Unauthorized Entry p. 11

By: Dorothy Giobbe

Detroit Free Press sportswriter apologizes after using
Tonya Harding's private password to gain entry into the

Olympic skater's electronic mailbox in Lillehammer, Norway
A second coming in the "Baby Blues" comic strip sp.

THE DETROIT FREE Press formally apologized to Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding last week after a sportswriter at the newspaper admitted using Harding's private password to gain entry to her personal electronic mailbox at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
After another journalist reported the activity to the U.S. Olympic Committee, Michelle Kaufman admitted unauthorized use of the password.
Two other reporters, Jere Longman of the New York Times and Ann Killion of the San Jose Mercury News, were present at the time.
A USOC spokesman called the activity "unethical" and added that the committee may take action if the allegations are true.
While enterprising reporters have been known to shift through garbage bags and crawl through dumpsters to obtain information, access to private files in the era of electronic communication may be as easy as figuring out a password, which in Harding's case was her birthdate.
"They were just goofing around, though we still, of course, think this was wrong," said Dave Robinson, deputy managing editor, sports and operations at the Free Press.
"There was absolutely no intention to use the information for a news story. Michelle was at the keyboard, someone read the number, they punched it in, it worked and it said 68 unread messages on the screen, and they immediately signed off.
"There was a mistake made," Robinson added. "Michelle regrets it, the Free Press regrets it and [the Free Press] has sent a note to Tonya Harding.
"What she did was wrong, but Michelle is an outstanding journalist. Her coverage of the skating, the Olympics and the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan thing has been exemplary, among the best in the country."
In another case of security breach, the Detroit News, which operates under a joint operating agreement with the Free Press, published a front-page story about the Kaufman incident. Accompanying the story was a color photo of Kaufman, obtained without permission from Free Press files.
"To accompany a story on privacy and ethics, they took a photo out of our private files and published it," Robinson said. "All they had to do was call us, and we would have given them the photo."
Robert Giles, editor and publisher of the Detroit News, expressed regret about the photo incident.
"One of the most important things about the JOA is the security of content for both papers," Giles said. "In nearly four and a half years, I don't think that has ever been breached.
"In this case, an employee of the agency got the photograph and gave it to one of our editors. This was a mistake made by a low-level production worker, and I think the problem has been fixed."
Dave Tepps, executive sports editor of the Mercury News, said Killion "was kind of in a group where somebody was doing that. She didn't do much except kind of be in the neighborhood, but that's not good either."
Nancy Nielsen, spokeswoman at the Times, said Longman "was walking by when the two other reporters were gaining access to the e-mail. He stopped to see what was going on, looked and left. He was never part of the twosome that got into the e-mail."