimes a story stands out for what it doesn’t say. But the aspect which singles out a Sky News exclusive of computer hacking claims by a former Army intelligence officer is the manner in which the BBC is studiously ignoring the story.

Ian Hurst, who spent 12 years “gathering information for the government” alleges that his computer was hacked by a private investigator retained by News Of The World (NOTW) who was searching for details of an IRA informer.

The news channel state that Scotland Yard is launching an investigation into information (allegedly) gathered illegally from him by a private investigator who (it is alleged) was working for the tabloid.

Hurst however is a lot less circumspect in his statements and adds that the Met has been caught trying to sweep his case and others under the carpet. His forthright view is that "it more than bad policing that allowed the gathering of information to go on for so long".

He stated, "Fundamentally, what lays behind this whole cesspit - not since 2006, it predates it by many years before that - we're dealing with institutionalised corruption. It's endemic within the Metropolitan Police and that has to be dealt with."

It’s all heavy stuff from someone who, presumably, speaks from wide experience in territory covered by official secrets restrictions. Given the serious of the allegations and the sensitivity of the information involved, it is a reasonable expectation that the security services would also have had an involvement by now. Perhaps they have.

So is there something more than professional pique that presently inhibits the Beeb from repeating these claims? Or will be they doing slightly different new slant and prefacing it as something “the BBC has learned”? We shall see.