Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

My understanding is that they were doxxed by piecing together multiple news stories. I guess journalists each giving away pieces to the puzzle.

Looks like Murray has been categorized as not a journalist and gets a prison sentence.



From the court's ruling

> specified the job held by her at the time in question. The specificity is such that to specify her as holding it when she did, and in the context which is given, is tantamount to naming her. This is a clear breach of the order.

It's like saying I haven't named told you I slept with Boris Johnson, but I have told you I've slept with the Prime Minister. It's what a stupid person would think is a way of skirting a court order not to name someone.


> My understanding is that they were doxxed by piecing together multiple news stories.

Murray deliberately published information to doxx the sexual assault complainers. He doubled down after being warned multiple times he has breaching the court order

> Looks like Murray has been categorized as not a journalist

Whether Murray is a journalist or not is entirely irrelevant. The court order Murray broke applies to everybody.


> The court order Murray broke applies to everybody.

It clearly doesn't as two surveys showed those who claim they were able to identify individuals from the reporting of the case, said they were able to do so from reports from the BBC and other corporate media. None of those reporters are facing jail.

Again, what Jonathan Cook is pointing out is exactly the opposite of what you claim. The court order does not apply to everybody: "Murray's writings appear to have had very little impact on the identification of any of the accusers. Among named individual journalists, Dani Garavelli, who wrote about the trial for Scotland on Sunday and the London Review of Books, was cited 15 times more often by respondents than Murray as helping them to identify Salmond's accusers."


Of course these other journalists were named more often in surveys: they have a much broader reach. Name recognition is not the issue; ethical standards are.


Craig Murray is being jailed because he allegedly helped reveal the identities of individuals through his reporting. There's nothing indicating his reporting revealed any more information about those identities than reporters from the BBC and other outlets. In fact, surveys show those other reporters did far more to help people identify those individuals.

But they're not being jailed. Craig Murray has been singled out. Nothing ethical about that.


Two of Murray's claims in his defence were:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/01/my-trial-and...

> 5. The court order protecting identities did not come into being before 10 March 2020. Most of the Crown’s alleged examples are before this date. We absolutely deny my articles enable jigsaw identification, but even if they did they were not illegal at the time of publication.

together with:

> 6. Up until 10 March 2020, had I wished to publish identities I could have done so quite legally in the articles before that date which the Lord Advocate cites. Unlike England, there is no law in Scotland barring publication of witness identity absent a specific court order. The fact I did not do so in the year between my learning identities and the ban coming into force, in several articles on the case where I could legally have published the identities, make nonsense the Lord Advocate’s contention that I deliberately gave clues.

Much has been made of point 6, and I can understand not being convinced by it.

But is there not truth to point 5? I guess not, since he was found guilty. I'd be interested in reading why this was discounted.


Online publication is deemed 'continuous' as long as the material is up. 'It's an old article' isn't a defence if you're on notice that it needs to be taken down.

Incidentally, the robots.txt file for one of Britain's less reputable papers (IIRC The Sun) used to have a specific list of story URLs not to crawl which I suspect were those they'd been ordered to take down after libel actions etc.


> Murray deliberately published information to doxx the sexual assault complainers.

That's a strong claim that i haven't seen before. Why do you believe it was deliberate?

> The court order Murray broke applies to everybody.

What is your explanation for why the order has not been applied to any other journalists, when we know that other journalists contributed much more more to people learning the identities of the complainants?


> Why do you believe it was deliberate?

“The courts warned him to take his blog down or face the ­consequences of identifying the women but he refused.”

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/called-scots-act...

> What is your explanation for why the order has not been applied to any other journalists

Actually, no, that's untrue. IIRC, the Spectator was warned or investigated for some material it published.


Edit: yeah he was warned by the court multiple times. He should have edited his pieces.

Original comment: Wait, when was he warned?




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2027 batch! Applications are open till November 2.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: