Se og Hør - ethics in the media - finally regulations arrive?

So finally it happend - a weekly gossip paper in Norway catched with its pants on its knees. A short brief - a previous journalist in the gossip paper jumps off the bandwagon and writes a book of all the dirty little tricks they used to get to the juicy details in the life of the royalties and famous.

And this is not like the nice and friendly paparatsiz - no, no, this is pure and clean bribing, extorsion and privacy intrusion.

For example - the father of Mette Marit (the Norwegian Queen to be) was on the paycheck for years - and probably still is. Probably nothing wrong yet - except that his phone is owned and used by the paper. So - never trust your father-in-law, Prince Haakon!

So why do I care about this? I must admit at first I did not. Then - the though came to me - this is pure and simple privacy intrusion. If a legitimit business like a newspaper can pay your father to get information about your personall life - what can a competitor get from your secretary?

Or you fire a specialist and a few weeks later you get blown off your high seat because the story has leaked to the media. This is expensive. It is not at all good for business.

The need for implementing policies and making sure they are applied is growing stronger every day. The question is simple - who do you trust?