Anonymous Leaks Data of Vatican Radio Journalists

The Italian cell of the Anonymous hacking collective has leaked the personal data of journalists at Vatican Radio as part of its fight to force the station to act over alleged cancer-causing radio waves.

In a statement on Pastebin in Italian, the hactktivists blamed Vatican Radio radio waves for causing high cancer rates and published personal information about the station's journalists in an effort to pressurise the station to act.

The hacktivists' claim was based on a 2010 report conducted by the National Cancer Institute into cancer deaths from 1980-2003 in the Rome suburb of Cesano where Vatican Radio transmitters are located. Italy's supreme court ordered Vatican Radio to pay damages to Cesano residents in February 2011 in a case brought over a cluster of leukaemia cases traced to radio wave levels exceeding legal limits.

A Vatican spokesman denied the allegations saying that Vatican Radio followed international laws on electromagnetic emissions.

"Many citizens who unluckily live close to your antennas have sued the Vatican because of their bad health conditions," reads the Anonymous statement. "Anonymous cannot tolerate that these crimes are being unpunished.

"We would like to see some commitment on your behalf on this matter, perhaps changing the location and the power of emissions of your antennas," the statement continues.

The campaign followed a recent attack on the Vatican website when Anonymous accused the Catholic church of a catalogue of crimes from book censorship in the Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th century to the Spanish Inquisition to the church's role in helping Nazi criminals find refuge in foreign countries after World War II.