The phone- and email-hacking scandal inside Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is widening after it was revealed the British news channel Sky News had authorized a journalist to hack into email accounts on two separate occasions. The head of Sky News, John Ryley, defended the hacking in a statement, saying it was done in the public interest in order to “access the email of individuals suspected of criminal activity.” The news comes just days after Rupert Murdoch’s son, James Murdoch, resigned as chair of the Sky News parent company BSkyB, which is partly owned by News Corp.